1959
Gianna went to Rome for New Year and, to Ann’s annoyance, brought Di Iacovo with her. She did not invite him to the New Years Eve party she organised for friends at Ristorante Necci. She thought he was very close to being sacked and, in a letter to her parents, revealed her strategy:
What happens at that point is anyone’s guess. But I shall try very hard to be around with the most appealing proposition (4/1)
There were no developments for the next few days until, on the evening of the 13th, Gianna telephoned from Ortona in a rage about a letter the Professor had written to one of the Fund’s influential collaborators. She sent Ann a copy of the letter and Ann confirmed that in it he stated very clearly that the SCF was without moral principles or social values and in general gave a great picture for someone who is a trusted member of staff. Gianna was now determined to sack Di Iacovo and asked Ann to set up a meeting in Rome with the offended recipient of the letter and with Louise Woods who would help to decide the best way to sack him. Ann fixed the meeting but was then furious when Gianna cancelled. Either he has talked his way out of it or Gianna is losing her grip….but the whole affair is beginning to be a farce.
The professor had talked his way out of it by explaining that he did not mean his criticism the way it sounded but, in the circumstances, thought it best if he were to resign. Gianna sounded absolutely done in when she explained all this to Ann on the phone later that evening. Ann was due to make her first visit to Ortona later in the week and from there they would start a 10 day trip to the south which they had been planning since Ann’s return, but Gianna asked her to come early to keep her company at this difficult time.
Ann arrived in Ortona the following day, the 15th January, her first visit since she had left 20 months previously. Unfortunately there is no record of how she was received by Ida and Sorino, or by Di Iacovo, and there is no record of how she felt returning to her former home. After 3 days they left on an 1100 mile trip visiting nurseries and projects throughout the south. It must have been like old times. Ann later wrote to her parents: This has been as always a fascinating do and I’m surer than ever that this is the right place for me (25/1)
Gianna was still determined that even if Di Iacovo were to leave, Ann should not return to Ortona and resume her previous role because she is convinced that once I did we would not quit and she is quite sure that she had more than enough (27/1). However, during the trip a solution to everyone’s dilemma presented itself. They visited Tricarico in Lucania where Gianna and the local authorities had been planning a nursery for several years. Now it was about to be built. Somebody was needed to supervise the completion of the building work, the equipping of the nursery, the training of the staff and selection of pupils. Also an AFSC international work camp was scheduled for the summer, the members of which were to build a wall around the nursery garden. Someone was needed to supervise that as well. Who better than Ann? This would give her time to finish her book without the expense and distraction of living in Rome. For Gianna it would have the advantage of keeping Ann out of Ortona, at the same time as relieving her of the need to be constantly driving 3 or 4 hours through the mountains to check on progress of the building work.
As explained earlier, Dr Rocco Mazzarone was an influential figure in Tricarico. With his ecclesiastical and secular contacts his support was vital and, on the 30th January, Gianna wrote to him outlining the proposal and also suggesting that Ann might put herself at the disposition of the authorities as a volunteer for a few hours a day. Mazzarone knew Ann well and Gianna stressed that the proposal was a joint one and that he could respond directly to Anna on the question of temporarily establishing herself at Tricarico.
Mazzarone met Ann in Rome on the 22nd February. The Tricarico nursery was part of a larger project which included the building of a social housing scheme and he asked Ann to take on the job of helping to select the tenants from amongst the poorest and most deserving applicants. This was similar to the job that Ernest had been given by CASAS in 1947. It was agreed that she should take up residence in Tricarico when she returned from a visit to the USA. She left Italy at the beginning of March to see her parents and attend to her divorce from Charlie. She would be away for 3 months.
In solving one set of problems Gianna created others. With the benefit of hindsight she should have resigned from the SCF at the end of 1957. She had served in Italy for 10 years and was about to be awarded an MBE. She was then not yet 40, was recognised as a progressive thinker in the field of child welfare and admired by influential administrators throughout the world. A new and rewarding career would have been possible. Despite her protestations perhaps she was too frightened ever to let go of what she considered her life’s work but her attempts to secure the future of the organisation by training a successor had been undermined by Ann’s return. And now, allowing Ann to go to Tricarico meant that any decision about resigning would be put off yet again.
