Even before he watched American soldiers drive the Nazis from his Italian village, Rocco Blasi dreamed of living in the United States. "It was something I wanted so badly.

It becomes so much a part of you," remembers Blasi, who made good on his dreams by becoming a member of the U.S. Army, a college professor, a founder and early president of the Arts Council of Mount Prospect, and the author of several books, including his recent first novel, published at age 87, about a turbulent Eighth Century love story.