1961
It is not clear whether Ann and Gianna discussed the possibility of Ann resigning while they were in Rome but on the 2nd January Gianna returned to Ortona leaving Ann to continue the holiday. Thanks to Nina, Ann was developing her own circle of friends in the city and a few days after Gianna returned on the 7th an argument developed:
Gianna seems to resent my having gotten to know these less sombre types and is leaving today without staying for the concert after making a number of remarks about at least she has a sense of responsibility etc. I’m afraid I’m a bit tired of being prim and serious so there we are. I have decided to get out of Tricarico by March 1st and come here – Nina Beckwith in the meantime says she wants to go to Greece, the Islands and Spain. (11/1)
References to Nina become more frequent in Ann’s letters as their friendship grew and she comments on Gianna’s reaction:
Strangely enough Gianna seems to be falling all over her (Nina) which is disconcerting. (18/1)
In this ménage a trois Gianna and Nina developed a competitive relationship and Ann was amused to observe them having heated discussions until the early hours of the morning. (5/2)
When Ann handed in her month’s notice Gianna was stunned. I’m afraid that she thought it was just conversation on my part but she has now learned otherwise. (16/1)
Stunned or not, Gianna had every right to be disappointed. She more than anybody was aware of the difficulties of life in a town like Tricarico but this was the second time that Ann had resigned unexpectedly. Also Gianna had argued with the SCF for an improvement to Ann’s pay and terms of employment. However, Ann was determined to leave although she confessed to her parents that the allure of Rome was another matter:
Much as I love this country I’m through with the sticks.....am not sure about Rome however. (16/1)
If Gianna was upset or disappointed she hid it: for her ‘The Work’ came first and she was keen not to lose the advantages that a base in the South provided. She made arrangements with Signora Armento for the Tricarico apartment to be retained for SCF use and later in January took Ann on a weeklong trip inspecting the southern projects.
On her return to Tricarico, Ann sold her car to Sorino’s nephew on condition that she could use it until Easter but her thoughts were all of Rome:
Am waiting to hear if Nina will come down this weekend or next though with the weather so bad it might be letter to let it go. Anyway, I’m alright....a little while will be in Rome.(24/1)
Nina went to Tricarico to help Ann when she left the apartment on the 11th February. They drove to Ortona to see Gianna and four days later they were in Rome:
The weekend in Ortona was very pleasant. I turned everything over to Gianna and Nina and I drove over yesterday. That lovely road was even lovelier. (15/2)
It was an undramatic end to 21 months work. Gianna must have dealt with the situation calmly although her plans had been disrupted. However, she was a pragmatist and if Ann was to be in Rome she was determined to make use of her presence: she offered her another job based in the city:
The Fund would pay my expenses in Rome if I would deal with guests, meetings, all the government forms etc and then travel for half the month with Gianna and the Fund car. This sounds like having my cake and eating it too and I must admit I’m tempted. (28/1)
While she was considering this offer, Ann moved into the Dinesen and threw herself into Roman social life: Nina has a fantastic gift for people and has insisted on my meeting great droves of them. (23/3).
She had no regrets about Tricarico: I’m ashamed to say I don’t miss it one little bit. (27/2)
Ann’s life was becoming less and less bound up with Gianna’s but the two women remained in contact especially as Gianna was frequently in town on business and always stayed at the Dinesen. Gianna had taken over responsibility for the Tricarico nursery and was planning new building work. The Fund was also about to build another nursery at Genzano di Roma, a town about 20 kms south of Rome and in March Gianna offered Ann the job of supervising the project, combining this with being the Fund’s meeter and greeter in Rome. On the 13th March Ann wrote to her parents: it would be tempting to stay in Rome with them paying for it. I’ve never seen anything more enchanting than these last few weeks nor have I had as much fun in years meeting all kinds of people and being asked all kinds of places. However, everything was dependant on the London office agreeing to the proposal.
