Ho visto una nave navigare

Beni Montresor in the late Fifties
Ho visto una nave navigare is one of the very first books I have ever touched. 

It was published in Italy by Emme Edizioni (that published many wonderful books) in 1967, same year as the American edition (Knopf), titled I Saw a Ship A-Sailing. It's Beni Montresor's interpretation of some classic nursery rhymes. In the Italian edition, there are English words and sentences here and there, which were part of the illustrations, like "Not on me! Not on me!" or "Very new shoe". As a kid I didn't understand what those English words meant, but they stayed with me forever, as did these dreamy drawings.