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Yes a interesting Piedmontese Italian family the Beretta's. The first to arrive at Pilgrims Rest, was Giovanni Beretta (born 1877 in Brusnengo, Piedmont Region, Italy, and died in 1962 in South Africa) He laid the basis for the Piedmontese community at Pilgrims Rest. After a long journey from Italy, Giovanni Beretta, and arriving in Lourenco Marques (now Maputo, Mozambique) by ship, he then travelled from Delagoa Bay by train to Machadadorp, and from there by oxwagon to Pilgrims Rest. After having worked in the mines there,he became chief of native labourers officer, and during his employment he undertook three times the hazardous 400 kilometer journey to Lourenco Marques, on foot, in order to recruit workers for the mines. Later he was joined by his brothers, Pietro,Giuseppe, Gentile and Albino. He left his job on their arrival, and bought a general store, a very remunerative activity in those primitive regions at the time, where Gold was discovered in 1873. He managed the store with the help of his wife Marietta, and soon was instrumental in facilitating the arrival of the De Martinis family from Rongio-Masserano, near Brusnengo, Italy. Thereafter he bought a farm in the Lowveld, where he spent most of his life. In the same region, in May 1987, a stone bridge was inaugerated, which had been built to expedite the passage Lydenburg over the Blyde River, near Pilgrims Rest. The main contractor was G,B. Giletti, the first Italian contractor from Carino, Piedmont Region to build roads,bridges and railway lines in the area between the mining town and Sabie. Giletti had arrived in South Africa in the 1870's . The bridge which he built was damaged by flood water in 1910, and was repaired by Albino and Gentile Beretta. It was declared a national monument in 1968.A very good reference regarding the families and activities of the Beretta family and others can be found in an article written by Ian Robinson, entilted Pioneers from Piedmont in the valley of Gold, which appeared in the S.A.Digest of 1-5-1981, pages14-17, and as well in the monthly Lantern of Pretoria in December of the same year, pages 2-8. Two of the sons of the Beretta's later became Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Pilgrims Rest in the 1950's.