Paris Alston: You're listening to GBH's Morning Edition. Sylvia Poggioli is one of the most recognizable voices in public radio. But after reporting from Italy for more than 40 years, the NPR correspondent, who grew up in Cambridge, retired earlier this year. This week, she returned to the mic in Boston to talk to my co-host, Jeremy Siegel, about her career and memories from reporting abroad.

Jeremy Siegel: So a lot of people know you as one of the most famous voices of NPR.

Sylvia Poggioli [previously recorded]: Sylvia Poggioli , NPR News, Rome.

Siegel: Your voice is so connected to NPR.

[previously recorded]: That's NPR's Sylvia Poggioli , speaking to us from the island of Giglio.

Siegel: To Europe, to Rome, to Italy.

Poggioli [previously recorded]: Sylvia Poggioli, NPR News, Venice, Athens, Rome.

Siegel: That is decades of coverage for NPR. With, I imagine, so many stories, you've covered so many huge events, but is there anything, big or small, that will always stick with you? The experience of being the reporter covering this?

Poggioli: I think one of my most emotional memories is when I did a story on the restoration of the Sistine Chapel, the Michelangelo frescoes, and there had been a lot of debate. Art historians were worried that the restorers were taking away the original colors of Michelangelo's frescoes. And so the Vatican allowed some reporters to go up and talk to the restorers, and they had set up a rickety elevator system. We went up, and I did an interview with a restorer. But it wasn't just that. To prove that, you know, they weren't taking away. They said, You can touch them. And I remember touching the fresco.

Siegel: You touched the Sistine Chapel fresco. Oh, my God.

Poggioli: Yeah. And it was like he had finished the rest of the cleaning. It was really a cleaning, more than a restoring of one of the central panels, the Garden of Eden. And then next to it, the one that was still dirty, not clean, was the, you know, the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. So I was allowed to touch those two. And that was pretty --- that's a memory I really treasure.

Siegel: What is it that drew you to Rome?

Poggioli: Oh, I wanted to study certain theatrical traditions in Italy. As it turned out, it was '68, and there was a lot of political turmoil in the universities. In fact, all universities in Italy and also in France were really shut down for all of '68, even into '69. So I didn't get to do much studying, but I went to a lot of political demonstrations, I have to say.

Siegel: And so you were studying theater, you said.

Poggioli: Yeah, I was.

Siegel: So how did how did you end up becoming a journalist?

Poggioli: Oh, that was a fluke. I had some friends who were working at the English-language desk at the Italian news agency, and they didn't like doing the night shift. So they wanted substitutes. So I started substituting during the night shift.

Siegel: That's so wild. So that's.

Poggioli: That's basically how I got into it.

Siegel: Somebody who didn't want to do their job and asked you to sub is the reason that people got 40 years of your voice on NPR. Do people recognize you straight up from your voice?

Poggioli: In Italy, nobody knows who I am.

Siegel: Really?

Poggioli: Because NPR is not listened to there.

Siegel: That's so funny. So is there an odd anonymity that comes with, that came with the job of being NPR's corrospondant?

Poggioli: Well, thank God. No, somebody recently --- this summer, I was at a beach and an American woman recognized my voice and she said, she was, you know, she was a long-time listener of NPR, but that was extremely unusual.

Siegel: So in your retirement, you are working on a biography of your father?

Poggioli: Well, probably I'm going to work on a memoir, and a lot of it will be about my father, but it's not going to be specifically a biography.

Siegel: Who was your father? And your mother? And why is it a story that you want to tell?

Poggioli: Well, my father was a literary critic and scholar of Russian and comparative literature. And well, they were anti-fascist and they were at that point living in Poland, in Eastern Europe in the '30s. And they were tipped off that they had been reported to the fascist police. And I actually have also found the fascist secret police files on my father. So I've learned an awful lot that confirmed of many of the things that they had told me. And then in the States because it was the McCarthy period and he was a professor of Russian literature, he became suspect to the FBI. And so I have FBI files on my father. And it's just fascinating.

Siegel: Yeah, what's it like reading an FBI report on a parent?

Poggioli: Unfortunately, it's very heavily redacted. It's weird.

Siegel: Going back to that time, so much was going on in politics across the world, in Italy, here in the U.S. Not that all the things are the same right now. But there has been a marked change in politics over the past decade, even longer. How are you looking at politics, both with the decades of your coverage in Italy, but also with this recent familiarity with your parents and that time?

