Cyclist's trip honors grandfather's war journey News - Abbeyfeale Golf Club Abbeyfeale Cyclist’ s trip honors grandfather’ s war journey News Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Telegram LANCASTER — With apologies to Glen Campbell’s popular ballad, by the time Andrea Franzoni gets to Phoenix, he won’t be sleeping. But he will absolutely need to rehydrate and get some rest at the end of his 1,400-mile journey across the western United States. “I am doing this to honor my grandfather, who was a very good man,” Franzoni said, during a brief stop at the Route 66 Classic Diner in Santa Clarita. Franzoni, a 32-year-old teacher who hails from near Lake Garda, Italy, has been cycling about 40 miles a day with some rest stops, on a 1,400-mile ride from Seattle to Phoenix. It’s a two-month adventure that will end at the site of the camp where his grandfather was introduced to America during World War II. If Homer was Greek, Franzoni is working out a modern-day Italian version of the Odyssey. The trip, which took him from Tehachapi through the Antelope Valley, recently, is to retrace the journey of his grandfather, Aldo Arrighi, as a POW captured by the Allies in North Africa, in 1943. “It is a trip we always joked with each other about, that someday we would do it together, but we couldn’t,” Franzoni said while passing through Santa Clarita on his way to Palm Springs. “He was, alas, too old.” The Route 66 Classic Diner on Soledad Canyon Road, with its road trip theme and a classic Corvette, was a good venue to meet the cyclist. Sue Miller of Santa Clarita and Leslie Lenore Underwood of Lancaster are tracking the journey online and encouraging support and recruiting hosts for the adventure. Franzoni has rarely stayed in hotels. He has camped out. He has also been a household guest along the way. The journey can be followed on the Facebook and Instagram sites, “Train Long Gone — Tribute to Aldo Arrighi.” Franzoni was delighted that one of his recent hosts showed him the Tehachapi Loop, that grand spiraling railroad passage that carries freight from the high desert country of Southern California into the Central Valley, or the other direction toward San Bernardino and beyond. The railroads of the West were part of the journey that began for his grandfather when masses of the Italian army surrendered to the Allies in North Africa in 1943. The Italian fascist regime of the dictator Benito Mussolini was tied to the fortunes of Nazi Germany. When the Americans and British beat them, more than 50,000 surrendered Italians were shipped as POWs to the United States, along with a couple hundred thousand Germans. “My grandfather had no use for Mussolini,” Franzoni said. “He called him, ‘idiota,’ the idiot.” Aldo Arrighi was captured by the British. His POW transport ship landed in Newport News, Va. The troop train carried him to Arizona and a POW camp dubbed Camp Florence. The fortunes of war shifted more than 45,000 of the captured Italians onto the Allied cause. Arrighi was among the 90% of Italian POWs who ended up working in war support in America. From Camp Florence he was back on the train, this time to the cooler, damper climes of Seattle, at Ft. Lawton. “He was part of the ISU,” Franzoni said. “The Italian Service Units.” The service units were Italians actually merged into military support service in America, working in agriculture and hospitals, docks and industry. They wore Italian uniforms, with ISU badges. They also had an unusual degree of freedom. Arrighi even dated a daughter of Seattle, Eileen Larcher. For Franzoni, his journey that began in August was a way to explore America, the good and not so good. He lamented the sight of homeless encampments on his route. He also worries about Europe, authoritarianism and a new war in Europe that is devastating Ukraine. “I am a social worker,” he said. And he teaches special needs children. Noting the devastation of Ukraine, Franzoni said, “War is never ‘surgical.’ We had our own destruction of Monte Cassino,” the historic mountaintop monastery destroyed during World War II. Photographs of his grandfather during the war show that grandfather and grandson share a resemblance. “He would have been 100 this year,” Franzoni said. “This is my way to remember his legacy – to keep his story alive.” . Related Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Telegram Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Advertisement Recent Posts 8 seconds ago Cyclist’ s trip honors grandfather’ s war journey News 51 seconds ago SAS Championship partners with HBCUs for inaugural invitational 2 mins ago Pau Horse Trials entries 2022 include 31 British riders among 51 horses 3 mins ago MSHSL Adds Female Division For State Clay Target Rejects Expanded Baseball and Softball Schedule 5 mins ago LIV Golf Invitational Series Dustin Johnson crowned individual champion earns $18m prize Golf News Back to top button Abbeyfeale Golf Club