Italy

In 1918, Ernest Hemingway began service as an ambulance driver for the Italian army. On July 8, he was wounded at Fossalta on the Italian Piave while delivering chocolates, cigarettes, and postcards to soldiers. Hemingway was relieved of his American Red Cross duties due to his injuries and left Italy in 1919. Hemingway briefly returned to Italy in 1927 and took a car tour with his good friend Guy Hickok. Hemingway did not return to Italy again until September 1948.

During his time in Italy in 1948, Hemingway went back to Fossalta, the site of his wounding in World War I. He also met a young and very beautiful Italian girl named Adriana Ivancich (oddly enough, her life also ended in suicide in 1983). Hemingway quickly became infatuated with Adriana and would use her as the model for Renata in his 1950 book, Across the River and Into the Trees.

Adriana's drawings adorned the first edition covers of Across the River and Into the Trees and The Old Man and the Sea. However, these drawings became the subject of controversy when Julien Dedman, an advertising and promotion director for Charles Scribner's Sons, stated that Adriana's drawings were "so bad that we had to have them skillfully re-drawn."

While in Italy, Hemingway frequented both Harry's Bar and the Gritti Palace.