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 "Belluno Italia 1947 ."

This photo depicts a friendly game of soccer.  The participants were five students and  a  Salesian Brother acting as trainer.  The playing field was the playground of the Salesian ‘Sperti' College in Belluno, Italy. The time was early summer  1947.

From the right, the players were: Tracanelli (self); Tomaselli, Giantin, Don Prezzi.

The photographer was don Marco a young seminarian. Don .Marco used to call me ‘mellifuo'.The picture was taken at this time to commemorate the end of study and the conclusion of  our stay at the College.  The photo portrays a space in the time of college life, in which the pressures and oppressing worries of school exams were temporarily put  aside.

The photographer was kneeling down  in front of us and  making us laugh.The effect of this was to give a happy group of young people an event  to remember .

The background of the playing field is a vast courtyard surrounded by enormous high walls, outside of which we were not allowed unsupervised.  At the far side there was a door leading directly to the Technical Institute where we spent eight hours every weekday and half a day on Saturday attending classes.

I kept in touch with Tomaselli for a few years, but  I lost track of the others except don Prezzi.  Especially as only four years later I was already working in Australia.

Don Prezzi and I kept the correspondence going for a few years.

Then,  for many years I lost track of him, but last year there was an obituary referring to his death which said:

"A man of even temper and peaceful spirit.  Tranquil and always smiling, he was for many years the director of the community of Belluno Sperti, Verona San Zeno, Belluno Agosti, Monteortone and he was the bursar at Este, Monteortone, Rovereto, Verona Saval.  Always there for his brothers, he treated them all with great simplicity and enduring friendship.  Admired and loved by his former students, he never missedtheir annual get-togethers. For many years he was in charge of the Church at Santa Maria di Trento...ecc.

Il Capitello

This item represents a small religious shrine made of stoneware clay about 27 cm high. It was constructed in 2002. Its purpose is both decorative and functional. It is a decorative grafitto, made of bisque which has been fired, painted and glazed and then fired again. The background colour is grey-white and the decoration is pale blue. On it there is the inscription – ‘St John’, a cross, and a bas-relief depicting an image of St. John the Baptist. It is formed in the Romanesque/Gothic styles but deviates from these in colour and glazing.

The ceramacist states that part of the inspiration for the making of the shrine comes from visiting a similar construction in a remote region of flood lands in the Tagliamento area of northen Italy. The religious shrine is an excellent example of modern functional pottery: unrestrained, symmetrical and stable.

Its round shape and proportion celebrate and uplift the human spirit.

Appropriately, the cool blue and grey surface reflects the natural environment of the countryside where, many years ago I came across the similarly constructed shrine which was my inspiration.