Cold Stream avilable to watch on My4 as well as being shown on Channel 4 starting on Sunday 13th at 12.35am (ie very early Monday morning)

8 episodes of this Italian crime thriller from Walter Presents. It is set in the 1990s in Bari.

Cold Stream avilable to watch on My4 as well as being shown on Channel 4 starting on Sunday 13th at 12.35am (ie very early Monday mroning)

8 episodes of this Italian crime thriller from Walter Presents. It is set in the 1990s in Bari.

The performance of La Locandiera was very well attended and proved to be a resounding success.

Netflix are currently showing Il Gattopardo (The Leopard). In Italian (with subtitles) this limited series has been receiving rave reviews.

A couple of books were mentioned during this most informative and interesting lecture, so they are listed below:

Dear Francesca, Dear Olivia and Dear Alfonso....3 publications by Mary Contini

Nessuno puo' fermarci  by Caterina Soffici (this one is in Italian, and focuses on the sinking of the Arandora Star)

Emanuelli, Hector, A Sense of Belonging: From the Rhondda to the Potteries: Memories of a Welsh-Italian Englishman  (2010)

Tom Conti: My dad, sent to a prison camp for being Italian,   https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22278664

Limentari, Umberto, “Escape from the Sea”,  Magdalene College Magazine & Record, No 25, 1980-81

Showing on Prime video

Release Date: May 06, 2024 9:00 PM PDT

La Chimera

Everyone has their own Chimera, something they try to achieve but never manage to find. For Arthur, the Chimera looks like the woman he lost, Beniamina. In an adventurous journey between the living and the dead, between forests and cities, between celebrations and solitudes, the intertwined destinies of these characters unfold, all in search of the Chimera.

Below is just one review:

When you wait 10 months for a film and it’s all you expected and more! Yes, this magical realism, tomb stealing, Josh O’Connor rugged, sad and sexy still, Italian film, well this is made for my cinematic heaven. The most soulful film in a long time, that even a misanthrope, atheist as myself can maybe ponder on the existence of the soul and where it goes. And what remains. Must watch! Best film of 2024 so far (and of course it had to be a 2023 film like this one!!!)

Buon Appetito

Our revised cook book is available to order and collect at all our meeting.

Email: gloria2712 [at] hotmail.co.uk (replacing [at] by the usual symbol)

Priced £3 each 

Message from Patrick Bliss from Cheltenham International Film Festival

Starts Friday 15th September

We have two wonderful Italian films this year:

NO DOGS OR ITALIANS ALLOWED (Sat 16 Sept 6.30pm):
https://cheltfilm.com/2023/08/11/no-dogs-or-italians-allowed/

AMUSIA (Thurs 21 Sept 8.20pm with the director and producer in attendance and lead actress Carltta Gamba and veteran French actress Fanny Ardant on zoom).
https://cheltfilm.com/2023/08/10/amusia/

Eileen Cheverton, a founder member of Cheltenham Italian Society in September 1959, will celebrate her 100th birthday on the 4th of March (4/3/21).  In the 1950s she went to Italy, fell in love with it and, like so many of us, she was frustrated that she couldn’t speak Italian.

The Society was founded by a colleague at GCHQ so Eileen joined and was a member for 55 years.  She attended Italian classes and went to Italy many times.  As a Catholic convert, she loved Rome above all.     

She  was born and grew up on the Isle of Wight, studied English Literature at Southampton University and then worked at Bletchley Park.  She never spoken about her work there but finally she did say that she worked shifts, was in Hut 6, and that the Saturday evening dances were lovely!  She stayed with the Department, moving to Eastcote and then to Cheltenham where her Division Head was Hugh Alexander "a great cryptanalyst and a very charming man."  The excellent film 'The Imitation Game’ showed the competitive relationship between Hugh Alexander and Alan Turing and also gave a picture of Eileen’s life during WWII. 

Eileen moved into Nazareth House Care Home in 2015.  On her 100th birthday the priest of Sacred Hearts, Fr Mark Moran, will celebrate Mass and it will be live streamed in the parish for Eileen. 

