Stanford 

August 17, 1962: Letter from Sam in Paestum Italy to family

Dear family,

Sitting on the front porch of a clean youth hostel overlooking the other side of the street it borders on, I send you hearty greetings from Paestum, not too far south from Napoli.  The warm Mediterranean is about 4 km down the road, and the archaic temples of Paestum, which we visited this afternoon, are a little closer. all is peace and quiet (that means, in Italy, no close gunfire or explosions), and I feel very good.  But to the latest adventures.

I last wrote you from Crete, I think. Jim and I flew there from Athens on Olympic Airlines (45 minutes), and both agree it’s the only way to get places: fast, dependable, and unbothersome. In two days we hit Knossos, its big, beautiful museum, Phaestus, Agia Triada, and a few unimportant sites; drank dark Cretan wine and ate approximately 12 pounds of fruit each (all kinds of melons, grapes, bananas, peaches, etc.); and read quite a lot at night, to pass the time until the market outside our hotel window closed and gave us a chance to sleep.  I think I mentioned in a letter to Bruce that I have consumed the Renault and two Hamilton books, plus the Iliad and Odyssey again, and Hesiod. Not much, I admit, but we have plenty to keep us busy.

We flew back to Athens Monday evening, and, after a few of the normal complications (tried to look up Doyle, car broke down, etc.), drove as close as we could to St. John the next day, making Volos by midnight. Up early Wednesday morning, we drove into St. John, and established contact with Likko that same day at around 10 in the morning.

Likko was resplendent in blue bathing suit and battered gardener's cap - I wish I had a picture of him for you. He gave us a few snicker snacks, hired a boat, and we were off. He rowed around a few coves of the coast. (I helped him – I think he was pooped, but he wouldn’t admit it.), swam ashore to the property site, and came back a few minutes later with bad news: the property was not for sale. (he had been misinformed when he talked to you).  It is out the window for good, so I won’t bother describing it. We checked around a little more, and discovered no other plot of land with a house on it. We did find, however, a plot of about an acre, bordering on the sea, for about $600. It is flanked by streams of good water, and is presently occupied, on the top part, by an olive orchard, and on the bottom part, by a tomato patch. It has no beach, but the nearest one is only about 20 yards further along (its waterfront is huge boulders). Likko says it could cost about $1000 to put a prefab house suit suitable for our family on the plot.

Now I must get general. St. John is a beautiful area, inhabited by several beachfront hotels filled with “in” Greek tourists, for the most part. It has drawbacks, however. No electricity (unless you bring your own generator) is one. The nearest civilization, Volos (a large port city with), can be reached from St. John by either of two roads, but is still at least a 2 hour drive.  One road. (the coast route) is well paved up to within 17 km of St. John, and then goes to pot. The other goes to pot all the way. Food and simple materials can be bought at St. John, but anything complicated at all must come from Volos. There is no boat service to St. John of any sort (no port).  By the way, the available property I mentioned above can be reached by 45 minutes of rowing along the coast, or 15 minutes of walking along the path. Likko thinks the road will connect to St. John, but not by next summer. He also thinks that, after the last 70 km are fixed up on the Volos -  St. John coast road, St. John may become quite an international tourist place. But, living at the olive grove property, this wouldn’t be noticed. Oh, yes: the plot slopes quite deeply to the sea, so no soccer practice or bowling is feasible at the moment. The surrounding scenery is the best I have seen on mainland Greece: plain trees, vines, citrus fruits, pines, a few tropical babies), lots of freshwater pouring out of springs all over, beautiful sandy beaches, and warm, clear water. If you want more details, send me specifics questions. Likko thinks he can get a piece of land on Thassos, too. Jim and I visited this island, and in my opinion, it would be much the nicer place to live in: nice Greek ruins, a native town full of life in the nervous vicinity, with a big city right on the mainland: two hours by ferry, nice, cool, more secluded beaches, green grass, and good looking mountains, and so on. But I really can’t say much more here, because I don’t really know what you are up to in the first place. In any case, Likko will write you a much more organized letter in the near future, so you may consider mine only as a supplement to it.

But back to the matter of what you are up to. I didn’t think I have been properly advised of your summer plans, and demand a full expedition soon! How are these plans about having the entire family in Greece next summer? What are our winter vacation plans? Spring vacation plans? What do you really want the house in Greece for? etc. etc. Your answers should be addressed to American American Express, Rome, on the double. 

And another problem: my car. If you remember, I had a buyer for it, a student going to Stanford in Italy at the end of the summer. He has since partly backed out, and for good reasons: my car has been in a wreck, and his chances of selling the car for me consequently diminished (the wreck bent lot of things which the Yugoslavian garage merrily bent back in shape – it will never be the same, however.  The paint is a problem too: the scratched parts need repainting, but no garage so far can match the color of the car, so the whole car would need to be repainted: expensive).  I do have a way out, however: if we are in Europe next summer, the old VW would, I guarantee, prove indispensable: it goes anywhere, gets pretty good mileage, and, if you chose St. John’s, it would be the only way to get there. I have asked the boy to use the car free of charge: if we come over next summer, I have guaranteed to take it off his hands; if we don’t, he tries his best to sell it, but pays only $100 if he can’t. If you can write me at Rome instantly about our summer plans, I can reassure him, so please do.  

In any case, I don’t get my money from the sale of the car at the end of this summer, and since I was counting on it, and since I needed to get a plane ride home from New York, and since my birthday is coming up, and since you love your middle son very, very much, I now ask that you send me plane ticket money (to Rome). Also, remember the food bill you didn’t have to pay…

Your middle son, Big Sam

P.S. Tomorrow I see Salvatore!