Posted on 05/19/2004 1:46:51 PM PDT by tricky_k_1972
NETTUNO, Italy
There is a piece of land along the coast an hour south of Rome that is a shrine to America. It is a lovely piece of land, well designed and well maintained, that spreads out over nearly 80 acres. It is big enough that the men who do such things need seven days to cut its grass.
It is the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial. Buried here are 7,862 Americans who died in combat in this country during World War II. Each has a marble headstone that is cleaned twice a year, by hand, with pumice stone and soap. There is a man who trims the hedges every morning. Another roams the grounds to look for weeds.
Angelo Perna is the chief gardener. He is deeply tanned, his face the color of a football. His hands are dark and rough, and he is missing an incisor from his bottom row of teeth.
Perna, 51, is not that interested in politics. But when you tend the graves of dead Americans, politics sometimes intervene.
He has watched the buses pull up to the gates, and watched the tourists in their sun hats wander out among the marble rows or lay a flower by a grave. "The people in these graves sacrificed their lives to give Italians liberty," he said. "There's a lot of talk about the war now, but maybe they are looking to the past."
Italy, like most of Europe, has been outraged by the images of Iraqi men in hoods and handcuffs, strapped to electrical devices or chained to bars in front of dogs.
Some in the opposition here have called on Rome to cancel President George W. Bush's visit to Italy in June. The other day, a cartoon on the front page of the country's leading paper showed the Statue of Liberty burning the feet of an Arab with her torch.
Yet Italy has maintained its deep devotion to America, a warm regard that has not cooled in the chilly winds of war. The country has about 3,000 soldiers in Iraq, and the government has promised that they will stay.
"There is a general sentiment that the United States has made a terrible error managing the war," said Renato Mannheimer, a professor of political science at the University of Milan. "But there is, and there has always been, a favorable attitude toward the U.S. as a whole."
The cemetery gets about 200,000 visitors a year, mostly non-Americans. The Italians are the steadiest contingent, and their visits have not stopped, even since the war.
"The Italians always come," said Joseph Bevilacqua, the cemetery's superintendent. "What we're getting lots more of now are the former Eastern bloc people - Czechs, Poles, Kosovars and such."
This spring, an Italian judge exonerated three Egyptians who had been on trial for a plot to desecrate the cemetery. Bevilacqua said that sort of thing was rare.
He also said the locals by and large liked the cemetery. "We're probably the biggest employer in Nettuno," he said. "You don't spit on the plate you use to eat."
Perna has worked here since 1986, when he moved north from the town of Avellino after finishing his gardening degree. His paycheck comes from the American Embassy. He has never been to America, although he said he wanted to go.
"Newahmpshur," he said in a thick Italian accent. "Maz-ah-chu-zetz." He learned these names from reading the graves.
It seems that members of Perna's staff are always doing something, whether trimming trees, washing windows, raking leaves or messing with their trucks.
The place is immaculate: green fields, white crosses. An elliptical reflecting pool stands down a gravel pathway from a large memorial with maps and charts of the Italian campaign.
Outside the office is a logbook in which visitors have praised the cemetery's beauty and the sacrifice for which it stands. It is only natural that visitors to such a place would say good things about America. Things like: "Thank you," "Thanks to the American people," and "Thanks."
Back among the graves, Perna was spraying weedkiller on the grass behind the stone of Private Anthony De Cillis, 157th Infantry, 45th Division, killed on May 27, 1944. Down the aisle were other men and boys from Oklahoma, Florida, Michigan, Ohio.
Perna stopped and said, "They have been buried here so long, they are Italians now."
I'm going to be visiting Rome in January...I'll definitely have to visit this Cemetary...
Perna stopped and said, "They have been buried here so long, they are Italians now."
NEVER, they'll never be Italians! GO BLESS THE USA and our Military servicemen and women!
Nettuno sounds like a great place for real Americans to visit and spend their money.
That's the same day as my birthday...different year, however...
Thank you, Senor Perna, for watching after our dead. You have done it for so long that you are American, now.
I once read, "The U.S. freed France and they may never be forgiven for it."
NEVER, they'll never be Italians! GO BLESS THE USA and our Military servicemen and women!
Don't you think that's a bit harsh? He meant it in the best way possible. It's nice to see someone hasn't forgotten the sacrifices our people have made for the freedom of other people.
Download the pdf file at the bottom of the page. What a beautiful place.
I'm sure that most people know better than to compare all the brave Americans that have fought and died for others to a few idiots like those in the news recently.
Even the leftist media and almost all the Democrats know better too. That is what makes what they have done recently especially sickening. They spit on the graves of the men buried in Italy and other places around the world.
>>"We're probably the biggest employer in Nettuno,"...[h]is paycheck comes from the American Embassy.
Sounds like we already spend a lot of money there.
At the rate things are going I have no doubt we will be going back into france in the near future...and it won't be to liberate them.
There you go !
Molto bene!
Bring us back some pictures and post them up here. It would be nice to get you personal impression of the place and the people around there.
I will...
Italy has proven itself a worthy ally. Thus, I feel good that it supplies my favorite wines.
Nettuno was one of the landing sites for the Anzio invasion beachhead in early 1944.
Do we pay to maintain all the American cemeteries across Europe?
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