Cheltenham Italian Society

(Affiliated with Cheltenham Arts Council)

61st Annual General Meeting

Chair’s Report 2019-20

Dear Friends

It has been a strange year and it is not over yet. As I write this we are ‘locked down’ for the second time and it seems likely that we will have some sort of restrictions placed on us until Christmas. We now have a vaccine but it doesn’t look as though we will all be immunised until this time next year. In the meantime we press on and I hope you and your are managing to keep well and remain cheerful.

At the start of our year no-one had heard of Coronavirus and we started very optimistically. We had an amazing ‘Cena’ in September at “Caffe` e Vino” in Teweskbury and thanks to our new Programme Co-ordinator Christine Traversa we had an exciting programme and it was all systems go.

In October we were fortunate enough to have Dr Paul Roberts. Head of Antiquities and Curator at the Ashmolean and his talk coincided with his exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum Oxford.

November’s meeting introduced us to Paolo Detassis who gave us some understanding of La Mia Citta` e la Mia Regione Trento in Trentino.

Our December meeting had a festive feel to it with Panettone, Spumante and a raffle. We met Prof.ssa Maria Ursi Amesbury who introduced us to Letteratura del Novecento in Puglia.

January was a fascinating talk by Prof.ssa Giuliana Pieri set around the influence of Mussolini on photography, film, painting, sculpture and posters.

Our February meeting was sadly our last meeting. Dr Lidia Lonergan presented an explanation of how Italy is subject to ongoing earthquake and volcanic activity with a wonderful talk on ‘The Geology and Scenery of Italy: The Role of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonic Plates.

I would like to thank you all for the record turnout to these talks during the particularly cold and wet winter months. Particularly October 2019 and February 2020 we had record turnouts and was standing room only.

In December, Committee members staffed a stall at Cambray Christmas Market to promote the Italian Society. They took our recipe book ‘Buon Appetito’ where copies were sold which helped towards reimbursing the Society on their production.

On a sad note we learned from Jo Dean of the death of Robert in the Sue Ryder Hospice. Jo says, “after a mercifully short period as an invalid. His was una vita ben vissuta. I feel bereft but I have our son and daughter and such wonderful memories sustain me.”

We do not envisage our Italian Society meetings to begin until the new season begins in 2021, however, we aim to stay in touch with you using regular newsletters through the Mailchimp email system (thanks to Mike Doherty) and our website (thanks to David Wilson) which is a further source of information.

Therefore, new for 2021- We would like very much to hear from you as members as we get through this next year of uncertainty and we ask that you might like to send to us your Italian news for our newsletter. If you have a picture too that would be great! Just a couple of paragraphs is all that is needed. We would very much like to hear from you.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Committee for their hard work over this strange year. They have kept things moving and the regular Zoom meetings have meant that the Committee have been able to stay in touch even though they have not been able to meet in person.

Corynna Jeudwine

Chair

Our 60th Season lecture is on Wednesday 14th November 2018  at Chapel Arts entitled:

"Venice - The Golden Centre of Opera" by Peter Medhurst

Please note this talk is open to the public and is by pre-booked ticket.

For details please see the

Programme Page.

Our special 60th season revised cook book Buon Appetito is available to order and collect at all our meetings.  For more information, please see our News Page.

GRATIS/ FREE

Circolo di lettura e letteratura italiana

Dato il successo del suddetto circolo ho deciso di creare un programma con date e titoli da settembre 2018 a giugno 2019.  Considerando che il Circolo si è ben consolidato penso che queta mossa permetta a tutti di organizzarsi di conseguenza.

Next meeting:

Titolo                             Autore                                         Data

Per dieci minuti                 Chiara Gamberale                            27/03/2019

La ragazza di Bube            Carlo Cassola (Premio Strega 1960)  01/05/2019

Gli sdraiati                         Michele Serra                                 05/06/2019

Gli incontri si terranno alle 14.00 al Tivoli pub.

Ho controllato e tutti i titoli sono disponibili sia su Amazon che su IBS

Buone vacanze e buona lettura a tutti

Elisabetta

Se siete interessati contattate 

elisabetta [at] angeliclanguages.co.uk (replacing [at] by the usual symbol)

www.angeliclanguages.co.uk

Please also see my entry as a local teacher of Italian.