Poggioli: Well, it's quite scary because exactly what you're saying. I'm reading these letters and I read what they're saying. And so much of it echoes the concerns that we're beginning to have here in the U.S. and in Europe today. In Europe, it's a reawakening. Right now, Italy has the most right-wing government it's had since the fall of fascism. There's this sort of attempt to rewrite history in Italy by the right. They're trying to sort of attenuate the fascist past. It's a very scary process. And then at the other hand, as I said, the concerns my parents were having about, you know, the disinformation already then, the sense that if you're not with us on the fascist side, you're an enemy of the state. All these echo with what we're hearing from certain sectors of society here. I mean, I do think there is a very, very worrisome resurgence of this authoritarian right-wing mentality that's pervasive.

Siegel: What gives you hope right now?

Poggioli: It's a very tough one because also, you know, we've been talking to several people the last few days also about the concerns about, you know, artificial intelligence and disinformation. And it's a very scary prospect, what the world of journalism is facing, I think, today.

Siegel: Well, as we are ending our conversation on a scary and dark point, maybe you can help me bring listeners something that I know will bring smiles to a lot of faces that they have not heard in a long time. You're so famous for your sign out on NPR. Would you be willing to do it on mic for us here at GBH?

Poggioli: Of course. This is Sylvia Poggioli in Boston.

In 40 years of reporting for NPR from Italy, Sylvia Poggioli gathered thousands of stories. But one of the most memorable is the time she got to touch the Sistine Chapel.

“I did a story on the restoration of the Sistine Chapel, the Michelangelo frescoes,” she told GBH’s Morning Edition co-host Jeremy Siegel. “And there had been a lot of debate. Art historians were worried that the restorers were taking away the original colors of Michelangelo's frescoes.”

The Vatican invited some reporters, including Poggioli, to speak with the people doing the cleaning and restoration.

“They had set up a rickety elevator system,” she said. “He had finished the rest of the cleaning — it was really a cleaning, more than a restoring — of one of the central panels, the Garden of Eden. And then next to it, one that was still dirty … was the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. So I was allowed to touch those two.”

Poggioli is one of the most recognizable voices in public radio. But after reporting from Italy for more than 40 years, the NPR correspondent, who grew up in Cambridge, retired earlier this year. She returned to the mic in Boston recently to talk about her memories, career trajectory and retirement plans.

Poggioli grew up in Cambridge and came to Italy to study theater in 1968.

“As it turned out, it was '68, and there was a lot of political turmoil in the universities,” she said. “In fact, all universities in Italy and also in France were really shut down for all of '68, even into '69. So I didn't get to do much studying, but I went to a lot of political demonstrations, I have to say.”

Her turn from theater to journalism was “a fluke,” she said: Some friends working a night shift on an English-language news agency wanted substitutes and recruited her.

Over her years of work, she’s become a recognizable voice for public radio listeners in the United States. Not so in Italy, she said.

“In Italy, nobody knows who I am,” she said. “This summer, I was at a beach and an American woman recognized my voice and she said she was a longtime listener of NPR — but that was extremely unusual.”

In retirement, she said, she’s working on a memoir. It will include stories of her father, Renato Poggioli, a critic and scholar of Russian literature; and mother, Renata Nordio. They met as students, and fled fascist-controlled Italy for Poland, then the U.S.

“I actually have also found the fascist secret police files on my father, so I've learned an awful lot that confirmed of many of the things that they had told me,” Poggioli said. “And then in the States, because it was the McCarthy period and he was a professor of Russian literature, he became suspect to the FBI. And so I have FBI files on my father. And it's just fascinating.”

Those FBI files, she said, are unfortunately “very heavily redacted. It's weird.”

But reading her parents’ letters gives her some insight into current political climates, she said.

“So much of it echoes the concerns that we're beginning to have here in the U.S. and in Europe today,” Poggioli said. “Right now, Italy has the most right-wing government it's had since the fall of fascism. There's this sort of attempt to rewrite history in Italy by the right. They're trying to sort of attenuate the fascist past. It's a very scary process.”

Her parents’ concerns from decades ago still ring true to her, she said.

“The concerns my parents were having about the disinformation already then, the sense that if you're not with us on the fascist side, you're an enemy of the state — all these echo with what we're hearing from certain sectors of society here,” she said. “I mean, I do think there is a very, very worrisome resurgence of this authoritarian right-wing mentality that's pervasive.”