Hans Bethe - Visiting Rome and meeting Enrico Fermi (28/158)

In Rome, the physics was very inspiring. Fermi was very young. He was about five years older than I. He had made a name for himself and was a full professor and was in addition a member of a new academy in Italy which gave him the title of Excellency. It was, of course, in the midst of the fascist times. Fermi's lab was really only an appendix to that lab. The main professor was Corbino, who was a very good experimental physicist and a very sensible person. He let Fermi do whatever he liked in one wing of the laboratory. But the whole lab was on a hill right next to the Department of the Interior. From time to time there was a meeting of important people in the Department of the Interior. When that happened, the access to the entire region was blocked to any civilians. Fermi didn't like that. So when he came to the guard post, he said, I have to get in. I am the driver to Excellency Fermi. His Excellency would be very annoyed if I didn't come. So on that basis he was let in. He looked like a driver, and the guard never found out that he was himself his Excellency.