However, there would be several benefits. The town is roughly half way between Ortona and Calabria and a southern base would be very useful: as well as looking after the nursery, Ann would be able to keep a close eye on developments throughout the region as well as entertaining guests during the southern parts of their visits. And Gianna needed the professional and personal relationship she had with Ann. Without her she had been very lonely.
During the 3 months that Ann was in the States Di Iacovo did not resign and no decision was taken about sacking him. Perhaps Gianna had not entirely given up the idea that one day he might take over. Meanwhile she was preparing for Ann’s return. She found an apartment which a young widow, Signora Armento, was willing to rent (9/6) and organised a car for Ann’s use. Ann paid for the car out of her own pocket but it was to be maintained by Sorino at the Fund’s expense. All her living expenses were to be met by the Fund but the job was only temporary and she was not given a salary.
Ann returned to Italy by boat landing at Genoa on the 9th June. Gianna was unable to meet her but joined her at the Dinesen in Rome on the 12th.
It should be noted that from this point, the narrative is almost entirely dependent on information in the letters Ann wrote to her parents. Hardly any of Gianna’s letters were preserved.
Ann left Rome for Tricarico on the 17th and for the first two weeks stayed at the local convent. She approved of the apartment which Gianna had found for her and agreed a price on condition that the apartment would be whitewashed.
Ann had only been in Tricarico a week before Gianna and Di Iacovo arrived en route to a remote village in the south of Lucania. Ezzito could only be accessed by mule and Ann joined them to help assess the viability of the Fund supporting the village school. For the first time she makes no derogatory or critical comments about Di Iacovo when describing the trip (4/7). It is almost as if having found a role for herself, the vitriol of the last six months had evaporated. She moved into her newly whitewashed apartment on her return from the mountains.
Ann was enthusiastic about her work in Tricarico and Gianna sent Giovanna Dall’ Asta from Ortona to help with the task of vetting the applicants for the new housing. She was also keeping an eye on the AFSC work camp and later in July entertained her first official visitor on a tour of the south. The tour ended in Ortona where she was able to report to Gianna in person. There are no letters from Gianna in the archive at this time. Perhaps Ann was too busy to keep any although the two women were seeing each other so frequently that personal, as opposed to business, contact could wait until they met. In the meantime Ann was busy with the building of the nursery
Gianna was in Tricarico on August 12th and Ann was amused by the fact that people in the town regarded Ann as the Signora and Gianna as the non-Italian-speaking visitor. Gianna returned on the 17th for a 9 day vacation. It is interesting to note that of all the delightful locations for a holiday in Italy, Gianna chose to spend her time with Ann in Tricarico. That the two women were close again is indicated by the fact that, as in previous years, Gianna was writing footnotes on Ann’s postcards to her parents.
Her role as Gianna’s assistant had more than equipped Ann for the work in Tricarico and she enjoyed the responsibility. There is no mention of finishing the book in any of her letters of this period and during September she was fully occupied in putting the finishing touches to the nursery before the October official opening. Gianna sent Sorino to help.
Guests began arriving on the 5th October, all of whom had to be collected from Potenza, the nearest station, and driven to hotels in Matera. Ann organised the event but Gianna was the hostess when the nursery was officially opened by the British Ambassador on October 7th. The Bishop of Tricarico blessed the new building and there were representatives from SCF HQ in London as well as about 200 townspeople and an infinite number of children. Di Iacovo was also there but blotted his copybook in Ann’s eyes: his job was to collect a group of female guests from Matera but he took them on a detour and they arrived late for the ceremony. In her letter of October 9th Ann describes the chaotic scene when, after a lot of speeches, the nursery doors were opened:
I don’t know how the Bishop avoided being killed because everyone surged through the door and I found myself pinned to the bathroom wall. Eventually the police got that straightened out and relative calm returned. A number of amazing people were caught stuffing their pockets with things from the refreshment table, including the Director of Schools. All the sand play toys were stolen, six combs and a roll of toilet paper which isn’t bad at all considering.
