LIFE IN ITALY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 9 February 1944, Page 4

LIFE IN ITALY

HOW A SOLDIER SEES IT NELSONIAN WRITES HOME A homely account of life as he finds it in Italy is given by Trooper Felix Barron in a letter to his father, Mr W. Barron, of Nelson. Trooper Barron, who is well known in Nelson, particularly in athletic circles, is serving along with his brother Pat. “This is not a bad sort of a country, although the people arc mainly peasants and are very poor.” writes Trooper Barron. "The countryside is very similar to New Zealand, only minus the thick bush. The greater part of the land is well cultivated and seems to be taken up with grape;; and olivetrees. You miss the stock grazing, but •I think what stock there was was carried off' by the Germans or killed for the Germans’ use. This is what the people say. What few sheep there arcleft are looked after by the children, who tend them all the time. I think tliis must be the custom over licit. I could just imagine that system in New Zealand—a lew headaches for the cockey.’ Just about every home has its own few sheep, goats and pigs, and al! live in the one building, in some cases in the same room. It is nothing to have a mule in your bedroom. In one place they had a pig. and had it trained to use a ‘tin.’ Very domesticated, these Italian animals. “The houses the people live in are built of stone and have one or two rooms and a room or so upstairs. These houses are dotted all over the countryside and stand out for miles, their colour being white. Every few miles you come to a village. These are Usually very dirty and in some cases smell. Streets are very narrow, and the buildings very old and dilapidated. Those places are crowded with children. 1 have never seen so many in my life all ages from two years up to 10. The cry from them alt is ‘cigarette’ and. if one is thrown, there is a devil of a scrap to see who is going to get it. “The people treat you fairly well and. according to one or two who speak English, got a bad spin from Jerry. And the things that he has done to the civil population recently have well and truly put them on our side. Food is very scarce and it beats me what they live on, as there is no meat to be had. Wheat should grow well here, but it is scarce also, and I suppose -Jerry hopped in on that. too. It will be a big thing for us to feed these people as. all told, the country has a population of 45,000.000. BROUGHT SUPPER WITH THEM

