"I landed on a beautiful March morning," De Pieri tells SBS Italian.
"They took me for a walk in Parkville, which impressed me because at that time it was very much populated by students, so the front doors were open, there were bikes and lot of people walking around with beers and t-shirts, and jeans, no shoes.
"There was an air of happy informality which I found extremely appealing. I was breathing this air of freedom."
In the early 70s some young Italians were not considering Italy a very attractive option for their youth and Stefano De Pieri, nowadays a renowned chef in Australia, was among them. Stefano was born in Treviso, near Venice and in his teens he started looking at Australia as a land that may have something more to offer to him, something better, or at least something different.
"At the airport my brother said to me - Now don’t look back, don’t look at me, let’s not get too emotional about that, you’ll be fine -"
He wasn't even 18 years old when he decided to move to Australia. He prepared all the papers, he bought a ticket to Melbourne and his older brother Sergio escorted him by train from Treviso to Rome to catch his flight. He told us that once in Rome Sergio and him bought probably a kilo of "mortadella", a couple of liters of wine and some bread, and they camped in some Roman public garden before going to the airport.
"Soon after the plane took off, the other migrants like me, pulled out copious amount of broad beans, salami, bread, wine, and they had this massive picnic on the plane."
Recently we visited Stefano at his house in North Fitzroy and we asked him to tell us about his first day in Australia. It was a sunny day in March 1974 and he remembers finding the sense of freedom he was looking for since the very first day, making him feel at home even so far away.
Stefano graduated in Politics and Italian Studies at Melbourne University and became actively involved in many community causes from the moment he came to Australia. He edited an Italian fortnightly newspaper called "Nuovo Paese" through which he came into contact with many political and cultural identities. He married Donata Carrazza in 1991 and settled in Mildura with her, where he assisted in the refurbishments of the Grand Hotel providing some leadership in the area of beverage and food preparation. He was impressed with local produce and local wine but was frustrated by the lack of recognition the district was receiving. He began imagining a book that would include his food memories from his native Veneto and the produce of Mildura. The book took the title of "A Gondola on the Murray" and was later turned into a television series. Many years later, Stefano is still working in hospitality in Mildura, offering traditional recipes from Italian cuisine.
Source: Courtesy of Stefano De Pieri
"42 years have just flown in an instant but I don't feel any different. I feel the same enthusiasm and the same sense of excitement about this country as I did then."
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