At the annual Arts Council Awards ceremony held on 23rd March 2017, Jo Dean, a committee member of Cheltenham Italian Society since 2009, received an award certificate for her service and dedication.  She had been nominated by Cheltenham Italian Society, Cheltenham German Club,  and Cheltenham Twinning Association.  In addition the Arts Council, considering the ten nominees, unanimously agreed that the Joyner Cup be conferred on Jo as the most outstanding candidate.  In making this decision, the Arts Council committee was impressed by the wide range of work she had undertaken to promote European language-related activities and to further Cheltenham's European cultural ties. 

Jo sends her sincere thanks to Cheltenham Italian Society committees, past and present, for her nomination and especially to those who attended the ceremony: "Your support meant a lot to me and helped me get through it without too much stumbling up the steps or over my speech.  I had not realised I keep the cup for a year (I thought it stayed in a glass case in the Municipal Offices) and I felt a bit conspicuous taking it home on the number 10 bus. Again, my warmest thanks."  

Dear members and friends,

Here we are at the beginning of the 58th season of the Cheltenham Italian Society. Your committee are already thinking about what we might do in two years' time to celebrate our 60th anniversary. We would welcome suggestions from any members as to how we might celebrate this significant birthday.  However in the meantime we have an exciting season to look forward to.

In July, 15 of us met at Dolce e Salato again for an end of season meal. As usual Salvo and his staff gave us a warm welcome and all there enjoyed a very convivial evening. 

We hope that many of you will join or re-join our society and support it through the coming season.  In November we are delighted to welcome back Dr Paul Roberts who came two years ago and gave an excellent talk about the Pompeii exhibition at the British Museum which he had organised. Now based at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, he has organised an exhibition on the archaeological finds from under the sea off the Sicilian coast. You have until 25th September to see the exhibition and I do urge you to go and see this before Paul's talk.

In addition we have speakers who have visited us before, such as Paolo Detassis, and several who are new including from Bristol University, Dr Barbara Spadaro who will talk about Italy's North African empire and Dr Laura Rorato from the University of Hull who will speak about Caravaggio's self portraits.  

We do hope that you will come and join us.  Come along to our first meeting on Monday 10th October and our very helpful and friendly membership secretary, John Sheppard will welcome you at the front desk.  

We are grateful to David Wilson and Jo Dean who continue to run our website and we do urge you to look at this. It contains information about your committee, about other Italian societies, information about any Italian related events coming up and about the society. It is regularly updated so please bookmark it and see whether you find something of interest which you might go to.  

To get the season off to a musical start we will welcome Paola Olivetti who will sing and play the keyboard while telling us about Italian traditional songs. We shall serve wine at this first evening to welcome everyone, whether a former or new member, or just a visitor. We look forward to seeing you all on 10th October.  Please ensure you do not book anything for the literature festival that evening!

Best wishes,

Penny

Chair, Cheltenham Italian Society 

At the annual Arts Council Awards ceremony held on 24 September 2015 at The Playhouse, Roger and Maureen Jenner were awarded a Citation for their combined total of 31 years of service as our Treasurer and Barista respectively.  Chair of CAC, Karen Jones, read out just what they had undertaken as their regular duties for monthly meetings and highlighted the phenomenal amount of work they had done for the Society's special events and celebrations (see the Past Events page).  These simply would not have happened without their driving force and commitment.   The framed citation was presented by Mayor Duncan Smith.  

On a cold February afternoon on the 10th February 2015, a few members of Cheltenham Italian Society were present for the unveiling of a stone sphere in the Italian Garden at Sandford Park.

We were grateful to Cheltenham Arts Council for awarding grants to the Society which were used for the purchase of a stone sphere which was installed in the garden on a plinth at the end of the water feature. 

From left to right: Roger and Maureen Jenner, Sheila Rashed, Luana  Carrer, Elizabeth Turner, Angela Walker, and Malcolm Walls - Community Parks Officer.

The inscription on the sphere reads

"And the glory of the garden it shall never pass away.  Rudyard Kipling"

On the plinth to which the sphere is affixed there is an inscription: "In memory of Susan Newton, Chairman Cheltenham Italian Society 1987-2000."

Angela Walker was awarded a Citation by Cheltenham Arts Council for her long service and outstanding work as Secretary to Cheltenham Italian Society.  She had served as Secretary for 20 years.  

The Awards Ceremony was held on Wednesday 24 September 2014 at The Playhouse Theatre, Cheltenham.  Awards were presented by Dame Janet Trotter, Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire.

