European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

I have always lived here, because the mountains are part of my soul.

I was born in a small hamlet of about 300 inhabitants.

Most of the people were small farmers who survived on subsistence farming.

It was the same for my family: we had some land, a few cows, chestnut groves and some woods.

Except for a few days during the war I never suffered hunger.

I had a brother who died as a partisan at 19, towards the end of the war.

I also had an uncle, who didn’t live with us but in Cervarezza,

who died as a partisan after being confined to the Tremiti Islands by the fascists.

On the other hand, my family was a traditional Christian and catholic family.

My father used to sing in church.

I have never served at Mass, although they had asked me, because I didn’t like to dress up.

But we used to go to Mass, at least on Sundays.

We had an elementary school up to the third grade, then we had to go to Busana for the fifth grade, by foot of course.

There was no water in the houses, only a small fountain in a chestnut grove everyone drew water from.

The school we attended was very crowded because there were many kids in the villages:

there were three classes together, and it was quite full.

Naturally, our school had no toilet facilities, no running water and no electricity.

There was a portrait of Mussolini, one of the king, and a crucifix.

Our teacher actually made the ink herself with some black powders in a flask.

I was always happy to go to school: actually, I longed for school.