We stopped first at Palleggio, a delightful village complete with the usual vineyards, olive groves and built on a steep hill (which makes sense of the fact that the only animals you see in these parts are goats). We parked at the bottom and found a path to lead us up to the centre. Graham was about 5 metres in front – I’d stopped to take a photo or two and on my way up a set of steps I bumped into two old ladies who addressed me in French (they thought I was French, I was so glad they did as I could understand them) After exchanging pleasantries they said we must come and meet ‘so ‘n’ so’ (didn’t catch the name) as we were English. We weren’t quite sure why we needed to talk to this chap, but trying to be polite we thought we should at least say ‘hello’. What happened next was slightly bizarre…
It turned out ‘The chap’ (we never did catch his name) had lived and worked in Chicago for 29 years, married a Filipino (having met her in a very strange set of circumstances) and he had returned when his mother was ill (she no longer with us) and his wife had stayed in America. So now he was an Italian who spoke English/American with Italian intonation (which made him quite difficult to understand) and had a wife who visited him every year…It seemed the natural thing to do to show us around his Italian home (one of my greatest ambitions). All Italian homes are dark and cool inside.(it makes sense) The large double glazed front door led directly into the living room which was dominated by a huge flat screen television in the centre of a floor to ceiling sideboard, this led through to a large kitchen with an anti-room with a small sink to the side. Back through the living room there were other rooms, bedrooms, ensuites (for when his brother from Canada came to visit) and we were even shown his mother’s bedroom, with a large mother of pearl inlaid bedstead, (luckily no sign of the body) and his room with very modest 1970s fittings. It turned out he’d been a machinist who had a keen interest in cameras (he had several Leicas). All in all it turned out to be a very memorable occasion – and all because he so missed conversing in English…
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