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Post by lugg on Jul 25, 2019 20:22:16 GMT
In these days of Brexit , Trump etc. sometimes it is soothing to reflect on the benefits to all of immigration and emigration and the benefits both short and long term on the communities from where they depart and to the communities they join. My son and his partner are currently in Bardi which is in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. They are staying in his partner's family home which has been retained despite her grandfather moving to and settling in South Wales many years ago. All the photos below are ones sent to me by them but are limited as I am only posting ones which do not include them in the frame. It looks a beautiful place My son loves a good castle so I suspect this one ticks all his boxes. I was intrigued when they told me that in the Summer there are many Welsh people in the town. So a little history from Wiki Italian immigrants to Wales, mainly originating in the Apennine Mountains and in particular the town of Bardi, established a network of cafés, ice cream parlours and fish and chip shops in Wales from the 1890s onwards. In the Rhondda Valley the cafés became known as "Bracchis" after an early café owner.
During the Second World War, Welsh Italians (I think just the men) without British citizenship were declared enemy aliens and a number were interned on the Isle of Man or further afield. Their families were forced to live more than 20 miles away from the coast meaning they had to leave homes and livelihoods. More awful actually was that a number of Italians along with Germans drowned after the “Arandora Star” was sunk by a German U boat on its way to Canada and its internment camps. Of 1600 on board, 800 men died, 50 of them approx. from the Bardi area of Italy. From what I have read it seems that suspicion and distrust did not reign and many communities supported and campaigned to support the Italians who had mostly not taken citizenship as they never imagined they would need it. www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wales/entries/fdcff8e1-66dc-34e2-b279-a6e7280958ccIve I have also come across a couple of programmes that aired on Channel 4 a few years ago and are available on You Tube which document Bardi and the Welsh links . This is the second one which focuses on Bardi . The first focuses on Wales If Angela Hartnett praises the parmesan in this area I am going to take her at her word as I admire her so much. www.independent.co.uk/travel/europe/emilia-romagna-they-keep-a-welcome-in-these-hillsides-899491.htmlSo I have asked for a brick of parmesan if they have room in their luggage …and it looks like they have come up trumps for me. Angela describes the food in Bardi as good, honest and this pic does not dissuade me. Maybe time to resurrect the Parmesan thread. Anyway I hope you enjoy this very short introduction to Bardi. I may add a couple of pics but this is pretty much it, unless I get to go myself. Food for thought. Hmmmmm.
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Post by lagatta on Jul 25, 2019 20:40:52 GMT
Lovely!
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 26, 2019 3:45:36 GMT
Very interesting. That dish looks extremely appetizing to me.
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Post by bjd on Jul 26, 2019 6:15:04 GMT
There was certainly a lot of Italian emigration during the first decades of the 20th century. In these days of Brexit and populism in Italy and elsewhere, it would be good for this to be remembered.
I just googled to see exactly where Bardi is and the castle showed up as the first picture.
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Post by lagatta on Jul 26, 2019 8:49:36 GMT
Sadly, there is a lot of that in Italy now. Memories are short.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 31, 2019 16:35:44 GMT
Apologies for taking so long to reply to this excellent and fascinating report, Lugg. I was away from wifi for a week, but this was a treat to come back to.
Even though I knew about Italian immigration to the UK, I don't know anything about it, so this report about the immigration to Wales, which I think of as sort of an exotic place, was particularly interesting. Thanks for the great background history, too.
I also had to look it up on the map and see that I was fairly close to it when I was in Bologna, but it's even closer to Genoa as the crow flies. Your son probably told you about seeing mounds of parmesan in hunk form in the supermarkets at what for the rest of the world is cheap prices. I almost wept! The Emilia-Romagna region is known for good food, and it also appeared to me to be good, honest food as Angela describes it. The glory is how plain it seems, but how straightforwardly delicious it is.
This thread and the video certainly had me saying "who knew?!", and yes, yes -- food for thought about visiting there!
