WARTIME SURVIVAL, PERSEVERANCE IN SMALL-TOWN ITALY
From left, Ray LaVerghetta, Father Ezio Marchetto, Maria Fusco, and guest speaker Carmine Vittoria
By Nancy DeSanti, First Vice President - Programs
For our third program of the year, we were very pleased to have a speaker who came all the way from Florida to give us a talk at Casa Italiana on June 9, 2019. And what a story Professor Carmine Vittoria had to tell!
The author of the book “Bitter Chicory to Sweet Espresso” spoke to an audience of enthusiastic and appreciative AMHS members and guests, telling a story of family, a story of hardship and survival, through the eyes of a boy growing up in the small town of Avella before, during and shortly after World War II. He recalls that his family had a peaceful, normal life with his father, the town barber, and his mother, who came from a shepherd family, and how everything changed.
Prof. Vittoria addressing the meeting.
He told us how Avella, with its strategic location not far from both the mountains and the Bay of Naples, was greatly affected by the destruction during the war, and he noted that few families were untouched by tragedy, including his own — he lost his father fighting in Libya and lost his sister due to lack of penicillin.
He himself had to hide in a pigsty to avoid marauding soldiers in Avella. Professor Vittoria said he was inspired to write his story because, although he had read plenty of books about military strategy, he could not find any about how the war affected the lives of the civilian population. So he set out to fix that. Professor Vittoria also believes that the full story of WW II is yet to be told and wanted to counter what he describes as wrong thinking about historical events that happened during that war.
He wrote his book to give insights into how the people of his small town pulled together and did their best in desperate circumstances. He cites the Neapolitan credo “ci arrangiamo”” (“we adapt to survive”). Professor Vittoria told us how he came to America and getting a Ph.D. from Yale in quantum applied physics, and eventually going to work for the Naval Research Lab on the Stealth technology. (While working on this classified technology, he obtained a patent which remains secret to this day and for which he received $50).
He became a professor at Northeastern University in Boston for 32 years, then retired to Florida. Professor Vittoria noted that he made many trips back to Avella with his wife over a 40-year period. One of the fascinating facts he told us about his town is that it is the site of one of only eight Coliseums in the world (it was covered up for many years but is now a museum). The title of his book, “Bitter Chicory to Sweet Espresso,” is a metaphor for the hard times and bitter times during the period 1940-1949. He describes his hometown as a beautiful place, with fields of red poppies, chicory flowers, lavender violets, white and pink daisies, and wild dandelions adorning the farms and foothills.
During the war, there were no coffee beans, so a bitter kind of coffee was made from chicory, and it was only after the war that the sweet smell of real coffee could again be enjoyed, and the small pleasures of life could once more be appreciated. Before Professor Vittoria’s talk, Maria Fusco, Director of Education of the Embassy of Italy, made brief remarks stressing the importance of promoting the Italian culture and language and congratulating AMHS for its efforts in this regard. A delicious lunch was catered by Fontina Grille, which seems to be one of everyone’s favorites.
We would like to thank everyone who helped serve the lunch, and those who donated wonderful raffle prizes and bought raffle tickets. We were able to raise $200 for our AMHS programs. And a special thank you to our 2nd Vice President Lynn Sorbara, for the dessert table full of homemade cakes and sweets.