Salute The Italian Pizza!

On a trip to visit my daughter and her family on an Italian Air Force base, we were introduced to the Italian National Anthem for the first time. Many evenings we walked to the military base pizzeria around sundown for dinner. Coincidentally, on more than one occasion, about the time that the pizza was put on our table, the Italian National Anthem would blast from the military base broadcasting system.

One evening on a walk we decided to take the kids to see the lowering of the flag ceremony. Our three and four year old grandkids clapped their hands and cheered as the uniformed soldiers marched to the flagpole and lowered the Italian flag. Military jets happened to fly over, making it even more patriotic. The Air Force pilots saluted and proceeded to fold the flag. As on cue the National Anthem, FRATELLI D' ITALIA began to broadcast over the military base sound system. 

The uniformed military men procession turned away from the flagpole and began to march away. All of a sudden my two-year-old grandson, waved his arms in the air and yelled, "Come back! The Pizza is ready!" We all looked at the three year old questionably as he explained, "You have to go to the pizzeria now, the PIZZA SONG is over and the pizza is on the table!"

When I am in a foreign country, I am sure to obey the "No Cameras Allowed" rule. It was posted on a sign at the entrance of the military base that cameras were not allowed. For that reason I did not have a camera on me during the flag lowering ceremony that I wrote about.

 I chose these favorite photos of the first time my husband and I

visited an Italian military base with the grandkids and it was allowed to stroll and take photos. I had brought the kids Air Force pilot uniforms to dress-up in. The kids chose to wear the flight suits on that hot summer day as we toured the AF base."Poppy" holds our Grandson as the kids pose for their Gram to take their pictures.

A real Italian Pizza!

Be sure to click on this link to hear, THE PIZZA SONG! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYu2xF4DeaY

Don't AIR Your Dirty Laundry In Italy

After one of my daughters became engaged to an Italian AF pilot during his training in the U.S., she and I traveled to Italy for an extended stay. My husband and I wanted to get a comfort level for the lifestyle change our daughter was about to experience in Italy. Italian homemaking would mean living a culture that was less dependent on household conveniences such as a dishwasher, microwave or a clothes dryer. We found an apartment to rent in a small town close to her fiancé’s base. Learning to use the wash machine to do our laundry was easy enough but drying our clothes meant hanging our wet garments on a drying-rack on the balcony. We didn’t like the idea of our new Italian neighbors seeing our “unmentionables” so we hung them to the back of the drying-rack. On one of our morning strolls to the open market, as we got to the main street we both gasped at the sight that blocked our path. There in the middle of the sidewalk, framed by her doorway was an old woman, seated in a dining room chair. Above her hung a clothes-pinned line with big white GRANNY UNDERWEAR waving like a billowing banner in the breeze! We had to assume that MODESTY had been thrown out like dirty wash water and that the saying, “don’t air your dirty, or CLEAN laundry in public,” was not relevant in Italy!