Ever since she began working in Italy in 1954, Ann had been under pressure from her parents to return to the USA and resume her life in Chicago society. Even at the age of 34 she was a dutiful, upper middle class daughter and was anxious to retain her parents’ support, after all it was their money that had been supporting her all the time she was in Italy. She wrote to them in an agony of indecision about whether to stay in Rome. If she returned home her sense of duty would oblige her to devote her life to her dear but ageing parents and she feared that she would eventually end up as a rich spinster aimlessly travelling the world. She was haunted by the mistakes she had made with her two short marriages and was frightened that back in Chicago she might make another. Her messy divorces were a source of embarrassment to her and she felt that if she returned she would be the talk of Chicago society and a figure of ridicule. She begged her parents for advice: should she stay in Italy or return to the USA? (23/3)
How much she had already made up her mind to stay in Rome is a moot point but the letter was uncharacteristically emotional, especially when she describes the agony that has gone into these last few months. Judging from her previous letters, the last few months had been spent living La Dolce Vita with Nina.
A few days later the SCF finance committee in London approved Ann’s appointment to the new job with responsibility for the Genzano nursery and offered a salary of $200 per month plus travel expenses. On the 28th she cabled the news to her father who immediately scribbled his approval in a hand written note. Three days later she was making plans to move in with Nina into her flat in Via Babuino. (1/4)
Gianna on the other hand was having a less exciting time:
I feel sorry for Gianna who listens to me about Rome and sees me flying around when she is here....she is getting rather wistful about why she stays in Ortona, she’s missing the good things in life. (12/4)
The Via Babuino apartment was small and Nina and Ann set about looking for somewhere more suitable. They eventually discovered a three room flat on the top floor of the Drago Palace in Via Della Quattro Fontane. The apartment comprised a large sitting room, a bedroom, a small office cum guest room, two bathrooms, a small kitchen and a large roof terrace. It was available after June 1st and they quickly secured the lease. It was agreed that Gianna would take over the lease of the Via Babuino apartment which would be used as an office for Ann and a pied a terre for Gianna. For the first time since she arrived in Italy 14 years previously, Gianna and the Fund had a base in Rome.
Probably the first visitor to Gianna’s new apartment was Jim Mourton (11/7). He worked for the SCF in London and was responsible for projects involving underprivileged youths. He was in Italy organising a work camp for ten slum English boys, as Ann described them. On the 16th she wrote to her parents that Gianna was beginning to neglect her duties and was entirely busy with Jim Mourton whose charm does not increase with contact as far as I’m concerned.
It is not clear when Jim and Gianna met, probably on one of her regular trips to the London headquarters, nor when their romantic liaison began but,as with Di Iacovo two and a half years earlier, Ann took an instant dislike to Jim and remained critical of him throughout their association. It is as if she resented anybody who had an independent relationship with Gianna, especially a man.
She was also becoming increasingly critical of Gianna’s perceived inefficiency:
Gianna has gotten the Genzano thing so fouled up that this morning I officially committed the Fund to all kinds of things with a stamped and signed letter (by me). I have now informed her that since she did not see fit to write the one letter I needed in a week I’ve done it and would she simply turn it over to me from now on. She was very meek by telephone just now so maybe things will get straightened out. She’s been sitting in the sun all week with Mourton, for which I don’t blame her, but when she comes down off cloud nine she’ll blame me for Genzano. Not no more, though.
If the teacher pupil relationship had ended in Tricarico it had now developed, in Ann’s eyes, to one in which she was the more efficient and competent partner. Unfortunately there is no record of Gianna’s version of the story.
But for now Ann confined her opinions to her private correspondence and she and Gianna were still able to work together: Gianna sent Ann to Tricarico at the end of July for the start of the new building work. This was her first visit for 4 months: I can’t say it has changed much or that I felt any nostalgia for living there. After Jim returned to England she accompanied Gianna on yet another trip south. This ended in Ortona where it was planned that Nina would join them for 5 days of swimming during the August holidays. However, Nina had work commitments in Rome and Ann preferred to stay with Nina, leaving Gianna to spend the holiday alone.
That Nina had in many ways supplanted Gianna in Ann’s life is shown in a postcard of September 23. Nina accompanied Ann on a visit to Tricarico and for the first time scribbled a note to Ann’s parents on the bottom of the card, just as Gianna used to do when they travelled together. The habit was to continue for the next few years.
On the 30th September Gianna left for a six week stay in London. This time her mother was informed. The first two weeks were to be spent as ‘holiday’ with Jim and she rented an apartment where they could be together. Jim had proposed marriage but Gianna was uncertain because of unspecified complications with her mother. (27/9) There must have been a competitive air at the SCF offices because she received another marriage proposal, this time from the General Secretary of the SCF, Brigadier Terry Boyce OBE MC. She rejected his offer but Jim was still keen and intended spending Christmas with her in Rome. The problem was her mother also wanted to come to Rome for Christmas but didn't know that Jim would be there. She was due back in Italy on the 6th November but delayed her return for another week to spend more time with Jim. She eventually returned to Ortona on 13th November.
