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on deck from the book, drapery, stationery, jeweUery, fiiiit and fancy good stalls. As
the ship continued its passage, it made stops at Colombo and Aden, sailed through the
Suez Canal, passed Mt Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples, Capri, Sorrento, Corsica and
Elba, finaUy docking at Genoa on 8 April. Like their parents, the girls had discovered
the existence of a big and exciting world beyond their small-town experience.
When no one arrived at Genoa to meet the girls they were befriended by three
ItaUan passengers who had accompanied them on the voyage. Olimpia and Giuseppina
were not able to communicate easily in ItaUan, being more familiar with the dialect
their parents would have spoken in the home. During the voyage they had experienced
difficulty with the ship's notices (written in Italian, French and German) and suffered
the same finstration and embarrassment as had the Italian-speaking emigrants years
before. Like them, however, they delighted in their first walk about a foreign city,
finding Genoa's narrow streets, electric trams, cabs, omnibuses and drays drawn by
mule all exciting and new. Arriving at Locamo they were met and taken to Cevio
where their joumey ended. Here OUmpia was expected to help on her grandmother's
farm and Giuseppina to attend the local school. (Like their parents years before in
Australia, they were immersed in a foreign culture.) Giuseppina's school years from
1905 to 1909 were happy ones,'*^ despite the fierce winter snows which prevented her
reaching school on time. In the classroom students were encouraged to learn three
languages ~ ItaUan, French and German ~ which challenged Giuseppina's experience
of an Anglo-Celtic centred world. A copy of her report card, which was carried back
to Australia as a treasured reminder of this period, listed other subjects as religione,
civica e morale, calligrafia, disegno, aritmetica, contabilita, geografia, storia,
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