Remembering Italy

I got thrown back in time for a few minutes when I visited Linda's cooking blog! She had a mean minestrone recipe, and I started to remember all the great dishes I sampled when I was a kid!

We were stationed at Malpensa Airport, and lived in a small village close to the Alps and Swiss border called "Vergiate". I traveled everyday to the "American School of Milan" which was about 40 miles away in the city of Milano. My bus driver was "Aldo" and lord have mercy, those daily school rides toughned me up quick like!

On the way in everyday, we picked up the kids from the "Colluzi" family, who lived in Sesto Calinde. Their mom sent them to school alot with fried rice balls for breakfast, and the most wonderful smelling lunches!

No one in our village really spoke English, so I learned Italian in order to have playmates. Most of the kids in the school were expats, and kept to the American cliques, so I was able to advance to the highest level of Italian classes at the school. I remember being the only second grader in a class of high schoolers.

Thanks to the USAF, I was able to not only experience the Italian culture (Milan, Venice, Venezia, Aviano, Florence, Turino and Bologna were most memorable) but we were able to travel through Western Europe in a little Fiat. Through the Alps, into Switzerland, Austria, Germany and France. I helped my parents translate through the whole trip. If we couldnt' find someone who spoke English, we had to find someone who Italian. I remember how the Audoban scared us, how charmed we were by the German countryside, and the wonderful food through out the journey.

We drove through to France, in order to visit Daddy's Uncle Darius' grave in France. He passed away in WW2, and his body was buried in a large Allies cemetary. We needed a map to find it, white crosses as far as the eye could see. Very sobering, even for a 7 year old. We were the only members of the family to visit his gravesite, and the rest of the family (of course not including Pop) have passed away to join Uncle Darius.