Advertisement
American Cemetary
10,000 American soldiers buried here. Today was amazing. We went to the American Cemetary near Anzio. We met Joseph Bevilacqua who was the director of the cemetary. He was very interested of Uncle Jim's story. In talking with him we learned that Uncle Jim actually fought on the ground that was given as a cemetary. It was very touching to walk through rows and rows of crosses and read the names of the men & women that served. One family lost 23 relatives all buried there. Our guide, Danila, was very informative and how she and mom could talk. Larry can hold his own as he remembers so much about that time period. We learned so much from Joe. He was General Mark Clark's driver and met General Walker (Uncle jim's commander). He has given 58 years to the military. He wants to stay in contact with us.
Next we went to see a monument at Anzio Beach. We also ate there at a little pizza shop. We tried several pizzas...Larry and I think our pizza in America has surely been perfected and we both learned that we do NOT like fish pizza...uck!!! I tried to teach the women running the place how to make
American Cemetary Museum
Mom, Larry, Danila, and Joe had quite a conversation cinnamon rolls...they have never heard of the...neither had Danila, but she hopes to come to the states and taste them. We tried a local beer...not my idea of good. uck uck!!
We then went to Cisterna where we met Americo Magliocchetti. What a delightful man. He was 16 years old in January 1944 and was feeding hay to the animals near his barn when the fighting broke out in the nearby canal. He ran and hid, lived and was here today to share his story. He loved us all and was so animated in his conversation. He loved that Larry was interested in his farming and crops. He pick flowers off his camelia tree for mom and me. He showed us a helmet worn by an American soldier that day in 1944. The so and what a surprise...he had quite a little winemakingldier was blown up by a grenade and nothing ws left except the helmut. He showed us rusty old parts of a Sherman tank and gave Larry some shell casings to take home. We ate onions out of his garden and when we were ready to leave he asked if we wanted some wine. Of course Larry
Americo
Mom, Americo,Larry and Danila jumped at the chance so Americo opened the door to his garage/barn and WOW he had quit a private little winemaking operation going on. He gave Larry a bottle to bring home and we all tasted it...it was a sweet white wine..very smooth...mom tried it and found it much less offensive than the red we tried earlier. Americon was thrilled to have us visit...we invited him to Americ to visit us...he said he was too old and didn't have enough teeth left. Think how amazing it was to stand on a World War II battlefield, knowing you uncle probably was there, and hear stories from a man who certainly was touched by all that happened. Check out the pics!!
When we left there we found a little town where we stopped at a bar (it seems thats all that is open on Sundays). We had to take a potty break so I felt i necessary to buy something. I have wanted to try a typical Italian coffee so we had espresso...my first....it was really good. Larry opted for cappacino...another Italian experience checked off my list.
On our way to the train station Danila took us down the Appian
Americo's barn
The onlly thing left standing after the battle Way, one of the first and most stragetically roads in and out of Rome. We even saw a medieval town carved into the hillside. Very interesting. We were very sorry to part with Danila and her driver as we had become friends and shared a common bond. We did invite them to come visit us...Danila thinks we could be travel partners - long distance - and set up travel from the US to Italy....very interesting????
We finally had our Il Mac for supper...it was okay...certainly not as good as it looked in the picture..however the tiramsu shake was out of this world.....we also liked McToast - ham and cheese toasted like a pannini
Advertisement
Tot: 0.106s; Tpl: 0.025s; cc: 12; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0635s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Betsy Moore
non-member comment
trip stories
You are doing a geat job in informing us of the trip. Photos are great. Sounds like Italy may be the best part of the trip re: Uncle Jim's personal experiences. Glad you decided to add it. I would like to hear from Larry some time...can he just use reg. email or put a personal message on Facebook. I know he is fine, but thought he mght like to let me know that. I am dealing with some stress right now but will be ok. Love, Betsy