Nearly three dozen young men and women from Italy have signed up to work at Ocean City, Md., businesses for the summer, and the first 14 to arrive were welcomed recently by the Ocean City Sons & Daughters of Italy, with typical American summer fare, held at the Knights of Columbus Hall and catered by Mio Fratello restaurant.
The menu of pulled pork and chicken, corn-on-the-cob, mac-and-cheese, cornbread, coleslaw and potato salad was generally unfamiliar to the young adults from a country known around the globe for having some of the finest cuisine in the world. But they dug right in, organizers noted, despite one young woman looking quizzically at the coleslaw and asking, “What’s this?” and saying, “I guess I’ll try it.”
The university students come from all regions of Italy — Milan, Florence, Rome, Genoa, Sicily and Sardinia — and many smaller towns throughout. They have found jobs at Dead Freddies, Telescope Pictures, Da Lazy Lizard, Rita’s, the Fountainhead (formerly the Carousel), Dough Roller, Jolly Roger and Hyatt Place.
The Sons & Daughters of Italy is now accepting new members. Visit the website at sonsofitalyoceancity.com for more information and a membership application.