After the nursery opening, Gianna and Ann treated themselves to a 5 day vacation in Rome. They went to the cinema, had lunch with the Canadian Ambassador and attended a few business meetings. They spent time shopping, having tea at Babington’s and dining at fashionable restaurants. She describes the visit in a letter to her parents of October 22nd:
The ever present Professor Di Iacovo arrived that evening and took us both out for a gayish evening which ended up at midnight at the Flora bar.
The following night they all ate together at Necci’s but Ann’s relationship with di Iacovo had not improved and, for the first time in her letters to her parents, she is overtly critical of Gianna:
For various reasons she seems to be mildly hysterical all the time and for the first time since I’ve known her inclined to talk too much and to interrupt people. I think this is mostly the effect of having to fight with the Professor who is a surly piece of goods, but haven’t had a chance to talk to her about it. As you can gather I loathe him more each time I see him.
After the Rome holiday Ann made a solo inspection tour of projects in the South and wrote detailed reports. However, on her return to Tricarico she was again critical of Gianna:
Gianna has gotten pulled into some political things that I personally think can be dangerous, not to us personally, but to the good name of the Fund in Italy. I’m no great supporter of Di Iacovo’s either and he’s gotten her into some of this. (28/10)
In November, she expresses irritation with Gianna’s financial incompetence:
....as usual she hasn’t got the accounts done and has let them drift until now. I could have killed her. She left me over a month without paying the 125,000 of debts here. (9/11)
In opening the Tricarico nursery and establishing her base in the town, Ann had carved out an independent role. Her relationship with Gianna remained close but it was changing from one of teacher and assistant to one of two independent women, albeit with a shared agenda.
On December 8th, after a busy six months, Ann returned to the USA to visit her parents.
Gianna spent Christmas in Rome at the Dinesen.
Click here to go to the next chapter.
Gianna went to Rome for New Year and, to Ann’s annoyance, brought Di Iacovo with her. She did not invite him to the New Years Eve party she organised for friends at Ristorante Necci. She thought he was very close to being sacked and, in a letter to her parents, revealed her strategy:
What happens at that point is anyone’s guess. But I shall try very hard to be around with the most appealing proposition (4/1)
There were no developments for the next few days until, on the evening of the 13th, Gianna telephoned from Ortona in a rage about a letter the Professor had written to one of the Fund’s influential collaborators. She sent Ann a copy of the letter and Ann confirmed that in it he stated very clearly that the SCF was without moral principles or social values and in general gave a great picture for someone who is a trusted member of staff. Gianna was now determined to sack Di Iacovo and asked Ann to set up a meeting in Rome with the offended recipient of the letter and with Louise Woods who would help to decide the best way to sack him. Ann fixed the meeting but was then furious when Gianna cancelled. Either he has talked his way out of it or Gianna is losing her grip….but the whole affair is beginning to be a farce.
The professor had talked his way out of it by explaining that he did not mean his criticism the way it sounded but, in the circumstances, thought it best if he were to resign. Gianna sounded absolutely done in when she explained all this to Ann on the phone later that evening. Ann was due to make her first visit to Ortona later in the week and from there they would start a 10 day trip to the south which they had been planning since Ann’s return, but Gianna asked her to come early to keep her company at this difficult time.
