Amos Pampaloni, still alive at 90 despite poor health, was the only artillery Captain of the Italian occupation forces on Cephalonia. (Louis De Bernieres, author of the book Corelli’s Mandolin, denies that Pampaloni is the real Antonio Corelli. On the other hand, many of Pampaloni’s facts fit Corelli - not surprising since he was the subject of The White Flag, a book by Marcello Venturi to which De Bernieres  acknowledges he is "very indebted.")

Although the Italians were uninvited foreign troops occupying Greek land, they appear to have at least respected the local Cephalonians and their way of life. Inevitably, some of the Italian men developed relationships with Cephalonian women.

One of those women, Elly Fokas, fell in love with an accordion-playing Italian. (Many people believe she is the real Pelagia.)  Amos Pampaloni also loved a Greek girl but did not have an affair with her. Her identity has never been revealed. A school teacher, she left the island for Athens.

The fictional Captain Corelli plays a mandolin (something Amos Pampaloni never did but the book’s author does).