Now there is something exciting when a close member of the family decides she is going to write about her life.
And all the more so when she was born in 1940 in Naples, arrived in Britain as an economic migrant twenty years later, and then returned to Italy, bringing up a family of five in the northern city of Varese.
Rosa grew up during the tough years of the last world war and the immediate post war period when Naples was still a city where “poverty busied itself”.
Like many Italians she migrated to where the work was, but while for most that meant the great industrial cities of the north, like Milan and Turin, she travelled to Britain and worked in a series of jobs.
And she left Italy just days after she had got married, only to be reunited with her new husband later in the year when he too arrived in Britain.
I am particularly interested in how two young Italians took to Britain and to the city of Cambridge just as the “swinging “60s” burst forth, and their experiences as economic migrants, when the country was perhaps more tolerant of those who came to work here.
They stayed for nearly a decade, worked hard, bought a house, paid their taxes and got involved in the community.
But that episode was a short one, and I want to know also, about the years in the north after they returned, when Italy continued to build its “economic miracle”, and delve deeper into her life in Naples.
Both Rosa and Simone came from families who had lived in the city for generations so along the way there will be much to learn about the place.
I have no experience of trawling Italian documents but I am up for it which will be a fascinating learning curve for me and I hope help Rosa.
So that is it for now.
Tina has bought Rosa one of those big diaries from a shop in Le Corti in the centre of Varese, and in time I might be able to put the story on the blog.
Leaving me with just that obvious observation, that everyone has a story to tell.
Location Italy & Britain
Pictures; Naples in 2017 from the collection of Saul Simpson and Emilka Cholewicka and Varese, 2014-16 from the collection of Andrew Simpson
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| Naples, 2017 |
Rosa grew up during the tough years of the last world war and the immediate post war period when Naples was still a city where “poverty busied itself”.
Like many Italians she migrated to where the work was, but while for most that meant the great industrial cities of the north, like Milan and Turin, she travelled to Britain and worked in a series of jobs.
And she left Italy just days after she had got married, only to be reunited with her new husband later in the year when he too arrived in Britain.
I am particularly interested in how two young Italians took to Britain and to the city of Cambridge just as the “swinging “60s” burst forth, and their experiences as economic migrants, when the country was perhaps more tolerant of those who came to work here.
 |
| Varese, 2016 |
But that episode was a short one, and I want to know also, about the years in the north after they returned, when Italy continued to build its “economic miracle”, and delve deeper into her life in Naples.
Both Rosa and Simone came from families who had lived in the city for generations so along the way there will be much to learn about the place.
 |
| Rosa's Easter pies, 2014 |
So that is it for now.
Tina has bought Rosa one of those big diaries from a shop in Le Corti in the centre of Varese, and in time I might be able to put the story on the blog.
Leaving me with just that obvious observation, that everyone has a story to tell.
Location Italy & Britain
Pictures; Naples in 2017 from the collection of Saul Simpson and Emilka Cholewicka and Varese, 2014-16 from the collection of Andrew Simpson
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