At 96, Giuseppe Paterno has faced many tests in life - childhood poverty, war and, more recently, the coronavirus pandemic. Now he has sailed through an exam that makes him Italy's oldest university graduate.
This week, the former railway worker stepped forward to receive his diploma and the traditional laurel wreath awarded to Italian students when they graduate, applauded by his family, teachers and fellow students more than 70 years his junior.
Left: Paterno is helped by his son Ninni Paterno, 72, to get up from his bed. Right: Philosophy books belonging to Paterno stand on a shelf at his home.
Already in his 90s when he enrolled for a degree in History and Philosophy at the University of Palermo, Paterno grew up loving books, but he never had the chance to study.
"I said, 'that's it, now or never,' and so in 2017, I decided to enrol," he told Reuters in his apartment in the Sicilian city of Palermo, which he rarely leaves nowadays due to his frailty.
Left: Paterno uses his typewriter. Right: Paterno goes over his study notes at his desk, a day before he graduates.
As a student, he tapped out his essays on the manual typewriter his mother gave him when he retired from the railways in 1984. He eschewed Google in favour of printed books and was not tempted by the late-night student parties of his 20-year-old classmates, who applauded him warmly at the graduation ceremony.
"You are an example for younger students," his Sociology professor, Francesca Rizzuto, told him after he passed his final oral examination in June.
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As for what he planned to do next, he said he was not about to stop now he had graduated.
"My project for the future is to devote myself to writing; I want to revisit all the texts I didn't have a chance to explore further. This is my goal."
PHOTO EDITING MARIKA KOCHIASHVILI; Additional reporting Emily Roe and Wladimiro Pantaleone; WRITING JAMES MACKENZIE