Her Roman holiday turned into lifetime commitment

For Peggy Marola-Palazzo, a Roman holiday turned into a new life.

Mrs. Marola grew up in Schenectady hearing about the days her father, Dr. Lewis Marola, spent in medical school in Bologna, Italy. As a result, she and her seven brothers and sisters developed "sort of a passed-on nostalgia" for the ancient city of Rome.

When she was 16, Peggy took a vacation to Italy with her family. The teenager had been thinking of going to cooking school, and during the trip, the family stopped at a famous school for chefs. She immediately fell in love with the school and beautiful surrounding town.

Another world

"I had various brothers and sisters at college then, so I saw what that was about," she remembered. "But this was something new, and I wanted to get to know it better " and to see how people in another culture lived."

Back home, she acted on her decision immediately by graduating from high school a year early and moving to Italy at the age of 17 to enroll in cooking school in the Dolomite Mountains.

Living in Italy did involve some culture shock. "You drink a lot of wine when you first get here, and that makes everything a lot easier," she joked.

Traffic was the worst thing she had to get used to. "A lot of Italians drive Vespas or motorcycles," she said. "And when they get in cars, they forget they can't do the same things."

Italians also have different views on friendship. "Americans are used to easy friendships, whereas Italians are looking for a very deep thing," she said. "You don't always call an acquaintance a friend here."

Adopted land

But after 10 months of living in a town where no one spoke English and the cars seemed as small as toys, she realized on a visit home that "I was scared to death of the trucks going by!" She had truly become a "native" of her adopted country.

Mrs. Marola told The Evangelist that it was easier, being a Catholic, to make her home in a Catholic country. Even in Italian, "you can still recognize the Mass. I think I would have had a lot more difficulty in another country."

She also learned a great deal about the Church from her life in Rome. "Living in such close contact with the Vatican, you're faced with things that Americans don't talk about," she explained. "In the 1600s, the Pope gave one of his sons a region in Italy " things like that just boggle my mind."

Another career

Mrs. Marola became a "sous-chef" (working under a head chef). But the adage "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen" proved literally true: "It was extremely hot, and I missed regular studies and contact with people."

She left her job and enrolled in the Linguistics Lyceum, where foreign students learn Italian, and went on to earn a degree in political science from the University of Rome.

"All their finals are oral, and they call them `interrogations,'" she remembered. The name was apt: "They ask you questions, and you have to be able to respond right then and there."

She not only successfully passed her finals, but she also defended her doctoral thesis on economics last year, earning her a PhD. During her studies, someone suggested she apply for a job at the Fulbright Commission, and she found a position helping Italian students who wanted to study in the U.S.

Falling in love

As she worked on her doctorate, Mrs. Marola also met a friend: her future husband, Luciano Palazzo. In one of the perks of living in Rome, the couple were married at the Vatican last year.

"It was very, very exciting," she said. "I'm a member of Santa Susanna parish, the American Catholic church in Rome. My parish priest gave me the name of the parish priest at the Vatican; I was so busy with my thesis, I didn't have time to hunt around for a church for the wedding. I said, `We could get married at the Vatican' " so we did!"

The small wedding, held in a chapel of the huge basilica, was concelebrated by both parish priests and attended by a few family members and close friends. But the biggest surprise was still in store: a chance to meet Pope John Paul II.

Papal blessing

"When you get married at the Vatican, they ask you to receive the papal blessing from the Pope at one of his Wednesday receptions," Mrs. Marola remembered. And so, right after their honeymoon, the couple put on their wedding attire again and went to meet the Pope.

"I was almost more nervous than I was at my wedding," the bride said. "When they presented me to the Pope, I knelt down. As I was getting up, he said, `SI-gnora.' In Rome, that's like saying `HEL-lo.' I got this huge grin on my face, and I don't remember anything after that!"

Such incidents made the expatriate feel "as comfortable here as I do [in America]" " evident in her hearty "bon giorno" when answering the telephone, and her European-style referral to the U.S. as "the States."

Homesick sometimes

But even though she has relatives in northern Italy, Mrs. Marola admits homesickness.

"My family is the first thing that I miss and always will," she said. "I miss the ease of living in upstate New York, and the foliage. Rome has beautiful weather, but I miss apple cider."

Still, she has no plans to leave Italy " particularly since she and her husband expect a new addition to the family in February.

"That's one of the good things about Italian society: the laws they have about maternity leave," she pointed out. "I'll get five months with full pay; then until the baby is one, two hours off every day for nursing. Italy puts a lot of emphasis on the family, that both the mother and child have a right to each other."

Besides, she said, who could leave a town where "you wouldn't believe the number of things they can do with spaghetti," and ancient ruins are commonplace?

"I can see an ancient tower from my balcony window. It's a little bit of a shock to go to other places, and someone will say, `This is a monument. It dates back 200 years.' I say, `Oh, really?'"

(Mrs. Marola welcomes calls from students interested in studying in Italy. Call 011-39-6-87120457.)

[[In-content Ad]]