During 2013 - 2014 the Society was involved with the Parks Department of Cheltenham Borough Council over the restoration of the Italian Garden in Sandford Park.  Two of the Committee Members, Angela Walker and Frank Smith, were present on 8 September 2014 at the launching of a new noticeboard in the garden.

Luana Carrer, past Chairman of Cheltenham Italian Society, was awarded a Citation by Cheltenham Arts Council in recognition of her outstanding contribution to Cheltenham Italian Society during her time as Chairman. 

The Awards Ceremony was held on Friday 28 September 2012 at The Playhouse Theatre, Cheltenham. The photograph shows Luana receiving her Certificate from Edward Gillespie, Chief Executive of Cheltenham Racecourse. 

On Tuesday 19th June 2012 a talk was given in honour of Susan Newton (Past Chairman).

It was held at St Andrew's Church, Montpellier, Cheltenham, entitled

"CHELTENHAM'S PUBLIC GARDENS - 

Past, Present & Future. Breathing Life into the Italian Garden.

The Speaker was Chris Ryder, Chair of Cheltenham in Bloom, assisted by Wayne Sedgwick, Senior Ranger and Malcolm Walls, Community Parks Officer, Cheltenham Borough Council.

Left to Right: Wayne Sedgwick, Chris Ryder, Luana Carrer (the Chairman in post at the time), Cheltenham Italian Society) and Malcolm Walls.

There was a good turn-out for the lecture which was held in memory of Sue Newton who died on 26th May 2011, having been a long-standing member of Cheltenham Italian Society.  She was Chairman for twelve seasons during the 80s and 90s, and because of her fluent Italian she was also one of the Society's Speakers on a number of different topics. One of her great interests was gardens, particularly those in Italy.

Sue was a member of the Cheltenham Local History Society which she joined soon after it was founded in 1982.  She served on the Committee, and became Programme Secretary, and later, Chairman. 

Sue was also a Cheltenham Town Guide, and she was well-known for the countless number of day-trips and holidays which she organised.

Chris Ryder introduced the lecture by telling the audience about the history of Cheltenham in Bloom, and its connection with the Council and other partners with whom the Council interacted for the betterment of the town.  She then handed over to Wayne who presented a short history of Cheltenham's public gardens and, in particular, Sandford Park and the Italian Garden.  Malcolm then brought everyone up to date with the work being done on the Italian Garden, accompanied by slides.  Cheltenham Italian Society was working with the Council on this project by providing information on suitable Italian plants which could be used.  It was due to a grant from Cheltenham Community Projects (CCP) that work on the Italian Garden, and other projects in the town, had been made possible.

Following the Lecture members of the audience enjoyed a glass of wine and home-made cake. 

Profits  made on the evening were to be divided between Macmillan Cancer Support and the County Air Ambulance.

On Monday 12th October 2009, Cheltenham Italian Society celebrated its 50th Anniversary.  A special event was held at St Andrew's Church, Montpellier, Cheltenham.

Jonathan Hinden, Principal Coach, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, was the guest speaker in

 "Verdi's La Traviata - a very Italian Affair"

This was a non-technical and not-too-serious account of this masterpiece, its characters and story, with musical illustrations on the piano, focussing on the composer?s ability to express character and mood through music and with a brief look at the circumstances and context of its composition.

During the interval the audience was treated to a magnificent spread of home-made Italian cakes and desserts, made by members of the Committee and friends.  Most of the cakes were made from recipes in Cheltenham Italian Society's new recipe book, Buon Appetito!, which was compiled in time for the 50th Anniversary.  All copies of the book were quickly sold.

We’re a friendly group who meet to practice and improve our Italian every week. We’d love to welcome you to join us. There’s no charge – just buy your own coffee or drink and cakes!
 
Contact us via Facebook Cheltenham Italian Conversation Group, by telephone on  07766 240503, or just come along on a Wednesday evening.
 
Time: Wednesdays 7pm - 8pm  
Venue: The Stable (Opposite the Boston Tea Party)
Address: 45 Clarence Street, Cheltenham. GL50 3JS

Cheltenham Italian Society Newsletter August 2017

Dear members and friends,

I hope you have been enjoying the summer with outings, holidays and events in and around Cheltenham.  I am writing to let you know about what your committee has been working on over the past few months and is planning for your society.  2017-18 will be our 59th season meaning of course that 2018-19 will be our 60th.  More of than anon.