Gianna started decorating the Via Babuino apartment ready for Jim’s arrival at Christmas. Ann's approval was qualified: I do think she’s enjoyed that apartment more than anything she’s done in years and she’s done it very nicely. Unfortunately for me she’s so busy with it that I can’t get her to do anything about all my various nursery centers (26/10). Gianna’s mother would not be spending Christmas in Rome, however. Yet again, she and Gianna had argued and the visit was cancelled. They did not communicate all through Christmas and when Gianna eventually telephoned in the New Year she thought her mother’s behaviour was so bad that she had slipped over the edge of reason.
Jim arrived in Rome on the 21st December. On Christmas Eve they were shopping in a crowded departmental store when, without warning, Gianna fainted. Jim insisted she see a doctor who thought she might be suffering from a small brain tumour and should be admitted to a hospital for further investigation. Gianna had a horror of Italian hospitals and insisted that she would only go to one in England. Despite the fainting episode she felt reasonably well and decided to wait until Jim returned home in January when he would be in a position to find a hospital and make the necessary arrangements. Ann was told nothing of this episode until after Christmas and the subject was not discussed when Jim and Gianna were invited to dinner with Ann and Nina on the 26th at Via Quattro Fontane. However, that was the only social engagement between them over the holiday period. Ann was keen to keep her distance from Gianna and Jim preferring to socialise with other friends: I’m going to stay out of the situation as much as I can (15/12). However, Ann’s last letter of the year contains significant news. The relevant paragraph is quoted here complete with exclamation marks:
Gianna and Jim have been looking for apartments! I can’t place quite what this means as he still has to divorce his wife! That sounds much messier than it is. He has been separated for years from her and never felt he would want to marry again so didn’t bother, but after all that will take a year to work out. He apparently wants to find a job here......I find him very uninteresting, but Gianna seems very happy and sparky so that is the point.
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It is not clear whether Ann and Gianna discussed the possibility of Ann resigning while they were in Rome but on the 2nd January Gianna returned to Ortona leaving Ann to continue the holiday. Thanks to Nina, Ann was developing her own circle of friends in the city and a few days after Gianna returned on the 7th an argument developed:
Gianna seems to resent my having gotten to know these less sombre types and is leaving today without staying for the concert after making a number of remarks about at least she has a sense of responsibility etc. I’m afraid I’m a bit tired of being prim and serious so there we are. I have decided to get out of Tricarico by March 1st and come here – Nina Beckwith in the meantime says she wants to go to Greece, the Islands and Spain. (11/1)
References to Nina become more frequent in Ann’s letters as their friendship grew and she comments on Gianna’s reaction:
Strangely enough Gianna seems to be falling all over her (Nina) which is disconcerting. (18/1)
In this ménage a trois Gianna and Nina developed a competitive relationship and Ann was amused to observe them having heated discussions until the early hours of the morning. (5/2)
When Ann handed in her month’s notice Gianna was stunned. I’m afraid that she thought it was just conversation on my part but she has now learned otherwise. (16/1)
Stunned or not, Gianna had every right to be disappointed. She more than anybody was aware of the difficulties of life in a town like Tricarico but this was the second time that Ann had resigned unexpectedly. Also Gianna had argued with the SCF for an improvement to Ann’s pay and terms of employment. However, Ann was determined to leave although she confessed to her parents that the allure of Rome was another matter:
Much as I love this country I’m through with the sticks.....am not sure about Rome however. (16/1)
If Gianna was upset or disappointed she hid it: for her ‘The Work’ came first and she was keen not to lose the advantages that a base in the South provided. She made arrangements with Signora Armento for the Tricarico apartment to be retained for SCF use and later in January took Ann on a weeklong trip inspecting the southern projects.
