Moldavian writer Vitalie Ciobanu remembers his grandmother's love story with an Italian soldier during World War 2, and sees a metaphor for relations between Europe and Moldavia. One of our family stories that has always fascinated me concerns a regiment of Italian soldiers (part of the German eastern offensive) who arrived in my home town of Floresti in the summer of 1942. It was a tale that had little to do with the classic war stories of the Soviet films of my childhood. What we heard of the Italians was always marked by a detached philosophical tone. As children, in a remote part of the world, this account of the forces of history on our doorstep inspired a fear of the unknown, but also a sense of curiosity. It was a curiosity that always led to embarrassed words between my grandparents. There was a tension there that I did not understand, the source of which was only revealed many years later. The billeting of the Italians in Floresti did not achieve the epic dimensions of Captain Corelli -- a film shot in 2001, based on the novel by Louis de Bernières. But my grandparents' village did have something of the austerity of the Ionian island of Cephalonia occupied by the Italian troops in the film. Then there was the romance of my grandmother, Ioana, the village school teacher, with a young lieutenant Vincenzo, from Massa-Carrare -- the famous marble carvers' region of Tuscany.
Moldavian writer Vitalie Ciobanu remembers his grandmother's love story with an Italian soldier during World War 2, and sees a metaphor for relations between Europe and Moldavia.
One of our family stories that has always fascinated me concerns a regiment of Italian soldiers (part of the German eastern offensive) who arrived in my home town of Floresti in the summer of 1942. It was a tale that had little to do with the classic war stories of the Soviet films of my childhood. What we heard of the Italians was always marked by a detached philosophical tone. As children, in a remote part of the world, this account of the forces of history on our doorstep inspired a fear of the unknown, but also a sense of curiosity.
It was a curiosity that always led to embarrassed words between my grandparents. There was a tension there that I did not understand, the source of which was only revealed many years later. The billeting of the Italians in Floresti did not achieve the epic dimensions of Captain Corelli -- a film shot in 2001, based on the novel by Louis de Bernières. But my grandparents' village did have something of the austerity of the Ionian island of Cephalonia occupied by the Italian troops in the film. Then there was the romance of my grandmother, Ioana, the village school teacher, with a young lieutenant Vincenzo, from Massa-Carrare -- the famous marble carvers' region of Tuscany.
Polish education officials have provoked anger by releasing a nursery rhyme book that includes verses saying Germans smell and gipsies sell children. The book has been approved for use in school with the publisher saying those that have complained should not be so sensitive.It follows the release earlier this year of a maths book that asks kids to work out an equation for saving as many Christians from a sinking ship as possible - while drowning as many Turks as they can.
The book has been approved for use in school with the publisher saying those that have complained should not be so sensitive.
It follows the release earlier this year of a maths book that asks kids to work out an equation for saving as many Christians from a sinking ship as possible - while drowning as many Turks as they can.