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Post by lugg on Jul 31, 2019 18:45:45 GMT
Hope you had a great time away Bixa, (presuming that was the reason for your lack of wifi) Glad you enjoyed the thread. Yes re parmesan , I am hoping that there may have a huge chunk waiting for me when I go to see him next week. Bologna is indeed close - they spent their last 2 nights there. Now that also looks like a place I would love to visit.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 31, 2019 18:56:22 GMT
Since Italian ancestry makes one eligible for Italian citizenship, I wonder how many of these Welsh will be tempted (or have already been tempted) in terms of the future of the United Kingdom.
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Post by lugg on Aug 1, 2019 19:03:15 GMT
Good question K2 . I don't know the answer. What I do know from family who have been living in France for a few years is that they are safe to stay if the UK leaves. I will have to find the info but , in the main, it depends on the length of time they have spent as residents there I believe.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 1, 2019 19:13:28 GMT
Even though I possess two of the most desirable nationalities in the world, I am pretty sure that I would try for any more for which I could be eligible, just because. I have met one person in my life who had four passports -- Egyptian, Swiss, French and Lebanese.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 1, 2019 23:57:14 GMT
Thanks, Lugg! Yes, I was in Oklahoma visiting my mother for a few days.
Bologna's reputation for good food is very well deserved, plus it's almost worth going just to see how totally stylish they are there. It's not in a studied, over the top way, either -- more as though they are honoring some innate vision of looking good. I admired them deeply whilst feeling like little Franny Frump.
One of my cousins has a funny story about bringing back Romano cheese on the plane. He put it in the overhead and when the plane landed a fellow passenger took down a beautiful new leather jacket which dramatically reeked of the cheese. My cousin and his son stayed in their seats until everyone else disembarked so they wouldn't know who the stinky culprits were.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 8, 2019 6:14:27 GMT
Forgot to ask, Lugg ~ have you been to any of those towns in Wales which had a heavy influx of Italians?
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Post by lugg on Mar 2, 2021 8:47:16 GMT
Sorry just saw your question Bixa when I came back to post something here. Yes I have been to many of them. So my son's partner ( Nads) and her grandmother have been talking about this TV programme over the last day or so. The programme follows two Welsh lads who travel across Europe learning how to perfect their pizza cooking skills , before they take part in the Pizza World Championships ( who knew>?) in Parma One of the episodes features Bardi and the guy in the film cooking there is Toni. He is the cousin of Nad's grandfather and his original café till came from Wales given to him by Nad's grandparents. Any way here is the clip that features Toni..... hope you can see it. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0984bvwWe still have hopes to visit late Summer this year but suspect it will have to wait another year. Anyway hopefully one day I will order the mushroom and porcini special
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Post by tod2 on Mar 2, 2021 10:49:02 GMT
That made me so hungry! I love thin thin wafer thin pizza that cooks right through. None of this store bought disks as heavy as lead. I think that is why we only have pizza maybe twice a year.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 2, 2021 11:24:26 GMT
I think I'm ready for my semi-annual pizza now as well.
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Post by lugg on Mar 2, 2021 19:51:54 GMT
Tod, my pizza base has to be crisp and thin too - hate the thick gloopy stuff so rarely have it. I think this stems from the first time I ever ate it which was in Spain in about 72, thin , crisp and simple ... it was one of the best things I'd ever eaten then.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 2, 2021 20:19:25 GMT
Some of the best pizzas (pizze -- yes, I know) I ever ate were in Malta -- obviously Italian style.
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 2, 2021 20:32:45 GMT
Conversely, the first pizza I had was in Venice and was like a cheese and tomato cake. I was hooked from then on in. Don’t like crisp at all.
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Post by tod2 on Mar 3, 2021 9:50:09 GMT
The only drawback Ivé experienced with a thinner pizza base is that if too hard it takes the skin right off your gums. Can be quite painful for a day or two.
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