Saturday, February 28, 2026

Happy 86th Birthday to Mario!

 February 28, 1940, auto racing legend Mario Andretti was born 

the Andretti family were displaced from Italian-controlled Istria during the Istrian–Dalmatian exodus and eventually emigrated to Nazareth, Pennsylvania in 1955.

an Istrian-Italian family in Montona, Istria, Kingdom of Italy (present-day Motovun, Croatia)


Andretti's family owned a 2,100-acre farm in Montona, but after World War II, the Treaty of Paris (1947) transferred the territory to communist-controlled Yugoslavia. 

As a result, the Andretti family joined the Istrian–Dalmatian exodus in 1948. The family lost all their land and was permitted to take only one truckload of possessions. They spent seven years in a refugee camp in Lucca, living in an abandoned college dormitory without running water

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