Rosaria became my “Nonna” or grandmother in Italy. She taught me daily Italian lessons that ended with a traditional aperitivo…or two: “Cin-cin!!!”

By April 12, I was looking forward to staying in the Italian town of Piedemonte Matese and the small village of Pietramelara in Italy. I had become very close friends with an Italian immigrant family when I was 14 years old. The principal of our Junior High School called me to the office one day and asked me to be a “big brother” to a new classmate whose family had just immigrated to my home town in Watertown, South Dakota. Rocco (Rocky) Natale and I became friends for life during junior high, high school, and after. My family had been kind to the Natales and the Natales had returned our kindness with the most beautiful hospitality and delicious homemade italian food over many years. I mentioned to Rocky’s parents that I would like to visit their family in Italy during my trip and they insisted that I stay with their family who were ready to extend to me the same hospitality in Italy that we had extended to the Natales in America. On April 12th, I arrived in Piedemonte Matese for a week of family, food, and visiting real Italy. Rocky’s uncle and grandmother were especially kind to me. She had me call her “nonna” which means grandmother and she insisted that she should teach me basic Italian for 30-45 minutes each afternoon followed by an aperitivo or two before dinner. It was so nice to have my own room, to be able to take a bath, to wash clothes, and just to relax in a family setting. Younger members of the family insisted that they bring me to their school for “show and tell”. We visited many interesting ruins and historical sites of interest around Piedemonte Matese.
April 16-26: I traveled the short distance from Piedemonte Matesse, where Rocky’s mother Gina’s family lived, to Pietramelara where Rocky’s father Pasquale’s family lived. Rocky’s first cousins, Rocco, Antonia, and Madelia, were each so kind to me and spoke broken English well enough so we understood each other when combined with my broken Italian. Rocky’s uncles and aunts also extended wonderful hospitality though their English was as limited as my Italian. Rocco provided free room and board and his family showed me all the sights around that part of Italy, organized large family dinners with Rocky’s extended family, took me on picnics, and generally tried to return the same hospitality that my family had extended to Rocky’s family in the US.

The Natale family operated a small benzina (gas station) and a grain trading business in addition to several of them having government or other office jobs in Naples. It was enjoyable hanging around the benzina meeting customers and seeing how small town business in Italy operates. There was a lot of excitement one day when they closed the benzina early and residents of Pietramelara were warning each other of “Zingaro”–gypsies who were camped outside of town and were viewed as shoplifters and worse. I also visited markets in larger area towns which had the most amazing displays of produce and fish including barrels full of eels. Each of the area towns seemed to have an old castle or large church at the pinacle of the hill upon which most towns were constructed. I learned to always walk the side-streets to the top of each town as that was always the most interesting historic district.

I was so comfortable in Pietramelara that I stayed well beyond my original itinerary. Having learned some passable Italian and having fallen in love with Italy, I wanted to see more of it. I adjusted my itinerary and decided to skip Yugoslavia entirely–my itinerary called for me to pickup mail in Belgrade, Yugoslavia on April 15^th. I had studied and read a lot about General Tito’s National Socialism and his “middle way” between East and West and I had hoped to see it first-hand, but seeing more of Italy replaced Yugoslavia. In part, I rationalized that I would probably be meeting Shelley Klein in Vienna and would be adding Hungary to my travels so would see more of Eastern Europe plus I had a great tour of Russia ahead of me. I also decided to skip Dusseldorf, Germany where I had a scheduled mail pickup on April 30th.

Ischia & Sicily: April 27–May 3rd: I visited a few sites in Rome and Naples but didn’t care for the high expense of those cities. Instead, I visited the Island of Ischia off Naples for two days where I slept in my sleeping bag in the landscaping of a public park and then made a wonderful train excursion all the way down to the “boot” of Italy, across the straits of Messina by boat, and onward by train to the amazing Roman ruins and sites of Syracuse where I stayed several days. Enroute to Syracuse, I saw the glowing dome of Mount Etna in the night. From Syracuse, I took a train across the heart of Sicily to Palermo and immediately took a ferry boat to to the scuba diving island of Ustica. The ferry boat traveled through the roughest seas I had ever experienced up to that point and it may still be the roughest ride of my life–tables and chairs in the lounge were tipping over, many passangers were puking, and it was a pretty frightening experience. Unfortunately, the high winds continued during my two days on Ustica, so I didn’t get a chance to scuba or even to snorkel in the amazing blue waters and world famous reefs.