Piacenza San Damiano
Posted: 03 Sep 2014, 17:13
The German Air Force had a shortage on technical staff and asked the Navy to provide some technicians. Stayed there for 28 days. When I reached there one Italian electrician working on the runway electrics had a fatal accident. 
The lawyers demanded every equipment to be switched off for about a week for investigation. You may know that it gets foggy there in late October. For a week almost no aircraft took off or landed. For us technicians it meant: go to the base in the morning, stay there for two or three hours and go back to the hotel. Yes, HOTEL!!! 
Plenty of hotels in that area got good money from the German government. What I did not like was that those hotels closed after some time to refurbish and when they opened again they did not extend the contract with the German Air Force. Anyway, I do remember a pizzaria where we were welcomed everyday - except for Monday when they where closed. Had 25 pizzas there and I still consider those as the best ones I ever had in my life! Why 25? Because one Monday they were open. It was the birthday of the owner. We did not pay a single Lira that day. He invited us and it was really crowded. The 4 weeks in Piacenza was one of the best things happened to me in my military times. I really enjoyed the times in Italy. I've also been two times in Decimomannu on Sardegna. Those times were good as well. But that's a different story. 