I had my washing done at a house a few yards away and gave the woman a can of peas; money is no good to them, as ther6 is nothing for them to spend it on. Last night we spent a couple of hours or so at a nearby house. Quite a good evening, too, and a lot of fun trying to make yourself understood. It is amusing some of the antics you have to go through to make yourself understood. I know a few words of Italian and these rights boost your vocabulary a bit. We brought our own tea, milk, sugar and biscuits, and sat around the fire ‘yarning away.’ The children certainly like the biscuits. To-day one of the boys came over and filled our water cans for us. There are eight in the family, aged from seven to 25 —three girls and five boys. One little girl— Angelino —is very pretty and very popular with the boys who give her ‘biscuits’ and she comes along with a bunch of flowers. Another girl of 16 is married and the other, aged three is going to school. The eldest of the boys is working on the roads. For this they receive 50 lire a day. Before the British came it was 3 lire, so you can see they arc much better off. Even on the a ™ S they are P<? or ly paid. One man said they are paid 90 lire a week to stay on the land. The farms seem to be run on a sort of feudal system. grapes and wine jn ' Wc « rr j v , ed here grapes were hY-fcK* , a " d d,d we give them a rmmUv lo ?’ Ev f ry da >' 1 wou 'd eat a couple .of pounds or so. real big, luscious Or'l' nL?/ \ S f ? r two mess tin - s HOI full w kct ? f • c , ,gar ® ttes for one tin f 11. We certainly missed them when hey went out of season. Now we have which Wi , th th * form! which is not nearly so nice In r»ni Kood wine is very scarce. At first the firS n 7„ a vf. bl,! dcma,,d and - af ‘er the rst night, there were some sorry sights morn,n R . That brand was very bad and cheap. 2s 9d a gallon. In fact h,M n me a ” my time ta kc a mug lull. Our main fault was- Thai we* irJj results’ 11 i it J ike beer ~ but with drastic of a better S rade C Thfs n wa?morfdrmi d able, although a trific sour It may not have been so bad with sugar but as sugar ls scarce, we had to do wUhouT Vermoulh' m which t a ver f y ir „iee m tolakl txS a cordial - This costs Ss per b « U 'V hot ,'S out Of reach of the buck private, who gets £1 a week. There aie quite a few liqueurs which are vprv expensive—los and 15 S a bottle At in'fact 1 i h h re lf ,itt,e w| ne to be' bad: three weeks 6 ” 0t Seen aby for abuul „'T ha yo b< ’eu into one of the cities and was not very impressed with it. The Umn was not very clean and looked ages es E o ? !. ,ad '.' ol bt '™ ''leaned for of, ' y t,,( ' outsides of the houses. Most of the places are two stories high and eaeli has a bic balTherrT T han *. ,llc ' laundry, the a '' hardly anything to buy in lar foWn t "'Tu 1 lnto °“ e Place slmiexeent but all 'the counters things von U em,M r r erc barc ' Tl 'c only 5' ' u cou.d buy were stationery. so on f’S ; " ,d a , few hair Pins and could ’ eel in Wafi H’ 6 on,y thing you couin gel m a restaurant, and even ingo'n°le ™ Uld ha '' d, ' V cat ;t - When gotin (1 f ‘hf,nv’ We o Cre advised to take a were vnv ' a ftnv biscuits, aud ver F g J ateful for them. too. niiA UTIFt;L ( HI'RCHES "They said the cathedral was a place 4n a S T ng ' bm unfortunately it was closed when we found it. Th> e who did manage to have a look inside said Innkort beautiful From the outside it looked very drab and must be a good umber ot years old. It i s situated in tvn , d . Pa i l of thc dt - v and to get to t-.° dmv 'i narrow cobbled streets hmn t . [c " lect " ide T hc churches sm-fiisa 6 of ry beautiful even in the smallest villages. laces hf T beet : 10 uhurch in two vilages. A couple of Sundays ago Mass nla® 6ib - v n British padre and the too Th h° aliy full ' They can sing, it w-. T n h °e sanp -Ave Maria’ and L „ leal *y beautiful. The first time ad tn™?V V ? s in I,alian - we just what h Slt bac \ and try and make out what he was talking about. marly hours I ho weather in these parts is not of the be.t. It rains about once in 24 Ivor'-e a, 5? , talk ,about mud! To make it ,' se a ‘- tlle land lias been ploughed ca . n "nas'h? what it is like over it C and things have been slow ‘rt i hat *! what is waking things j hod P°t so good making your: ‘hi?. L, damp ground, but. in mv i doohu bavc a great pile of straw, a shoe l ! ShCCt ° f canvas and my groundfallen* no f!" ta'rly well off. Snow has the son the h J Eh hills an d- as soon as ! w h iP h Sr* d .? wn behind thc hill, very eoM aboU V' 3o PJn - il starts to get wh&h hl d, ar L a ls time for a tire, it is noth SlO be out by dark. At night ! 5 ->A mg unusual to be in bed before j h aup P Lj , u can consider that ypu ; bed at 3 30 a n late " ight if get toj firow P- m - A man starts to get j tired around about 7. I ill w *J avc ver y little to read: in fact, j ■o' among eight of us is one twice ? Digest. I have read it about •Ficht'h r w and again we get an I few day Ar "?J Naws -’ but it is usually a v- y p j. s rp d ' tVe do not receive the whmf ; ' V mes ver - v often now and, 'The n*| d °' “ is usually old. Zealinn ther nlght 1 heard the New Zealand new s from the 8.8. C. This comes over every Thursday. Quite a

changa to hear what is going on over there. TEA ADDICTS "All we have for food at present arc the good old 'Tiger biscuits’ and margarine. Even these arc not so bad. The Kiwis are great boys for their tea. No matter how big or important thc 10b there must be a brew-up. All we seem to do is drink tea Each crew has its own supply of tea and sugar ‘scrounged from anywhere.”