Annec's activity

Raggio - I'm not Italian and not (yet) in my 90s but I agree with your Mum!!! Sounds like you should record your parents reminiscences in order to remind future generations who will be blinded by the bling of sleb culture and let in some mincing aristo just because he's appeared in the vacuous media controlled by an ex-premier with allegedly strong links to organised crime.......

A response to Berlo's change of mind perhaps?  Now he's not resigning but "not standing" if there are early elections

Did he really have the support of 70% of the electorate?  Or of those who voted?  Either way, there have been many unsavoury characters over time who were able to muster huge support: it didn't make them any more "savoury". And controlling most of a country's media helps any leader enormously. I hope the first action of any new regime is to break up his monopoly - otherwise he'll continue to wield power - without any accountability at all

Thanks Raggio.  To complete the story, the son Duilio and his little brother both emigrated to Argentina after the War and both died "in mysterious circumstances" in the mid 1950s.  Their remaining sister, Rita, is very pleased to have heard from the American, since his Dad seems to have kept up a correspondence with Duilio which he has now shared with her, giving her a bit more information about his last years.

Thanks Gala - that's what I thought.  An American connection has started a corresp0ondence with a lady from ortezzano (now living in Rome) whose family hid his father after he had escaped from PoW camp.  He's done a Googletranslate on teh letters, which isn't bad but there are some confusions, one of which was "mio padre si affacciò controllando la situazione, mentre mio fratello Duilio li aiutò a scappare accompagnandoli presso un fiume nelle vicinanze dell'Indaco per non farli trovare, ma da quel momento non abbiamo avuto più notizie loro" which Google had as "while my brother Duilio helped the men to escape to a nearby river, and then led then to where the indigo could not find them. From then on we had no more news of them." Not bad - but I was pretty sure it was actually referring to the river Indaco (not sure how different a "torrente" is)

I've now printed off most of teh recipes off the old site Gala - will have fun trying them out - many thanks

You've hit the BS problem on the head alanh.  Like the idea of a gravy "dip" though. And yes please Gala - all recipes gratefully received

The above isn't showing up - trying again

I've just finished Brian's book SAS in Tuscany and recommend it to you all.  Although the title makes it sound a bit too much "Who Dares Wins" it is mostly a very human account.   In particular it illustrates well the strange alliances that are part of War.  So the fighting bands are made up of regular British soliders;German deserters; Italian partisans; Russians and Polish escapees from work camps.  And of course those who suffer worst (as always) are the civilian contadini.

This forum covers the whole of Italy whilst others are more specialised and maybe that's why they are more lively. Personally, having been here since the very beginning, I have "feelings" for this site and would be sorry to see its demise.  Not interested in stupid sarky arguments - I can get them at home!!  Still find the site useful for the odd insight and info.  But I've gone through the whole house-buying/restoring bit and am now interested in more general Italy issues - art/politics/history etc and in my region - Marche - in particular.  Maybe this site doesn't cater so much for the likes of me, but I still drop in and contribute when I can