New Treasurer

I am delighted to say that Andrew Piggott has agreed to join the committee as Treasurer and is currently in discussion with the bank about additional things we might offer.  For example, we are looking at offering the chance for you to pay your subscriptions by bank transfer instead of cheque.

New membership cards

John is sending the information about joining the Society or renewing your subscription along with this newsletter.  We are adopting a new approach to membership cards this year.  Everyone who applies for membership will receive both a small membership card and a flyer, both hard copy and electronically, with details of our programme for the year.  The programme will also be on the website together with up to date news of other Italy related events.  If you know of any such events, please let us know so that we can share the information.  If there is a last-minute change of programme for any reason, this will be notified on our website so please check this regularly.  Information will be communicated to those of you who are without the internet.

New website (www.cheltenhamitaliansociety.org.uk)

We now have a new website as of mid-August.  David Wilson and Jo Dean have battled on with the previous one but a change (for the worse) in the software provided by the  site and the expiry of the current subscription persuaded us that this was the time to move to a known user friendly provider in this country, who coincidentally turns out to be a lover of Italy.  He has set up the site and then David Wilson had very kindly agreed to continue to manage it.  Over the summer David has put in a great deal of work transferring from the old website and the committee is very grateful to him for this. Please use our new website as it is only through your visits that it will move up the rankings when people Google it.

We would like feedback from you on the site in terms of ease of use, arrangement of information and suggestions about anything else we might include.  Please send your feedback to Penny McCracken for onward transmission to David and put ‘website’ in the subject box.

Cena Annuale

You will be aware that our annual cena will be held this year on 4 September at La Primavera restaurant.  John is enclosing further details on this with this newsletter for those of you who have not already booked.  It is open to members and non-members spouses, friends and guests.  Please encourage any friends of yours who love Italy and who might join the Society to come along.

Plans for 60th season

1. Buon Appetito

Some of you will remember this excellent cookery book which the Italian Society published for our 50th anniversary.  We are planning to publish a revised version of this in October 2018 at the start of the season and it will be ready for you to purchase as Christmas presents!  The extent of the revisions will depend on the recipes which you provide so please let us have them as soon as possible.  I am delighted that Corynna Jeudwine, one of our newer members, is leading this project.  Please send your recipes to her, including their sources, if not your original recipe, together with a note about any adjustments you have made or the context in which you use this dish. Her email address is: corynnaj@gmail.com.  Alternatively, please bring your recipe to the next meeting.

2. Special event

We have booked the fabulous new Chapel Arts for a public lecture which we are organising.  The lecturer is Peter Medhurst who will play, sing and talk about aspects of  opera in Venice.  Peter is a well known speaker for the Arts Society and also on specialist cruises and tours. This will be in lieu of our November meeting in 2018.  We are looking for one of our members who is willing to organise the practical  arrangements for tickets and publicity.  Please contact Penny McCracken for more information about this.

3. History of Cheltenham Italian Society

We have a very brief history of CIS on the website at the moment and we would

very much like to expand it for the anniversary.  This could involve looking through old copies of the Echo and other local papers as well as looking though the archives currently housed by your Chair.  We would welcome members who would like to take part in this and I am pleased to say that Andrew Simon, also a newer member, has offered to coordinate this work but we do need some volunteers.  Please contact Andrew if you would like to explore contributing to this project  (andrew_simon@btinternet.com).

Watch this space for further developments!

4. Members’ evening in 2018-19

During the anniversary year we intend to put on an evening about different aspects of Italian life and culture in the late 1950s about the time CIS was set up.  Anne Strathie originally proposed this idea and she has worked this up over the summer.  We would like your help on this.  Along with this newsletter you will find a separate sheet with more details.  On the sheetare a number of topics such as Italian cars and vespas, food and drink (and how Italian food came over the so ubiquitous in the UK), fashion and design, music from O Sole Mio to Frank Sinatra and Italian cinema.

We would like several small groups to each take one of these and look for images information etc. and present the material at the evening.  Each topic would have about 10 minutes so it’s not a lot of material needed.  Each group can adopt whatever format they like depending on the materials available.  We would also like to know whether you think these topics are the right ones and which you would be most interested in.

