After a brief lie-in a touch of accordion practice Mum and Dad arrived at the flat. We drove to Stradella's accordion museum and, after struggling to find the entrance, introduced ourselves to the curator as "Friends of Claudio Beltrami." He said he only spoke Italian, which meant I had to work and concentrate extremely hard to understand what he was saying and translate it back to my parents. Thankfully, he spook quite slowly, though! I'm sure I translated some of it wrong and miss out crucial information, but I was quite proud of how much I was able to do. I was sweating like mad come the end of the tour! The museum itself is small (two rooms) but full of interesting things from the accordion manufacturing industry and several unusual, and more normal, accordions.
We walked into town afterwards and went to the same cafe as yesterday, where we had salads and toasties for lunch.
Our next move saw us drive home and get into Erica's care for a trip to Broni to show my parents round. After seeing the sports centre and town centre we got ice cream and ate it in a little park. Then we drove up to a small chapel on the hill to see the fantastic view over the Province of Pavia.
We returned home so Erica could do some work. My parents and I walked to the workshop to say "hi" and so Dad could take photos.
At 5:30 I went next door to set about teaching Erica to make fish pie - a long and messy process! By the end we had 6 people in the kitchen all doing different things, not all for the fish pie though!
When it came to dinner we started with antipasti - coppa (cured pork neck), bresaola (cured, lean beef), anchovies in basil, bread, mini pizzas, Pecorino cheese and vegetable salad. Then followed the fish pie, which the Italians loved! After a small break, in which Kleidi arrived from football training and ate his savoury courses, we shared in a huge amount of strawberries. After another small break it was ice cream time, then tea & coffee.
The whole evening was brilliant. Full of laughter, food, good company, English, Italian and general all round enjoyment. It's been great having my parents here and tonight was a super way to finish their visit.
Arrivederci x
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