Word: pozzuoli
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Romilda's mother refused to let her go on the ground that Rudolph Valentino had reportedly been poisoned and that was a portent of what a good Italian could expect in America. So Romilda began living with Scicolone instead, and ended up by returning to her native Pozzuoli with a baby daughter...
...Pozzuoli, on the Bay of Naples, has been described in a travel book as "perhaps the most squalid city in Italy." The most squalid city in Italy has music in its streets, cluttered pink and white buildings, seagulls screaming overhead, a bright blue waterfront, a Roman amphitheater where Gennaro-patron saint of Naples-achieved his exaltation simply because a pride of lions refused to eat him. It now has a municipal slogan: "What a woman we have exported." Romilda's health was poor, and her breasts went dry. Little Sofia-the ph was inserted later because it seems more...
Generazione Bruciata. In the early days, before World War II, Romilda helped support her daughters by giving piano lessons in Pozzuoli and playing in local cafés. Sophia's grandfather-who now at 78 struts about town in the warmth of his magic celebrity-was then a cannon maker at the local arms factory. In the four-room family flat, nine people slept in one bedroom; Sophia shared a bed with her grandmother, grandfather and an aunt...
When the war hammered through Pozzuoli-"It was in the house, in the streets" -Sophia took her place in what is now called Italy's Generazione Bruciata, the Burnt Generation. People were eating one teaspoon of sugar a day and one slice of bread. Her mother once scavenged a cup of water from the radiator of an automobile and rationed it to her two daughters spoonful by spoonful. During one bombardment, Sophia cut her chin. She still has the scar. When the bombing became frequent, the family slept every night in the tunnel of the railroad that runs...
...little stick suddenly blossomed. Gymnastics classes were held in the Roman amphitheater, and the men of Pozzuoli began to show up to watch Sophia doing calisthenics. "It became a pleasure just to stroll down the street," Sophia remembers. Mamma had thought that Sophia should try to become a teacher, but she took another look and put her in a beauty contest. She won a secondary prize that included 15.000 lire and some wallpaper, which still decorates Grandfather Villani's living room in Pozzuoli. In the spring of 1950, mother and daughter went off to Rome to seek work...