![\"dsg_3425\"](\"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/DSG_3425.jpg\")
<\/a>The museum has 19 rooms, each focusing on a particular artistic era, beginning with ancient Egyptian art and ending with impressionism \u00a0that included works by Camille Pissarro, no relation. I loved following the progression of art,\u00a0\u00a0absorbing the mood created in each room without being overwhelmed.<\/p>\nThat evening, we would be\u00a0having dinner with my cousins, the Ursinos. Let me explain\u00a0our relationship. In the early 1970s, my dad’s brother, John Nucatola, was\u00a0the supervisor of officials for the NBA. Having traveled to San Francisco in that capacity, he was introduced to Theresa Nucatola Ursino and other members of her family. Both John’s and Theresa’s ancestors were from Palermo, so they had to be related, but what was the exact connection? How could we\u00a0find out?<\/p>\n When I accompanied Nick on a business trip to SF, I called Theresa. That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Theresa and I exchanged letters and phone calls for decades, sharing information about anyone and everyone named Nucatola. Some years later, we\u00a0had the pleasure of meeting Theresa, her siblings and her children, who could not have welcomed us\u00a0more warmly. Also, several of my East Coast relatives \u00a0met Theresa and had dinner at one of the Nucatola\/Ursino restaurants when they were in SF. A few years later, Theresa gave me a list of eleven\u00a0Nucatolas she had found in the Palermo telephone directory.\u00a0I wrote to all of them, and one, Francesco Nucatola, replied. Francesco went to the \u00a0Palermo Archives and found the information we needed to learn how all branches of the Nucatola family were related. The question had been solved by\u00a0a group effort!<\/p>\n Nick and I had met with Theresa’s son Joe, his wife Marilou, and Joe’s sister Anna, \u00a0three years earlier on our first visit\u00a0to see Nicholas. I was so looking forward to getting together with them again! Thanks to Facebook, we have remain connected over the\u00a0\u00a0past three years. This time, Nicholas would be joining us for dinner.<\/p>\n We met my cousins (fourth cousins, to be exact) at their favorite restaurant, Umbria, at Howard and 2nd. What a heartwarming\u00a0evening it was! We caught up on our families, and celebrated Theresa. Although she has passed on, her love is strong within each of us. We drank a toast to\u00a0her upon the 100th anniversary of her birth.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Among its permanent exhibits, the museum has a large collection of Rodin sculptures. We had seen many\u00a0of them at the Rodin Museum in Paris, but \u00a0Rodin made more than one casting of several\u00a0of them. Feeling in a French mood, we shared a salad Ni\u00e7oise for lunch.<\/p>\n