Felidia’s lunch crowd began to thin out, as we remained on the second floor and Lidia Bastianich described her plight to America.  She was born in what was then called Pola under Italy and currently Pula in Croatia.  Lidia began to explain her native land and the various forms of governments that have ruled a much disputed territory.  

The popular Italian chef whom I found to be well-spoken and knowledgeable about a wide range of topics explained her birth place.  “It is a city on the peninsula of Istria. Italy has twenty regions Friuli-Venezia Giulia is in the Northeastern region, Trieste is the capital and the Istrian part of Dalmatia was Italian until WWII when Italy lost the war and the Paris Treaty drew the border where Istria was given to the newly formed communist Yugoslavia.”