Guests attending Saturday’s “Grazie Italia” dinner gathered to meet and greet each other while snacking on traditional Italian appetizers. (Sandra Jontz / S&S)
Guests attending Saturday’s “Grazie Italia” dinner gathered to meet and greet each other while snacking on traditional Italian appetizers. (Sandra Jontz / S&S)
Members of the Allied Forces Band Naples perform during the "Grazie Italia" dinner at Carney Park, hosted by Adm. Harry Ulrich, commander of Allied Joint Force Command Naples and U.S. Naval Forces Europe. (Sandra Jontz / S&S)
NAPLES, Italy — Sometimes, the host just needs to be the guest.
If even for an evening, for a few hours under a partially starlit and cool night in the pit of an extinct volcanic crater.
“For 60 years, [Italians] have been our host. It’s time to take a pause to express our gratitude to our host nation,” said Adm. Harry Ulrich, commander of Allied Joint Force Command Naples and U.S. Naval Forces Europe during a brief interview.
He greeted hundreds of guests who arrived for Saturday’s “Grazie Italia” dinner held at Carney Park, the U.S. Navy recreational facility constructed in a crater.
“Tonight, two characteristics define, in my mind, Neapolitans,” Ulrich told his guests during his second “thank you” dinner since taking the helm of NATO’s southern forces in May 2005. “You will find no better guest — and no better host — than a Neapolitan.”
Ulrich spoke all truths — with no exaggeration, laughed guest Lorenzo D’Albora, an architect and president of a Naples Rotary Club.
“This is very important what he is doing,” D’Albora said. “Current politics aside, Italians have always been friends with Americans. We might not agree with the current politics of your president, but Italians and Americans are friends, and it is us who have to thank Americans.”
Guests dined on traditional Italian fare, from salt-cured hams and smoked Provolone cheese, to pasta, fish and meat dishes that have made Italian cuisine scrumptious and famous.
Italians are celebrated for their hospitality, Ulrich said, showering guests with an abundance of food, drink, dance and fun.
Saturday, roles were reversed.
“The point is, those of us in NATO and the U.S. Navy are so very fortunate to live in the home where the people are so good at making a home,” Ulrich, who married a Neapolitan, told his Italian, U.S. and foreign guests.
“For having lived here, we in NATO and the U.S. Navy are the richer, and we have adopted your spirit and your humor. Tonight, we are your hosts, and you our guests.”
