Cobblestones, Conversations, and Corks: A Son's Discovery of His Italian Heritage

On November 11, 1943, the Nazis invaded Cansano, forcing its two thousand inhabitants to make a tough decision-fight and be killed or sent to a POW camp, stay behind as servants to the Nazis, or move into the unforgiving mountains of Abruzzo while the Nazis used their village as a home base. Giovanni Ruscitti's family chose the latter and spent the next few months living in horrendous winter conditions in the rugged mountains. When the war ended, they returned to a village so ravaged by the...