I met Arianna, without her borsalino, on a Greek island beach. Now in her 70’s she told me so many fascinating stories that I wanted to share some of these with my fellow AOC’s! Arianna, an only child of parents’ in their 40’s, was brought up in a tiny village in old Czechoslovakia in the late 1930’s. She remembers an idyllic childhood. Once, on her birthday, she wanted a live bear and her father arranged for her to have one through the local zoo – although it never happened because war broke out. Her father was from a gypsy family and a highly gifted musician whilst her mother was an aristocrat and her family were not happy about the marriage. Arianna was brought up by constantly changing nannies and her education was primarily music and poetry from her father. She played the piano from the age of three and by [...]
