The book is the product of a 6 ½ month sabbatical in Italy at the University of Pisa.  During my tenure at Butler University as Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, I became increasingly passionate with the idea of a sabbatical in Italy.  I deeply desired to pay tribute to my Italian immigrant parents and believed that a sabbatical at a renowned Italian University would be very fitting, for as a youngster in Bolivar, Pennsylvania, the merits of education were always highly valued. The Youngest Son, Memoirs from the Motherland is an account of my Italian adventure shared with my wife, Marti.  The completed sabbatical marked the fulfillment of a dream.  As a reader of the memoir you can share my joys, anxieties, travels, new friends, humor and frustrations with Italian bureaucracy with me.