Page 49 - A Life - my Live - my path

The journey - coal miner’s community

At the slightest dip, the rear axle of the car always scraped
against the road, causing my father to throw tantrums that
only his immediate family can remember. He would recite a
string of insults, some more evocative than others. We
always wondered where this fertile imagination came from.
My father's friend dropped us off at home and carried on
home. At the end of the holiday, he came to pick us up and
we set off on the return journey: 1,600 km mainly on county
and main roads, as the European motorways were barely
under construction. In Italy, the first motorway to become
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operational was the "Autostrada del sole " (Motorway of the
sun - Milano, Bologna, Rimini, South of Italy).

Anecdote: sensitivity
I was 12 and the only one who spoke French. In the village
square, with the other kids, I was a little star. Without
knowing it, I learnt much later, I had upset my cousin
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who was a few years younger than me.
I explained to her what life was like in Belgium, I said a few
words in French, that I went to school, that I had lots of
friends and that I played a lot. My cousin, dressed as she
was over there, stayed in the village to look after the pigs,
clean the stables, work in the garden and sometimes in the
fields, and do other things like that.
I lacked the sensitivity that, unfortunately, one can lack at

that age.

51 Motorway of the sun.
52 Antonia, my uncle Tullio’s daughter.
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