Bella Vista: A True Story of Liberty Lost and Love Found - Paperback

by David Gardellin (Author)

It was the height of the Great Depression and Giuseppe was making shoes in his father's shop in an obscure village in Northern Italy when he suddenly landed a dream job for any teenager, working as a steward on the premier luxury liner of the Italian Lines. He was serving drinks at poolside to swimsuit clad heiresses, waiting tables for famous politicians, ball players, movie stars and business magnates. He quickly acquired an easy fluency in five languages and an intimate familiarity with the back alleys and speakeasies in seaports from Calcutta to Buenos Aires. Then one morning he woke up in a concentration camp in Montana. Charlotte was a coal miner's daughter growing up in a gritty town in the Pennsylvania coal fields with dreams of a better life and the bright lights of a big city. The notion that their lives could intersect was unfathomable. This is the true story of one man and one woman who lived through the Great Depression and World War II and how they became part of America's Greatest Generation.