There are love stories that have the flavor of an ancient novel. A flavor that comes from casual acquaintance in the compartment of a popular train in the 1930s, from the promise to remain united, despite everything, despite the dangers and divisions that war brings. The protagonists of this history linked to Sardinia and the Sardinian Union are Franco and Filomena, known as “Filina”. To make it re-emerge from the dust of time is Michelangelo Iossa, journalist, writer, but in this case first of all the nephew of Franco and Filina.
Michelangelo, tell us first of all who your two grandparents were:
“Franco Farina was born in Milan in June 1907. The youngest of seven living children (three died very young from incurable diseases at the time), he belonged to a family of the Milanese bourgeoisie. Franco had studied Engineering at the Polytechnic of Turin and, as an Army officer, he had trained at the Military Academy of the Piedmontese capital. At that time, we are talking about a little less than a century ago, the Academy had not yet been transferred to Modena. Grandfather Franco was animated by a deep love of country, fueled by the fact that he had lost his brother Renato, overwhelmed by an avalanche, in the First World War. The commitment in the ranks of the Military Engineers and the outbreak of the Second World War absorbed his life as a young officer ”.
And grandma Filina?
“Nonna was born in Torre Annunziata (Naples) in April 1917. Fifth of nine children, Filina came from a family of wealthy entrepreneurs from the industrialized Vesuvius area, the Japicca. Torre Annunziata, between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, was a very flourishing pole of wheat pasta production, even more flourishing than today's Gragnano. The Japicca were modern entrepreneurs: they were, for example, the first to publish yearbooks in dual languages (Italian and French) and to introduce the bilingual business calendar as a marketing object during trade fairs and business meetings. Nonna Filina was no less modern in terms of modernity: she was the first woman to obtain a car driving license in Torre Annunziata, a pioneer for her generation ”.
A career officer from the north and a girl from a good southern family. But how did the meeting happen?
“It happened in the second half of the thirties of the twentieth century, aboard a train that led from Naples to the Vesuvian municipalities. Franco met Filomena, who was returning to his Torre Annunziata. Filomena was with one of her sisters: they were sitting opposite Franco. He had fallen asleep due to the long journey he had previously made from Milan to Naples. In the Thirties it was not uncommon for peasants to board railway carriages with cheeses, cured meats and various products. A passenger had placed a bottle of oil right in the luggage compartment. From above, a little oil fell on Franco's uniform jacket but he didn't notice it because he was sleeping. My grandmother decided to wake him up to prevent the uniform from getting irreparably dirty. They started talking and fell in love almost instantly, despite the difference in age (10 years) between the two ”.
And here Sardinia takes the stage, right?
"Exactly. In that Italy between the two wars, Franco and Filina got engaged, but after a while the world conflict broke out and, in 1941, Franco was sent to Cagliari and to various places in Sardinia - under the command of artisan students, radio training students and instructors - to guide the placement phases of the 'Cinas' and 'Oreglia' generators, of metal bridges, of the 'Abney' war levels and for the control of the blasting of mines and the transport of boats. From the photos of the time it is possible to see the figure of my grandfather - who showed a rather evident resemblance to Peppino and Eduardo De Filippo, so much so that they often stopped him in the street and greeted him thinking that he was one of the two brother-actors - surrounded by soldiers , Sardinian shepherds, pupils, donkeys and the Cagliari sea in the background ”.
How long was grandfather Franco in Sardinia?
“Engineer and captain of the Italian army, Franco lived in Sardinia for a few years, witnessing the saddest phases of the war, also punctuated by barbaric executions of Sardinian shepherds by the Nazis. For over a year my mother had no further news of Franco: the Germans controlled and prevented the movements of the Italian soldiers and cut off any possibility of communication with mainland Italy. My grandmother believed that her boyfriend had been killed ”.
When did you know that this was not the case, that Franco was still alive?
“Here the story of the two engaged couples is intertwined with the ink and the pages of L'Unione Sarda. My grandfather was in Cagliari and saw that a military colleague of his had been embarked on a ship to Naples. Not being able to leave any official message to his friend because it was controlled by the Germans, he managed to get a copy of the newspaper “L'Unione Sarda”, he wrote on the front page of the newspaper 'Filina, ti amo. I'm alive. As soon as I get back to you we get married. Yours, Franco 'and his girlfriend's home address. Arriving in Naples, the soldier reached Torre Annunziata and gave Filina that copy of L'Unione Sarda. It was an explosion of joy for the whole Japicca family! My grandmother walked to the Sanctuary of the Madonna of Pompeii and made a vow: when Franco returned, they would marry in that church and give the name of the Madonna to the daughters who would be born ".
And grandfather Franco came back in the end ...
“My grandparents got married in that sanctuary on April 14, 1945, a few days before the Liberation. A year, a month and a day later - May 15, 1946 - my mother Virginia would be born. Maria Stefania was born in 1948 and Bianca Maria in 1951. My mother and my aunts bear the name of Our Lady, as promised by my grandmother Filina after receiving that copy of the Unione Sarda ”.
But what happened to that newspaper page that in some way is the protagonist of this story?
“Grandfather Franco, who attained the rank of General of the Army Corps, passed away in September 1978: for all his life Filina kept that copy of L'Unione Sarda. The newspaper is no longer among the family memories because, in 1992, she decided to take that message and that first page of the Sardinian newspaper with her to the grave and those words that she had not forgotten all her life: 'Filina, I love you. I'm alive. As soon as I get back to you we get married. Yours, Franco '".