Julia Cooley Altrocchi

Bobolo Julia Cooley Altrocchi

Bobolo Bonomo was born in Florence, Italy, in 1872, spent two years studying Liberal Arts at the University of Florence, then completed two years of hotel school. After a one-year courtship of the beauteous but sharp-tongued Fiammella, also from Florence, they married and soon emigrated to San Francisco, where they experienced the devastating earthquake of 1906 which destroyed their small but flourishing grocery store. The earthquake led Bobolo to buy a beautiful acreage fifty miles south of San Francisco, reminiscent of the countryside of Florence, where he established an inn, a restaurant, groves of fruit trees, vegetable gardens, a vineyard and a winery. Against the backdrop of a successful, innovative career, Bobolo was the epitome of a joyous person, devoted to laughter, practical jokes and the full enjoyment of life in all its aspects, especially comedic. He brought happiness and laughter to his children, his friends and acquaintances with just one exception - his wife. Fiammella was a fine chef and hostess but was often negative, bitter and highly critical of her husband, especially his propensity for mirth. This tale interweaves the life of Bobolo and his unusually jocular spirit with his love of history, literature, music, Italy and America while trying to cope with a shrewish wife. Could he and Fiammella ever reach an accommodation of their very different temperaments? The story is told with abundant humor by its part-Irish author.