Stornara 1944 to 2004

 [2 March 2004]

We left our apartment at Masseria Salamina in Fasano and headed north to Stornara. Our one and only objective today was to meet with Vito Campagna and his granddaughter Luisa Tampone. In fact, this meeting was why we came to Puglia in the first place. 

Vito

In 1944 Vito was a young man working for the Col. Thomas Steed, commander of the 456th Bomb Group, then located at the US airfield in Stornara, not far from Cerignola. Susan's father Tunis had served as a navigator on B-24s serving with the 456th. After the war Vito stayed in contact with many of the men who had been posted to Stornara -- including Col. Steed -- and over subsequent years many of the veterans and their families returned to visit the old airfield. Ed Moore, a member of the bomber crew to which Susan’s dad belonged to during the war, had given us Vito's name and Luisa's email and we arranged to meet them in the central piazza of Stornara on 2 March.

 We arrived in Stornara in the middle of market day but could not find the meeting place. Since we had the foresight to rent a cell phone we called Luisa and about five minutes later we were all together and on our way to the airfield.

There was little left of the old field since the land has been turned to agricultural uses and the buildings which had been used by the bomb group HQ were pretty much abandoned – particularly the former HQ of the colonel commanding the base which had apparently been at one time the palazzo of local nobility and was pretty much in ruins. But Vito brought his personal archives along – newspaper clippings, documents and letters that he received from various members of the men who served here during the war, items which he cherishes a great deal.

We drove further on down into where the airstrip itself used to be located and where Vito now has an absolutely wonderful garden: olive trees, apricot trees, fig trees, grapes, artichokes, tomatoes, just about everything one could want or hope to have in a garden in Italy.

me, Vito and Susie

Susie, Vito and Luisa

in Vito's garden

runways turned into fields of crops

From the old airfield it was a short drive back to Vito’s house in Stornara where we met one of his two daughters, Franca (Luisa’s aunt) and where we had coffee and continued to look over all of Vito's WW2 memorabilia from the old airfield. His smile was infectious and his openness and warmth toward Susie and me drew us to him. The joy he seems to derive from being around other people reminded me so much of my own father whose sole purpose in life was to simply enjoy the company of others.

From Stornara we followed Luisa and Vito to Cerignola where we had lunch at Luisa’s parents’ house.

About ten minutes later after turning down several very tiny streets in Cerignola we have arrived at the Tampone series of flats. We climbed up to the third floor (they also have the fourth floor as well) and were welcomed into a wonderful cozy house and almost at once the photo books came out and we quite some time looking at photos of all their family members. It was a singularly pleasant feeling that continued to hold us in its grasp for the next several hours.

We were joined for lunch by Luisa’s parents Rosa and Giuseppe (nicknamed “Peppino”), both nurses in the local hospital. Rosa headed up the operating room and Giuseppe was the chief nursing administrator in charge of information systems. We also met Luisa’s younger brother Antonio, who was about 16 years old.

Rosa prepared a superb meal for all of us – antipasti consisting of olives in oil, tiny onions preserved in oil, two variations on mozzarella cheese, and two types of salami. Rosa also laid out two bottles of Vito’s white wine, a bit sweet and most pleasant for this meal.

Next came the pasta – simple spaghetti which Rosa brought out to ask us or rather Susan if this is OK – in a sauce she put up last August and a few basil leaves preserved in salt placed on top. From there it was straight to the fish course, a delicious light white fish somewhat like cod in appearance but with a meatier texture and more flavor, almost sweet, which Rosa had prepared by poaching in a bit of oil and capers and herbs; this was accompanied by green lettuce with oil and vinegar tossed on at the last moment.

For the dolce course we had fresh fruit cut up with a bit of sugar and sprinkled with homemade limoncello.

After dinner we went upstairs to the top flat that had once been the apartment of Giuseppe’s mother who died some years previous. We sat in a small room around a warm fire and talked and drank Amaro and coffee until it was time to go back to our apartment in Fasano.

Rosa and Giuseppe wanted us to stay that night but we felt totally unprepared for this. One just does not see Americans behaving in this fashion – asking total strangers to stay in their home for the night. And yet that's the Italian for you. They said why drive back tonight, just stay with us! No, we had no toothbrush, etc., was our excuse. But the more we thought on it the more we wanted to spend time with this family.

At the very least they asked us to stop and stay with them on the way back to Rome. So that is now the plan. We will leave our agriturismo in Fasano a day early and head to Cerignola on Saturday and spend the night with the Tampone’s before heading to Rome on Sunday.