Ann arrived in Ortona the following day, the 15th January, her first visit since she had left 20 months previously. Unfortunately there is no record of how she was received by Ida and Sorino, or by Di Iacovo, and there is no record of how she felt returning to her former home. After 3 days they left on an 1100 mile trip visiting nurseries and projects throughout the south. It must have been like old times. Ann later wrote to her parents: This has been as always a fascinating do and I’m surer than ever that this is the right place for me (25/1)
Gianna was still determined that even if Di Iacovo were to leave, Ann should not return to Ortona and resume her previous role because she is convinced that once I did we would not quit and she is quite sure that she had more than enough (27/1). However, during the trip a solution to everyone’s dilemma presented itself. They visited Tricarico in Lucania where Gianna and the local authorities had been planning a nursery for several years. Now it was about to be built. Somebody was needed to supervise the completion of the building work, the equipping of the nursery, the training of the staff and selection of pupils. Also an AFSC international work camp was scheduled for the summer, the members of which were to build a wall around the nursery garden. Someone was needed to supervise that as well. Who better than Ann? This would give her time to finish her book without the expense and distraction of living in Rome. For Gianna it would have the advantage of keeping Ann out of Ortona, at the same time as relieving her of the need to be constantly driving 3 or 4 hours through the mountains to check on progress of the building work.
As explained earlier, Dr Rocco Mazzarone was an influential figure in Tricarico. With his ecclesiastical and secular contacts his support was vital and, on the 30th January, Gianna wrote to him outlining the proposal and also suggesting that Ann might put herself at the disposition of the authorities as a volunteer for a few hours a day. Mazzarone knew Ann well and Gianna stressed that the proposal was a joint one and that he could respond directly to Anna on the question of temporarily establishing herself at Tricarico.
Mazzarone met Ann in Rome on the 22nd February. The Tricarico nursery was part of a larger project which included the building of a social housing scheme and he asked Ann to take on the job of helping to select the tenants from amongst the poorest and most deserving applicants. This was similar to the job that Ernest had been given by CASAS in 1947. It was agreed that she should take up residence in Tricarico when she returned from a visit to the USA. She left Italy at the beginning of March to see her parents and attend to her divorce from Charlie. She would be away for 3 months.
In solving one set of problems Gianna created others. With the benefit of hindsight she should have resigned from the SCF at the end of 1957. She had served in Italy for 10 years and was about to be awarded an MBE. She was then not yet 40, was recognised as a progressive thinker in the field of child welfare and admired by influential administrators throughout the world. A new and rewarding career would have been possible. Despite her protestations perhaps she was too frightened ever to let go of what she considered her life’s work but her attempts to secure the future of the organisation by training a successor had been undermined by Ann’s return. And now, allowing Ann to go to Tricarico meant that any decision about resigning would be put off yet again.
However, there would be several benefits. The town is roughly half way between Ortona and Calabria and a southern base would be very useful: as well as looking after the nursery, Ann would be able to keep a close eye on developments throughout the region as well as entertaining guests during the southern parts of their visits. And Gianna needed the professional and personal relationship she had with Ann. Without her she had been very lonely.
During the 3 months that Ann was in the States Di Iacovo did not resign and no decision was taken about sacking him. Perhaps Gianna had not entirely given up the idea that one day he might take over. Meanwhile she was preparing for Ann’s return. She found an apartment which a young widow, Signora Armento, was willing to rent (9/6) and organised a car for Ann’s use. Ann paid for the car out of her own pocket but it was to be maintained by Sorino at the Fund’s expense. All her living expenses were to be met by the Fund but the job was only temporary and she was not given a salary.
Ann returned to Italy by boat landing at Genoa on the 9th June. Gianna was unable to meet her but joined her at the Dinesen in Rome on the 12th.
It should be noted that from this point, the narrative is almost entirely dependent on information in the letters Ann wrote to her parents. Hardly any of Gianna’s letters were preserved.
Ann left Rome for Tricarico on the 17th and for the first two weeks stayed at the local convent. She approved of the apartment which Gianna had found for her and agreed a price on condition that the apartment would be whitewashed.
Ann had only been in Tricarico a week before Gianna and Di Iacovo arrived en route to a remote village in the south of Lucania. Ezzito could only be accessed by mule and Ann joined them to help assess the viability of the Fund supporting the village school. For the first time she makes no derogatory or critical comments about Di Iacovo when describing the trip (4/7). It is almost as if having found a role for herself, the vitriol of the last six months had evaporated. She moved into her newly whitewashed apartment on her return from the mountains.