On her return to Tricarico, Ann sold her car to Sorino’s nephew on condition that she could use it until Easter but her thoughts were all of Rome:
Am waiting to hear if Nina will come down this weekend or next though with the weather so bad it might be letter to let it go. Anyway, I’m alright....a little while will be in Rome.(24/1)
Nina went to Tricarico to help Ann when she left the apartment on the 11th February. They drove to Ortona to see Gianna and four days later they were in Rome:
The weekend in Ortona was very pleasant. I turned everything over to Gianna and Nina and I drove over yesterday. That lovely road was even lovelier. (15/2)
It was an undramatic end to 21 months work. Gianna must have dealt with the situation calmly although her plans had been disrupted. However, she was a pragmatist and if Ann was to be in Rome she was determined to make use of her presence: she offered her another job based in the city:
The Fund would pay my expenses in Rome if I would deal with guests, meetings, all the government forms etc and then travel for half the month with Gianna and the Fund car. This sounds like having my cake and eating it too and I must admit I’m tempted. (28/1)
While she was considering this offer, Ann moved into the Dinesen and threw herself into Roman social life: Nina has a fantastic gift for people and has insisted on my meeting great droves of them. (23/3).
She had no regrets about Tricarico: I’m ashamed to say I don’t miss it one little bit. (27/2)
Ann’s life was becoming less and less bound up with Gianna’s but the two women remained in contact especially as Gianna was frequently in town on business and always stayed at the Dinesen. Gianna had taken over responsibility for the Tricarico nursery and was planning new building work. The Fund was also about to build another nursery at Genzano di Roma, a town about 20 kms south of Rome and in March Gianna offered Ann the job of supervising the project, combining this with being the Fund’s meeter and greeter in Rome. On the 13th March Ann wrote to her parents: it would be tempting to stay in Rome with them paying for it. I’ve never seen anything more enchanting than these last few weeks nor have I had as much fun in years meeting all kinds of people and being asked all kinds of places. However, everything was dependant on the London office agreeing to the proposal.
Ever since she began working in Italy in 1954, Ann had been under pressure from her parents to return to the USA and resume her life in Chicago society. Even at the age of 34 she was a dutiful, upper middle class daughter and was anxious to retain her parents’ support, after all it was their money that had been supporting her all the time she was in Italy. She wrote to them in an agony of indecision about whether to stay in Rome. If she returned home her sense of duty would oblige her to devote her life to her dear but ageing parents and she feared that she would eventually end up as a rich spinster aimlessly travelling the world. She was haunted by the mistakes she had made with her two short marriages and was frightened that back in Chicago she might make another. Her messy divorces were a source of embarrassment to her and she felt that if she returned she would be the talk of Chicago society and a figure of ridicule. She begged her parents for advice: should she stay in Italy or return to the USA? (23/3)
How much she had already made up her mind to stay in Rome is a moot point but the letter was uncharacteristically emotional, especially when she describes the agony that has gone into these last few months. Judging from her previous letters, the last few months had been spent living La Dolce Vita with Nina.
A few days later the SCF finance committee in London approved Ann’s appointment to the new job with responsibility for the Genzano nursery and offered a salary of $200 per month plus travel expenses. On the 28th she cabled the news to her father who immediately scribbled his approval in a hand written note. Three days later she was making plans to move in with Nina into her flat in Via Babuino. (1/4)
Gianna on the other hand was having a less exciting time:
I feel sorry for Gianna who listens to me about Rome and sees me flying around when she is here....she is getting rather wistful about why she stays in Ortona, she’s missing the good things in life. (12/4)
The Via Babuino apartment was small and Nina and Ann set about looking for somewhere more suitable. They eventually discovered a three room flat on the top floor of the Drago Palace in Via Della Quattro Fontane. The apartment comprised a large sitting room, a bedroom, a small office cum guest room, two bathrooms, a small kitchen and a large roof terrace. It was available after June 1st and they quickly secured the lease. It was agreed that Gianna would take over the lease of the Via Babuino apartment which would be used as an office for Ann and a pied a terre for Gianna. For the first time since she arrived in Italy 14 years previously, Gianna and the Fund had a base in Rome.
Probably the first visitor to Gianna’s new apartment was Jim Mourton (11/7). He worked for the SCF in London and was responsible for projects involving underprivileged youths. He was in Italy organising a work camp for ten slum English boys, as Ann described them. On the 16th she wrote to her parents that Gianna was beginning to neglect her duties and was entirely busy with Jim Mourton whose charm does not increase with contact as far as I’m concerned.
