Milan, Italy...March 5, 1960..Interesting and Silly Stuff

I spent about 2 weeks in Milan, Italy with a friend. I went to the La Scala Opera, saw many interesting and exciting things. Below are just some paragraphs from a letter with lots of newsy things that were happening to me.

"Pat and I are going today to see 25 Years of American Paintings. At least that's what it said on the bulletin. The other day we went to an old castle here and saw lots of paintings and antique furniture.  There were only two paintings that I liked in the whole castle. Oh yes, and I saw the original "The Last Supper". Painted on the wall of a very, very old church.  The painting is terribly faded now.  It's so strange. During the war this church was really bombed, but the wall with this painting on it and another painting of Christ on the cross, which is on the other wall remained standing.  Very interesting! They had photographs displayed of the church after the bombing and here are those two walls standing practically by themselves."

The Last Supper-Photo Public Domain

(By the way...the name of the church is Santa Maria Delle Grazie)
I go on from my letter.


"Thursday was the silliest day. I got the giggles all day.  No matter what I saw or what somebody said I started laughing.  Pretty soon Pat started and it was a mess! We went downtown Thursday afternoon and went in this little place for a cup of coffee. There was this big tall man standing there with a very funny nose.  He was real skinny and kept eating like mad.  Cookies and cakes and etc.  Pat made a few remarks and we sort of giggled.  Then we were standing there, not saying anything or laughing, just drinking our coffee and Pat's mother gave him some sugar for his coffee.  I had some coffee in my mouth and glanced down at him.  He smiled and said 'Grazie', but he didn't have hardly any teeth and that did it. I had to get out of there, because I almost died and I didn't want him to see me.

Then we were walking down the street and this Italian girl came walking toward us.  This year it's the style for girls to wear their hair sticking up very high on their head. But, my cow, this girl looked like she had a copy of the Empire State building propped up there. Everyone was taking a second look and I almost split. It had taken me 20 minutes to get over that other character and then she had to come along and start it all over again.  Don't get me wrong, I didn't laugh until she was past me.  Oh, I don't care. Live, love, laugh and be happy!"

Marge Simpson

           At the end of this letter I added a paragraph.

"This is the next day, but I've got something to tell you about last night. I went to the Opera and an American, Gloria Lane sang the part of "Carmen".  Pat and her mother had already seen the opera so I was with a friend of theirs they called "Uncle John". Pat and her mother had been invited to a party that really had some famous people there.  I was invited to come after the Opera with "Uncle John". Anyway, about 7:30 when we were eating supper the lady who was giving the party called and asked if "uncle John" could pick up Gloria Lane and take her to the party after the Opera.  So after the Opera we went backstage.  You should have seen that stage, it was huge. I fell in love with it!  We went back and knocked on her door, she asked us to come in, we introduced ourselves and she started getting ready.  Then her manager came in to talk to her and we had to wait outside.  While we were waiting Giuseppe Di Stefano, the one who sang "Don Jose" came and introduced himself to us.  I shook hands with him"

What I didn't realize at the time was that he was a very well known tenor whose name is very famous in the annals of Opera voices.  After I began singing with the Opera Guild of Greater Miami, I was in the chorus and had a small part in "L'Elisir D'Amore" and he was the tenor.  When I shook hands with him backstage of the La Scala in Milan I never imagined what was to come.

Giuseppe Di Stefano (photo borrowed from photos online)