Fiorella Ingrao, born in 1925, at the dawn of her 97 years is not content to spend her days in front of the television or even to do crosswords. His favorite exercise is to train the memory that inevitably goes to the happiest years, those of his youth.

In particular, she has a desire: to see again her classmates who attended with her the Giulio Cesare classical high school in Rome, the one also sung by Antonello Venditti a few years later.

So, to make it happen, he took pen and paper and wrote on a piece of paper: "I am Fiorella Ingrao from Rome, born in 1925. I would like to contact via the Internet some classmates of the Liceo Ginnasio Giulio Cesare in Corso Trieste in Rome, where we attended both the gymnasium and the high school (section b) until maturity".

The strictly checkered sheet, so familiar for a mathematics teacher, the calligraphy in block letters, the use of pencil to erase any errors, the margins left blank to make everything more orderly. A kind appeal with a wealth of details on the class, "the class leader Di Cristofaro, the beautiful Pescatori, the talented Todaro, the Occorsio brothers and the Simonetti brothers". The reference to the professors of section B.

Then he asked his niece Valentina to spread the letter on social media and that message began to circulate on the net. Since then there have been many who write them, especially former students, because Fiorella taught Mathematics in a high school.

The granddaughter did not expect such an echo: in a few hours the 'likes' skyrocketed and so did the shares. And the first feedback has arrived: "Many students of grandmother, who taught at the Volpicelli classical high school in Porta Pia, are contacting us. If they remember her and would like to meet her, it would be beautiful." Not only that, "the son of a classmate also wrote to me, now we will try to make them meet. Who knows what emotion, so many years later", says her niece, aware of the fact that many characters mentioned in the letter may no longer be there. The comments are many, there are also those who do not know Fiorella and did not attend the Giulio Cesare but are struck by her story: "I was brightened by the day", writes Antonella.

The post with Fiorella's letter also reached the wall of a lady who redid the accounts, aligned the schools, and understood that one of Fiorella's classmates was her mother Serena.

The meeting between the two former companions took place through a video call, between memories, names and surnames of class friends of more than 80 years ago, and pitted facts as if they had happened the day before, with a lucidity that would envy even a twenty-year-old. Fiorella also remembers where she was sitting in class, while talking to her friend she draws a floor plan of the classroom in words. The phone call passes like this, with white hair but the spirit of two 97-year-olds who return as girls, albeit for a few minutes.


@Facebook/II Municipio Roma

Fiorella Ingrao letter for the search for classmates

Given the success of the appeal, Fiorella wanted to thank those who left a word on Facebook, almost all former students: "Dear friends, I read all your answers to my appeal and I felt wrapped in a warm and affectionate embrace, which caused me a strong emotion accompanied by a heartbeat and some tears! My thoughts ran back so many years, first to my carefree youth and then to my serious but not severe maturity."

But she does not break down and provides more details of her former classmates, even in a joking and tenderly allusive way: "Vittorio Lumia was a handsome boy and, at the end of school he wrote in my notebook some school memories, which having was then fashionable, the refrain of a beautiful love song that I appreciated very much. Too bad that the events that have occurred have distanced us, otherwise ..... Who knows how it would have turned out!"

Life has chosen differently: "I married a doctor and I had a peaceful life and three beautiful daughters who gave me satisfaction in all fields. Now I am the grandmother of two beautiful grandchildren and a lovely granddaughter without whom I could not have made this adventure and my life will continue serenely as long as the Lord wills".