I woke up in a different bed today, which was fun. I ate breakfast with Romano and his family over more discussions about the Italian inheritance system.After getting dressed I went outside to play football games with Giacomo and Valentina, two of Romano's children. When it was time to head back to Stradella, Valentina and I got in the car with Romano.
The journey back to Stradella took just under two hours, but halfway through, Jan, Romano's wife, rang to say he had forgotten the bits of accordions he needed to take to Claudio. It was too late to go back, though.
When we arrived in Stradella, at about 12, we went out for lunch with Claudio and Stefano at a restaurant within the town's hotel. We had a starter of veal with tuna sauce; 'primi piatti' of saffron & sausage risotto and pasta alls Putanesca; 'second piatti' of 'polpette con pomodoro' (deep fried meatball-esque things with a tomato sauce. My dessert was pannacotta with a forest fruit syrup. All the food was excellent.
After lunch Claudio and Stefano drove back to the shop, while Romano, Valentina and I went to the gelateria - the third of the three in Stradella. I've now sampled them all! As we ate our gelato we went on a walk around the town and Romano showed us where all the old accordion factories were - Stradella used to be one of three main accordion-making hubs in Italy; sadly only a small few companies remain, but most of the old factories are still standing. Romano is so knowledgeable on the history of the Italian accordion industry! It's all so interesting - I've got a lot to learn and a lot of reading to do!
Back at the shop I played the button accordion Romano had brought over from England for me, and we had more discussions about the accordion, with Romano acting as translator between the Italians and I. The shop closed early as Claudio had a doctor's appointment, so Romano dropped me and my stuff back at my flat. I came home to find Ivana had washed my clothes and folded them all individually and placed them in piles on my bed! I did over an hour of accordion practice as I now have an accordion on which to practise. Funny, given I am working in an accordion shop!
Dinner was ravioli and tomato sauce.
And now, I shall get an early night.
Arriverderci x
p.s sorry for the late posting again - having serious wifi problems at the moment x
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