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CHAPTER SIXTH - On the other side of the south sea: Italy never seen - As I mentioned before, in the fall of 1939 I took the required admission examination to enter High School (the Ginnasio) and I skipped the elementary fifth grade, the last year of school required by law at that time (now the law requires eight grades) . My father hired a private tutor in the summer of 1939 in Naples to prepare me for the high school entrance examination which I passed in early September. Since there was no high school in Fallo, it was decided that I would attend the first year of high school in Palermo, at the Giuseppe Garibaldi Ginnasio-Liceo which was adjacent to the Pensione Aurora Svizzera where my maternal grandfather, Carmine Di Gironimo, was the chef. I was to live with my uncle and aunt, Giovanni and Esterina Mariano, in Via Ugo Bassi, within a walking distance from the school where I completed my first year of high school in 1939-1940. Living permanently in a city was a fantastic experience for me. Palermo, unlike Naples, did not have a beautiful boulevard overlooking the sea. The harbor section at the time was mostly commercial and unattractive. The center of Palermo was busy and had many stylish stores. Two large streets, Via Maqueda and Corso Vittorio Emanuele, bisected the city meeting at the Four Corners |  |
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(Quattro Canti di Città). This section, once elegant, appeared run down and unattractive when I visited Palermo in 1996. In Palermo there were famous landmarks which were very impressive: The Politeama Theater, the Teatro Massimo, famous squares like Piazza Pretoria with its famous statues. There was the Norman Palace with the beautiful Palatine Chapel, there were Public Gardens like the Giardino Inglese, the Favorita, and Villa Giulia. These gardens had exotic (at least for me) plants, cool paths, and flowers which we admired often on our Sunday visits. Then there were so many churches with their individual characteristics: The Cathedral with its Norman style and the tombs of the Norman kings, San Giovanni degli Eremiti with its Moorish red domes, the church of the Martorana with its old mosaics, San Cataldo , Santa Maria delle Catene, San Domenico and many more. There was the famous Grotto Church of Santa Rosalia on Mount Pellegrino. The movie houses with their colorful advertising pictures on the outside bulletin boards were mandatory stops where we, young students, would look at the exciting pictures of exotic places or of beautiful and provocative actresses. If lucky, with money saved we would occasionally go and see these pictures. The stores in Palermo had their own fascination with all sort of articles and gadgets never seen in a small village like Fallo. There were delicatessens stores with all sort of sausages, cheeses and so many |
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