Liberation Day Parade

Today P.D. led the parade of WWII military vehicles through the streets of Parma, Italy, riding in Rover Joe, a meticulously restored WWII Radio Jeep complete with functional radios and driven by his friend and traveling companion Steve Gomez. In the town square he went to a special church service and then mounted the speaker’s platform to tell everyone how much he was enjoying returning to Parma after 65 years. Speeches were made by the leader of the Resistance Fighters (87 years old now but still a firey orator) and Lt. Col. Erick Jordan from the American Embassy.

After the speeches the parade continued to Antonio Campanini's Radio Museum where a "light lunch of wine, Parma Ham, Parmesan Cheese, beef and pastries awaited us. P.D. exchanged gifts with representatives of various organizations.

The day ended with dinner in a ristorante where we cooked our own meat and vegetables on a very hot rock at our table. Again a three hour meal. A very satisfying end to a very important day.They love P.D. here. The women and children want to embrace him.

TV-Parma Interview at Alberto's Radio Museum

Today Rover Joe was interviewed by TV-Parma at Alberto's Radio Museum. We are waiting to see the broadcast. We should be getting a DVD of it. The camera man was one of Alberto's friends who met us in Rome.

In the late afternoon we walked around Parma and saw the church and baptistery and the their opera house. All of these were described in John Grisham's Playing for Pizza.

Later we had dinner at Alberto's family's home prepared by his mother. As usual it was a seven course dinner lasting three hours.

Tomorrow we will visit a trade school and the students will interview P.D.

Ciao

Dub George

Arrived in Parma

We arrived in Parma, Italy this afternoon and now are in the Hotel Fidenza - with Internet access. Our first matter of business was to visit with the Mayor and Colonel of the Carabinieri and let P. D. Bennett exchange gifts with them. P. D. is possibly the only surviving Rover Joe. He was in this area in 1944.

Left to right are the mayor, P. D., Alberto Campanini (our host) and the Colonel.

I'll fill in our first 5 days of activities was soon as possible.

Dub George

In The Mountains Above Florence

On Tuesday morning for the first time instead of coffee and a pastry we were treated to a bountiful spread of cereals, yogurt, cheese, cold cuts, pastries and coffee in the dining room of our hotel.

After breakfast we were joined by a local amateur WWII historian who was to be our guide for the day. We first went up into the mountains to the site of an American encampment. Here we were shown a garbage pit where we were our guide quickly uncovered the head of a panzerfaust (hand held rocket launcher used against tanks), a mess kit and machine gun bullets. (I wonder if he had salted the site for us?)

Next we went to a German concrete bunker that had held a piece of artillery. After this we visited the site of a field hospital where P. D. had spent time when he broke his arm during a German shelling.

We stopped at a local restaurant for a lunch of fry bread, cold cuts, cheese wine and coffee.

Next we saw the German cemetery where 30,000 are buried. Our host told us that he and his group find one or two German soldiers a year in fox holes and they are formally buried in this cemetery.

We next visited a school building that our historian host’s group will convert to a museum. Steve had spent the night in this building last year when he had come to Italy for a demonstration parachute jump. It was during this trip that he first met Alberto in the Rover Joe radio jeep. Their friendship would lead to our trip to bring P. D. to Parma for the Liberation Day parade.

At the point the weather was turning cold and a light rain began to fall. In spite of this we toured another reconstructed German bunker and a monument to American soldiers who had died taking a strategically important hill.

After returning to our hotel for a short rest we went to an inn for a dinner of breads with cooked tomatoes, small omelets with truffles, salad, beef (a specialty of the area) and several wines. For dessert we were served small sweet cookies that we dipped in priest wine, a sweet wine made from grapefruit. After dinner our historian guide and his friends arrived to meet Rover Joe. Toast were drunk, stories told and gifts.

We Arrive In Florence

On Monday after espresso and a croissant we packed the car and departed Rome for Florence. The scenery on the way was very beautiful. We arrived in Florence shortly before noon. After crossing Ponte Vecchio, which was lined with stores selling gold jewelry, we walked to the Florence's Duomo (cathedral) Santa Maria de'Cerci with its Baptistry. We saw the famous east doors of the Baptistery with its gold plates with ten relief panels showing scriptural subjects (actually they are copies - the originals are in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo on the other side of the Duomo. We were joined by a friend of Alberto's who was quite knowledgeable about the local art and architecture and served as our guide. We stopped at a cafe where we had ham, salami , pasta, wine and espresso. In the nearby Palazzo Vecchio we saw sculptures done by Michelangelo, Giambologna, Cellin and others. We then recrossed the Ponte Vecchio and then drove to the Piazzale Michelangelo which offered us a great panorama view of the city. In the middle of the plaza there was another copy of Michelangelo's David. This plaza was where Steve had first met Alberto the year before when he was taking part in a WWII re-enactment. Alberto was driving the "Rover Joe" jeep at the time and so began the friendship that lead to discovering that P. D. Bennett from Port Arthur, Texas was probably the only surviving "Rover Joe" and our invitation to visit Italy.

We next went to our hotel in a nearby town. It was quite nice, but still no Internet access. Our evening meal was at a local pizzeria where we had an assortment of pizzas followed by a choice of pastries and ending with coffee. As usual we were introduced to several of the local wines. At dinner we were joined by our guide for day and we met our guide for the next day, a local gentleman whose passion was exploring the battle sites in the nearby hills. Each year he and his friends find the two or three bodies of German soldiers in foxholes and get them relocated to the nearby German War Cemetery.

Around midnight we returned to our hotel. The next day we would tour the battle fields in the hills above Florence.

Anzio

Sunday morning after our usual breakfast of Espresso or Cappuccino and pastries we drove to Anzio. P. D. had landed there in the middle of the night under German artillery fire. He had come ashore in his Jeep aboard an LST.

Our first stop was the Beachhead Museum where P.D. and the museum president exchanged gifts. The museum contained numerous artifacts and pictures from the landing.

Next we visited the military cemetery where P. D. planned to place flowers on the grave of one of his fallen buddies, however we found that his body had been returned to the United States for reburial soon after the war. He placed the flowers on the chapel alter. The cemetery is beautifully landscaped and well maintained.

After lunch we toured another large mueum that featured the social, political and military history of the area. There were number exhibitions of Italian, German and American military vehicles and uniforms.

At sunset we visited the memorial at the landing site of the invasion. After that we had a meal featuring the local seafood and wines. The Beachhead Museum president dined with us. I was introduced to lemoncello.

Touring Rome

On Saturday morning after the usual coffee and pastries at the hotel we began with a tour of the War Memorial, including a visit to the roof-top where we were treated to a panoramic view of the city. Next we walked a few blocks to the Colosseum and toured this ancient structure.

After sampling pizzia and gellato we viewed Trevi Fountain and the moved on to the Vatican where we toured St. Peter's.

That evening we had dinner in a pizzaria that was actually located under an ancient aquaduct. Families of Alberto's friends from Parma joined us. Again three hours, multiple courses and multiple wines and good fellowship.