It is not clear when Jim and Gianna met, probably on one of her regular trips to the London headquarters, nor when their romantic liaison began but,as with Di Iacovo two and a half years earlier, Ann took an instant dislike to Jim and remained critical of him throughout their association. It is as if she resented anybody who had an independent relationship with Gianna, especially a man.
She was also becoming increasingly critical of Gianna’s perceived inefficiency:
Gianna has gotten the Genzano thing so fouled up that this morning I officially committed the Fund to all kinds of things with a stamped and signed letter (by me). I have now informed her that since she did not see fit to write the one letter I needed in a week I’ve done it and would she simply turn it over to me from now on. She was very meek by telephone just now so maybe things will get straightened out. She’s been sitting in the sun all week with Mourton, for which I don’t blame her, but when she comes down off cloud nine she’ll blame me for Genzano. Not no more, though.
If the teacher pupil relationship had ended in Tricarico it had now developed, in Ann’s eyes, to one in which she was the more efficient and competent partner. Unfortunately there is no record of Gianna’s version of the story.
But for now Ann confined her opinions to her private correspondence and she and Gianna were still able to work together: Gianna sent Ann to Tricarico at the end of July for the start of the new building work. This was her first visit for 4 months: I can’t say it has changed much or that I felt any nostalgia for living there. After Jim returned to England she accompanied Gianna on yet another trip south. This ended in Ortona where it was planned that Nina would join them for 5 days of swimming during the August holidays. However, Nina had work commitments in Rome and Ann preferred to stay with Nina, leaving Gianna to spend the holiday alone.
That Nina had in many ways supplanted Gianna in Ann’s life is shown in a postcard of September 23. Nina accompanied Ann on a visit to Tricarico and for the first time scribbled a note to Ann’s parents on the bottom of the card, just as Gianna used to do when they travelled together. The habit was to continue for the next few years.
On the 30th September Gianna left for a six week stay in London. This time her mother was informed. The first two weeks were to be spent as ‘holiday’ with Jim and she rented an apartment where they could be together. Jim had proposed marriage but Gianna was uncertain because of unspecified complications with her mother. (27/9) There must have been a competitive air at the SCF offices because she received another marriage proposal, this time from the General Secretary of the SCF, Brigadier Terry Boyce OBE MC. She rejected his offer but Jim was still keen and intended spending Christmas with her in Rome. The problem was her mother also wanted to come to Rome for Christmas but didn't know that Jim would be there. She was due back in Italy on the 6th November but delayed her return for another week to spend more time with Jim. She eventually returned to Ortona on 13th November.
Gianna started decorating the Via Babuino apartment ready for Jim’s arrival at Christmas. Ann's approval was qualified: I do think she’s enjoyed that apartment more than anything she’s done in years and she’s done it very nicely. Unfortunately for me she’s so busy with it that I can’t get her to do anything about all my various nursery centers (26/10). Gianna’s mother would not be spending Christmas in Rome, however. Yet again, she and Gianna had argued and the visit was cancelled. They did not communicate all through Christmas and when Gianna eventually telephoned in the New Year she thought her mother’s behaviour was so bad that she had slipped over the edge of reason.
Jim arrived in Rome on the 21st December. On Christmas Eve they were shopping in a crowded departmental store when, without warning, Gianna fainted. Jim insisted she see a doctor who thought she might be suffering from a small brain tumour and should be admitted to a hospital for further investigation. Gianna had a horror of Italian hospitals and insisted that she would only go to one in England. Despite the fainting episode she felt reasonably well and decided to wait until Jim returned home in January when he would be in a position to find a hospital and make the necessary arrangements. Ann was told nothing of this episode until after Christmas and the subject was not discussed when Jim and Gianna were invited to dinner with Ann and Nina on the 26th at Via Quattro Fontane. However, that was the only social engagement between them over the holiday period. Ann was keen to keep her distance from Gianna and Jim preferring to socialise with other friends: I’m going to stay out of the situation as much as I can (15/12). However, Ann’s last letter of the year contains significant news. The relevant paragraph is quoted here complete with exclamation marks:
Gianna and Jim have been looking for apartments! I can’t place quite what this means as he still has to divorce his wife! That sounds much messier than it is. He has been separated for years from her and never felt he would want to marry again so didn’t bother, but after all that will take a year to work out. He apparently wants to find a job here......I find him very uninteresting, but Gianna seems very happy and sparky so that is the point.
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