Italian visitors find ethnic diversity is a ‘most beautiful thing.’

Kimberly Brown and Claudia Scopel are sisters now.

Sisters from sister cities: Inglewood and Pedavena, a small town in the mountainous Belluno province of northeastern Italy, not far from Venice.

Kimberly, 16, and Claudia, 18, are among a group of students from the two cities whose summer has been an exercise in international relations. The driving force behind the sister-city program, in its third year, has been Inglewood City Councilman Anthony Scardenzan, who emigrated from Pedavena in the 1950s.

Kimberly and three other Inglewood students spent July in Italy; after spending August in California, Claudia and five other Italians went home last week.

At a get-together last month at Scardenzan’s home, the two groups celebrated the cultural treasures they have discovered.

Cappuccino: Kimberly didn’t drink coffee, let alone cappuccino, before her trip. Now she hunts for places that serve the Italian coffee. Her mother has promised to buy her a cappuccino machine.

Malls: In Pedavena, teen-agers hang out in the piazza, the town square, Claudia said. Kimberly and her fellow hosts introduced the Italians to the Southern California equivalent of the piazza: conglomerations of parking lots, stores, movie theaters, restaurants and Muzak, with names like Del Amo and Fox Hills. Francesco Padovani, head librarian for Pedavena and chaperon for the Italians, said that for Americans, “shopping is like a drug.”

Ethnic diversity: The Inglewood students who went to Italy reflected the city’s diverse population of blacks, Latinos and Asians. They were greeted with open arms and questions about the United States in small towns and cities alike.

Italian student Vanda di Boni had this to say about her stay in Inglewood: “Probably the most interesting thing about this country, the most beautiful thing, is the open mentality and the diversity of ethnic groups.”

Icons and monuments: The Americans sigh about Florence, Venice, Rome and an elaborately restored 15th-Century country home owned by the family that hosted Inglewood High School student Rebecca Castellanos, who had expected Italy to be “kind of backward.” The Italians marvel at the mythic territory of Hollywood, Beverly Hills, San Francisco.

As American chaperon and Morningside High School teacher Richard Curci points out, teen-agers in both countries are united by a host of electronically transmitted ambassadors: Michael Jackson, Madonna, Sting, the Lakers.

Friendship: Kimberly and Claudia are close in age, both quiet and thoughtful. As a result of their time together, Curci says, Kimberly speaks the best Italian of the Americans. Kimberly, who wants to attend college in Italy, says she and Claudia talked about “teen-age things: clothes, music, boyfriends.”

But their interests go beyond the superficial. When she is asked what impression she wanted the Italians to take home with them, Kimberly said she is glad they enjoyed the opulence of Beverly Hills and the diversity of Inglewood. But as Claudia nods agreement, Kimberly adds: “I’m glad they saw Skid Row (in downtown Los Angeles). I wanted them to see the whole picture.”