Rose early with a slight sadness in the air. Showered and packed my bags and went downstairs to find Maria Angela in the kitchen. We chatted for a while about cooking (she is a great cook) and she told me about a recipe for potato and pumpkin gnocchi with duck sauce. Sounds great, and I might try them at home. She offered me an Italian cookbook that was huge, but I could not accept it as it weighed a tonne! We had breakfast and remincised some more before saying...

Today we went to the cemetery to visit the tomb of my great grandparents. Whilst we were there we ran into Giovanni Brbuio an old friend of dads. Dad and him used to knock around in a group of three or four and Giovanni was his best mate. Dad's nickname for him was 'mezzo cartuccio', which translated means 'half bullet'. This was his nickname because he was only very short. Giovanni got a huge surprise because he did not recognize dad. He recognized Paolo but not...