The Big Step

“Italy's secret space program is underway.”

At the age of six, Dario watched the first moon flight on television. Since then, his dream has been to fly to the moon. For the past three decades, the ingenious but difficult by nature Dario has been building a moon rocket on his farm in the Veneto countryside. Rocket technology represents applied rocket science. Its systems are implemented on a do-it-yourself basis, and the components are obtained from the local hardware store. The initial launch of the rocket fails. The neighbor's cornfield burns down and Dario is arrested. When his Roman brother Mario hears about the difficulties that have arisen, he goes to his aid and Italy's secret space program finally gets going.