Ann was enthusiastic about her work in Tricarico and Gianna sent Giovanna Dall’ Asta from Ortona to help with the task of vetting the applicants for the new housing. She was also keeping an eye on the AFSC work camp and later in July entertained her first official visitor on a tour of the south. The tour ended in Ortona where she was able to report to Gianna in person. There are no letters from Gianna in the archive at this time. Perhaps Ann was too busy to keep any although the two women were seeing each other so frequently that personal, as opposed to business, contact could wait until they met. In the meantime Ann was busy with the building of the nursery
Gianna was in Tricarico on August 12th and Ann was amused by the fact that people in the town regarded Ann as the Signora and Gianna as the non-Italian-speaking visitor. Gianna returned on the 17th for a 9 day vacation. It is interesting to note that of all the delightful locations for a holiday in Italy, Gianna chose to spend her time with Ann in Tricarico. That the two women were close again is indicated by the fact that, as in previous years, Gianna was writing footnotes on Ann’s postcards to her parents.
Her role as Gianna’s assistant had more than equipped Ann for the work in Tricarico and she enjoyed the responsibility. There is no mention of finishing the book in any of her letters of this period and during September she was fully occupied in putting the finishing touches to the nursery before the October official opening. Gianna sent Sorino to help.
Guests began arriving on the 5th October, all of whom had to be collected from Potenza, the nearest station, and driven to hotels in Matera. Ann organised the event but Gianna was the hostess when the nursery was officially opened by the British Ambassador on October 7th. The Bishop of Tricarico blessed the new building and there were representatives from SCF HQ in London as well as about 200 townspeople and an infinite number of children. Di Iacovo was also there but blotted his copybook in Ann’s eyes: his job was to collect a group of female guests from Matera but he took them on a detour and they arrived late for the ceremony. In her letter of October 9th Ann describes the chaotic scene when, after a lot of speeches, the nursery doors were opened:
I don’t know how the Bishop avoided being killed because everyone surged through the door and I found myself pinned to the bathroom wall. Eventually the police got that straightened out and relative calm returned. A number of amazing people were caught stuffing their pockets with things from the refreshment table, including the Director of Schools. All the sand play toys were stolen, six combs and a roll of toilet paper which isn’t bad at all considering.
After the nursery opening, Gianna and Ann treated themselves to a 5 day vacation in Rome. They went to the cinema, had lunch with the Canadian Ambassador and attended a few business meetings. They spent time shopping, having tea at Babington’s and dining at fashionable restaurants. She describes the visit in a letter to her parents of October 22nd:
The ever present Professor Di Iacovo arrived that evening and took us both out for a gayish evening which ended up at midnight at the Flora bar.
The following night they all ate together at Necci’s but Ann’s relationship with di Iacovo had not improved and, for the first time in her letters to her parents, she is overtly critical of Gianna:
For various reasons she seems to be mildly hysterical all the time and for the first time since I’ve known her inclined to talk too much and to interrupt people. I think this is mostly the effect of having to fight with the Professor who is a surly piece of goods, but haven’t had a chance to talk to her about it. As you can gather I loathe him more each time I see him.
After the Rome holiday Ann made a solo inspection tour of projects in the South and wrote detailed reports. However, on her return to Tricarico she was again critical of Gianna:
Gianna has gotten pulled into some political things that I personally think can be dangerous, not to us personally, but to the good name of the Fund in Italy. I’m no great supporter of Di Iacovo’s either and he’s gotten her into some of this. (28/10)
In November, she expresses irritation with Gianna’s financial incompetence:
....as usual she hasn’t got the accounts done and has let them drift until now. I could have killed her. She left me over a month without paying the 125,000 of debts here. (9/11)
In opening the Tricarico nursery and establishing her base in the town, Ann had carved out an independent role. Her relationship with Gianna remained close but it was changing from one of teacher and assistant to one of two independent women, albeit with a shared agenda.
On December 8th, after a busy six months, Ann returned to the USA to visit her parents.
Gianna spent Christmas in Rome at the Dinesen.
Click here to go to the next chapter.
