Nonno Virgilio leaves Isola d'Istria
In the middle of February 1956, my nonno Virgilio left his home town of Isola in the province of Istria, which became the former Yugoslavia after the Second World War. (It was Italy before then.) Because he was an Italian, he became part of the Istriano exodus that followed the Second World War because his homeland changed hands from Italy to Communist Yugoslavia. He ended up in Sistiana, Italy where he stayed with other refugees who had escaped Yugoslavia, including his friends Franca and Mario Lorenzutti. Virgilio is lying on his stomache in the center of the photo; Mario is right behind him. This picture was taken while they were both refugees in Sistiana.