This choice he made for three reasons. Firstly, it was because engineering at Padua was a faculty of international renown. Secondly, Padua was about twenty miles from Venice, a city he adored as he was also passionate about art. Finally, he spoke Italian well. Ethiopia, which was once also called Abyssinia, was an Italian colony and Bobo learnt Italian from his grandfather who’d lived through the colonial period, having no bad memories of it. Aware of the capacity children have for language learning, the grandfather would very often speak Italian to him.
‘I want you to have a “connection” to Europe, particularly to Italy,’ he said. He’d often tell Bobo of everything he’d learnt from the Italian officers based at Addis Ababa for whom he’d acted as interpreter when he served.
‘Italy
