Dear Mom,

Well here I am in Italy and I still am on the go. The next time we stop will be our permanent base and I'll send a new APO number to you. We've seen quite a few historic spots on the way including a famous mountain. This money we have now in Italy is called Lire and is Allied military currency - one Lire equals one cent in American money. The Franc equalled two cents but we don't use it any more. Now for this camp. We are staying in large tents - officer quarters - mud floors with a large center pole. We eat all our meals out of mess kits and have a community crapper. Well that all isn't so bad but right after we got here it rained and is there the mud here. The tent leaked and water came in under the walls so we had to build dams all over the place. Some fun but surprisingly enough I'm not complaining. I think it's kinda fun. Oh the water we saw today was just as blue as the say it is in books.

There are some New Zealand boys here at this place and they are quite nice. They had a band that played tonight, twelve big pipes and seven drums - one big base drum - two tenor drums and four other ones. It really isn't bad music. The pipes cover one one octave so they are limited. Well every one else is in bed so I will blow out the candle and retire for the night. The rest of the crew - the enlisted men had to sleep in "Little Mac" tonight, and since I'm used to these canvas cots this isn't bad at all.

Love,
Rae