FIRST MEETING ELIZABETTA

It was the summer of 1992,  time for our annual summer trip to Europe, so we flew into London to do some sightseeing as usual.  In London, we just love to  find a big park somewhere near  our hotel and sit in the shade to picnic and just "people watch".  We found a nice shady place in Hyde Park and rented 2  lawn chairs to relax for a while.

There were not too many people walking around that day but in the distance we noticed a group of six young people all holding hands, just skipping along in unison toward us.  They seemed like a very happy and carefree group, just laughing and singing and enjoying the beautiful day in the park.  They seemed to be teenagers.

As they approached us, the young girl on the end of the line, with the biggest smile and the most beautiful dark blue eyes I had ever seen waved at us and said something that sounded like "BUON GIORNO".   I could not help but wave right back at them with a big American greeting like:  "Hello, there".  They then came right up to us and the smiling one asked, "You are American?".  We both said, "Yes".  They all gathered around us, all smiling and trying to speak English at the same time.

The smiling one said, "We are all from Italy and are in London studying English for the summer.  Will you please send me a picture postcard from America?"  Such a wonderful request!  I hurriedly found a piece of scrap paper and she carefully printed "Elizabetta Digiampaolo,  Melegnano, Italy" along with her home address.  She carefully folded it up and then with a very serious look said, "Please do not forget us".  Then they were gone, skipping along and waving goodbye to us.  We watched them till they were out of sight.

When we returned home I found several picture post-cards of America and sent them to the Italian address on the little piece of paper.  We then started to exchange letters and became pen-pals.  We are now "e-mail pals" and much more.  

We have been fortunate enough to visit Italy several times since then and of course a visit to Melegnano (a suburb of Milan) each time to visit Betty and her Mama and Papa (neither speaks English), and also her younger brother, Gianni (who was studying English at his school).