Biographical notes

I was born in Lugano, when World War II was over, and all European countries were recovering at a rapid pace.

Italian capitals (Lugano is less than 80 km from Milan) had already begun to swell the secrets accounts of our banks, fleeing from their legal duties and making Ticino a rich area.

My family, migrated from Italy to Switzerland in the Thirties after the papal recognition of Italian fascist regime in 1929, which my parents, both catholic, have always judged a shame (my father insisted that the Vatican had got money from Mussolini for that; so you can imagine my surprise when I have recently read on the British 'The Guardian' - Monday, 21 January 2013 - a report confirming his suspects).

We owned a three stars hotel, at the south end of via Nassa, the most elegant of Lugano streets, which faced the lake and the promenade that running along the shore led to the Parco Civico, and to my school which was nearby.

Family home, at the second floor of our hotel, was an apartment, whose entrance door faced the red comfortable sofas that furnished the large saloon of the lounge bar.

I've grown there, among all the hustle and bustle of the place. A baby wobbling between a busy waiter and a relaxed guest. A child doing his first homeworks climbed on a stool and stooped on the counter. A teen ager leisurely buoyed up on the discreet couch that , in the left corner of the lounge where the saloon made a welcomed turn, overlooked the lake and made my first sexual approaches so exciting.

I've studied Economics in Milan, and Metaphysics in Venice. I've also worked for ten years as a teacher in Vicenza, where I started a family and brought up my children. But at the end, I chose to leave that job and moved to the countryside. I bought a "casale" and set up a B&B in the Ville Venete enchanted area, between Verona and Vicenza.

It is unbelievable that such a beautiful landscape has to be disfigured by the American base built at a few kilometres from the historical monuments of Vicenza. I must confess that I totally agree with the opinion that the vast majority of Vicenza's inhabitants have many times express against it. I wonder what an American citizen would think if he had so large a military installation at his doorstep.

Now I live in Locarno. Again a Swiss beauty facing a lake.

It must be a family destiny to come back here, in Ticino.