So, at the first meeting there will be sheets to choose which topics you think sound most interesting.  Have we got the right ones?  You can also make alternative suggestions.  Then there will be sheets asking if you have any knowledge or material on any of the topics.  I have a book on Italian design which I am willing to loan to groups who would like to look at it.

Location of meetings

Those of you who were at the AGM will recall that the committee have been thinking about a possible alternative venue for our meetings.  One reason behind this is to be able to accommodate more people on popular evenings while continuing to offer a central location.  Considering all the alternatives we have decided that the best new location would be the room on the gallery in Chapel Arts in Knapp Road.  This will be the venue for our 60th celebration event in November 2018 as mentioned above and we would like to move all our meetings there from October 2018.  There is a lift and a kitchen.  I am happy totake views on this up to 15th October 2017 before a final  decision is made.

Finally -publicity

We are having more flyers printed this year.  If you can help by taking some to a suitable place near where you live for people to pick up please get in touch.  The flyers will be available at the first meeting for you to take.  The best recommendation is of course word of mouth, so please bring along any friends who are interested in Italy.

The committee looks forward to seeing you at the first meeting on WEDNESDAY 11 October at Parmoor House at 7.30.

Best wishes

Penny McCracken Chair, Cheltenham Italian Society.

p.mccracken@btconnect.com

Cheltenham Italian Society
Chair’s Report 2018-19

This has been our 60th season, marked by several special activities this past year and it will end with lecture in October 2019, exactly 60 years since Cheltenham Italian Society was founded. We have ended the season with 56 members as well as our regular guests. This represents an increase on last year which is encouraging. In common with a number of local societies, we have adopting Mailchimp as the simplest means of communication with members and friends who have given us permission to do this.  Now a trailer goes out every month about a week before the meeting and also includes any relevant news or forthcoming events. Mike Doherty, our new Communications officer has been very helpful and efficient in setting this up.

We were very sad to learn of the death of Roger Jenner last December. Roger was Treasurer and committee member for over 17 years, He also lent his engineering expertise to the audio-visual requirements of the Society and continued to give his advice even after stepping down.  The Society records the great debt of gratitude for the service that he gave so unassumingly and reliably over the years and our thoughts are with Maureen.
The programme has been as varied as ever this year, to which Jo Dean made a significant contribution before she had her serious accident at the end of last year.  We began with an evening ‘A tavola con i veneti’ given by our former Chair, Luana Carrer. She brought samples of food and a wonderful time was had by all.  November saw the 60th anniversary public lecture given by Peter Medhurst. He is a very well-known speaker who not only lectures but plays the piano and sings as well. ‘Venice: the golden centre of opera’ was much appreciated by the 75 people who attended. After a look at Marriage in Italian Renaissance art in December, we moved to Baroque Sicily in January where Pina Clarke and Fiona James gave a fascinating account.  One of our new and younger members helped out in February when our speaker cancelled through ill-health.  Stefania Tieri spoke enthusiastically about her home town of Rimini to show it was much more than just a beach but still contained Roman monuments and structures.  The film on the 50s and 60s at the motor racing stable of Ferrari in March had a mixed reception but it is extremely difficult to find a film which lasts only about 90 minutes.  In April Paola Olivetti returned to our delight to entertain us with more songs, this time from the ‘50s and ‘60s when the Society was founded. In May a new Italian speaker, Sergio Tommasetto, has kindly agreed to talk after the AGM.

We have used two venues this year.  The first and the AGM both required the use of a kitchen so Parmoor House was used.  All the meetings from December until April were held upstairs in the gallery at Chapel Arts. The anniversary lecture was given in the main hall of Chapel Arts while the talks between December and April inclusive were held upstairs in the gallery at Chapel Arts.  The venue was warm, pleasant and drinks could be served on the space outside the gallery itself.  We were sorry to leave it to return to Parmoor for economic reasons. Attendance at the normal talks has varied from 22 to 45, none affected by weather this year.  

I would like to thank all the committee for their dedication and hard work this anniversary year when there has been extra to do. The support group around the committee also perform very useful functions. David Wilson has continued to work quietly and efficiently at the website We are very grateful to him for the regular and reliable care of the website. Corynna Jeudwine has now completed her first year looking after the library and has also been involved with the production of Buon Appetito.

