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Italy rose like a pheonix out of the ashes of the World War II rubble. Many economists looking and the destruction believed that it would take a generation for Europe to recovder, especially ghe heavily damaged countries, including Italy. Jobs were hard to find, but Germany was the first country to report the first signs of recovery. And quickly German industry had trouble finding needed workers. The German Economic Miracle not only impacted the Germans, but laid the foundation for the recovery throughout Western Europe. Large numbers of Italian workers found jobs in Germzn factories and Italians companies found a ready market for their production in Germany. The Treaty of Rome was the key step in Europan integration (1956). It creating the Common Markert. This all laid the foundation for the Italian Economic Miracle. Not only did recovery not take a generation, by the end of the decasde most Italians were far batter off than they had been before the War. And the new prosperity reached souther Italy which had still been virtually feudal. Italy was still poorer than northern Europe, but was rapidly closing the gap by the end of the decade. The rift between northern anhd southrrn Italy also began to close. One indicator of the improving economy was the children. At the beginning of the decade, most children were barefoot even in the ciies. By the end of the decade we see more and more children wearing shoes.
The photo of these unidentifiued children was taken during 1950s. These children lived in a farm in northern Italy, about 100 km east of Milan. This photograph could have been taken decades earlier. Major ecomomic changes were under way in Italy during the 1950s with the post-World War II ecomomic boom and the creation of the Common Markket which led to the European Union. Italy was still very rural in the 1950s, but indusry and economic development was proceeding at the fastest pace in Italian history. Many Italian children still went barefoot in the 1950s, but by the 1960s this was much less common.
This photograph shown here is an urban Italian family (figure 1). Unfortunately, the family is unidentified. We also do not do not know where the family was photographed. The photograpoh is undated, but we would guess that it was taken during the 1950s. Presumably the father took the photograph. The boys wear short pants and knee socks. The girl wears a skirt and knee socks. Note the girl's double hair bows.
This photo was taken in the countryside of Canosa, Apulia region in southern Italy(figure 1). It depicts the Di Giulio family, a peasant family from Canosa. In the background we can see a little dry stone building. These buildings are very common in Apulia. They are used by the peasants to keep their work tools (spades, rakes, etc.) In Alberobello, a town in the region center, there are more big ones used as homes. At the time the Apulia economy was still centered almost only in agriculture. Southern Italy had not yet been significantly touched by industrualization. This had occurred in northern Italy, but not yet in southern Italy. The Italian economic miracle was at first fueled by southern Italians seeking jobs in the northern industrial cities especially, Turin and Milan. In addition, Italians sought even higher paying jobs in German factories. This was made possible by the progress toward European integration. For the most part, Italians did not migrate to Germany to liove there permanent which was often the case in America, but to ear money and return to Italy. As the Italian economy developd this interaction declined. We still see children hoing basrefoot in the early-1950s, but this begabn to decline by the late-50s. The children here were clearly used to walking barefoot.
This family photo was taken in Calabria (southern Italy) during the 1950s. This photograph was probably taken during a family gathering with the grandparents. There look to be eight grandkids visiting grandfather and grandmother.
This is a studio portrait of Pizzati family in 1956. The photo was taken in Samo, a little village in the Calabria region (southern Italy around Naples). The father and the elder son are in the back wearing suits. In the front we can see the mother and the younger son. He is wearing short trousers and a jacket with a dark shirt. He wears close-toe sandals without socks. We do not know a great deal about the family, but they seem to be benefitting by Italy's growing post-World War II economy. Modest-income famiklies like this would not have been so smartly dressed before the War.
This is a unidentified family portrait taken in 1957 in Castelforte, a village near Rome. The photo looks to have been taken during some kind of family gathering. It is clearly summertime. The Catholic priest in the middle of the photo was also a relative. The two boys in the photo are wearing short pants and shirts. They look like they are about 4 and 10 years old. The younger one wears open-toe sandals, while the older is barefoot. The image suggests the boy from a family in comfortable circumstances is going barefoot out of prevernce. Many Italian photographs show poor children going barefoot. A girl wears a dress with a long skirt. Girls in Italy still wore mostly dresses during the 1950s.
Salvatore Ferragamo was a Hollywood legend, surely the most famous shoemaker of all time -- the 'shoemaker to the stars'. Ferragamo’s shoes have been described as not just footwear, but works of art and they graced the feet of Hollywood legends from Marilyn Monroe to Audrey Hepburn. Salvatore was born into a modest family in Bonito (1898). He was eleventh child among fourteen children. Their parents were Antonio and Mariantonia Ferragamo--both had the same family name, but not closely related, not uncommon in small Italian towns. He had an early passion for shoe making. At 9-years of age he created a his first pair of shoes--a set of high heels for himself and matching shoes for his sisters to wear at their First Communions. He decided at an early age that his occupation would be shoe making and he studied the craft. in Naples. At age 14 years he opened a basic shop in his home. He then set on a path that many Italians had followed. He followed one of his brothers and emigrated to Boston (1915). This was during World War I. Emigration from Europe fell off sharply after World War I broke out. Somehow he made it to America. His brother worked in a cowboy boot family. Salvatore joined his brother in the boot family. But Salvatore convinced his brother ton take off for California, first Santa Barbara and then Hollywood. He opened a shoe repair shop and made-to-measure footwear. But he took an important step-- he was sure that shoes could be both beautiful and comfortable to wear. Toward that end, he studied anatomy at the University of Southern California. He lived in America for 13 years a fashioning his craft and becoming a Hollywood legend. Most European immigrants stayed in America. Italian immigrants were a little different than most European immigrants. Quite a number came to America to make a small nestegg and then return to Italy and open a shop of some kind. After 13 years in America, Ferragamo returned to Italy, settling in Florence (1927). Hollywood stars continued to patronize him. Not only Hollywood stars bought his shoes, but also notable women like Maharani of Cooch Behar and Eva Perón. He expanded operations to include bags, eye wear, silk accessories, watches, perfumes and a ready-to-wear clothing line. Here we see his family in Fiesole (1959). He died a year later (1960), but his wife and children followed him into the family business.
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