Alessandra Da Pra is an editorial assistant at the Tampa bureau. She was born and raised in a small town in northern Italy, but left behind her theatrical family and picturesque country to move to Tampa at age 17. She graduated from the University of South Florida with a bachelor's degree in mass communications/journalism in 2007. Why does she want to be a reporter? As a child, she strongly believed Italian news anchor Bruno Vespa to be her biological father. At dinner time, she would point persistently at the TV screen and shout: "Daddy, daddy!" Having her mother hopelessly repeating that Vespa was not her father and that her real dad was either working or on a business trip made her only more obstinate. "I know; he is on TV," she would say.

Phone: (813) 226-3434

E-mail: adapra@sptimes.com