Cheltenham Italian Society - Chair’s report 2017 - 18

Programme

Looking over this year’s programme, we have had a varied range of topics.  We began the year with film based around Pasolini and a talk from Dr Di Maio, then Edward James took us through the development of Rome as a pilgrimage centre showing us unexpected areas of Rome which had connections with this.  Bill Emmott, formerly of the Economist, took us very comprehensively through the parties assembling for the forthcoming elections in Italy and helped us to have a better understanding of this always confusing state of affairs.  Paolo de Tassis had so much to tell us about his home region and city Trento, that we had hardly got to the Renaissance when he had to leave to catch his train.  He has plenty of material left for another talk.  Simon Rees spoke fascinatingly about Verdi and the links in his operas to the Risorgimento.  This talk attracted many visitors from the Opera Society who know him well.

We continue to attract visitors for particular talks and this year the most significant in this respect were the talks by Professor James and Simon Rees.  Attendance has varied between 18 and 51 although both these talks attracted a good number of visitors, notably in April.  Members attendance numbers were low for April but consistently between 25 and 33.  The late change of speaker in March adversely affected attendances and yet those who came enjoyed it.

We also had two misfortunes this season.  One was the illness of Laura Rorato in March.  Fortunately Roger Box from Cirencester was able to come at short notice and speak about Roman coins, some of which we could actually handle.  The other was the snow in December which resulted in the cancellation of our meeting when everyone was so looking forward to Luana talking about the Venetians and their food.  However we have been able to reschedule Luana and hope to do so with Laura Rorato when so many people were looking forward to hearing about Caravaggio.

Membership

Membership this year has been 53, some seven lower than last year.  We continue to have a number of people attending several talks each season but not joining as members.  The best method of gaining new members is word of mouth so please do tell your friends about us.  We also continue to attract visitors for particular talks and this year the most significant in this respect were the talks by Professor James and Simon Rees.  Attendance has varied between 18 and 51 although both these talks attracted a good number of visitors, notably in April.  Members attendance numbers were low for April but consistently between 25 and 33.  The late change of speaker in March adversely affected attendances and yet those who came enjoyed it.

Technological developments

We have now had the best part of a season running with our new website.  I would like to thank David Wilson for all the hard work he has put in on this.  It is the main source to get up to date information about the talk and any cancellations such as the December talk.  Please use it.  We use it to advertise other events such as the Italian book group and the group who meet at the Boston tea Party Café.

We also now have our new speakers and our own microphone.  We thank David Clowes and David Wilson for providing the facilities and operating them each month.

Developments for 60th

History project.

Andrew Simon is leading on this and several interviews with long-standing members has greatly helped fill in details.  Andrew will present some of the findings at the AGM next year.

Public lecture 14 November 2018, 7.30 at Chapel Arts

Peter Medhurst, a well-known music specialist and Arts Society speaker, will be

giving a talk on Venice; the golden centre of opera.  This is now confirmed and publicity and ticketing arrangements are in place.  Tickets are now on sale and £10 to include a glass of wine/juice.

We were successful in gaining a grant of £200 from the Cheltenham Arts Council towards the costs of this event and we are very grateful to them.  We have also provided an article on the Society for the September issue of Perspectives, the Arts Council’s on-line magazine and listings.

Buon Appetito

The second revised edition of the Cheltenham Italian Society cookery book is now being proofed and will be printed over the summer.  Corynna Jeudwine has been taking this forward and we are very grateful to her for all the hard work she has put in.  This will be available from September and it is available to pre-order.  The price is the same as that for the first edition, £10 and it will make a wonderful Christmas present.

I would like to thank the committee for all the hard work they have put in this year to  make the 60th anniversary memorable.  We all have cause to be very grateful to them.

Amanda Keys has for two years been doing two roles, librarian and secretary.  She has now decided to focus on the latter and so we thank her for her work with the library.  I would also like to thank Jo Dean, who is stepping down from organising the programme.  This is not an easy job.  Not only does she get hold of the speakers to provide the range of topics we enjoy but she and Bob meet, entertain and take back home or to the station many of the speakers.  She had already selected the speakers for next year so it will be her programme we enjoy.  We are very grateful to her.

Finally the Cena estivale will take place on Monday 3 September once again at Primavera restaurant.

We look forward to our 60th anniversary season and hope you will join us in the events.

Penny McCracken

May 2018