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Oral history recording with Neda Renzi. Recorded as part of the Italian Memories in Wales project (2008-10), delivered by ACLI-ENAIP and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Part 5 of 7 (AV 11462-11468)

00.00 The colonie were organised by the school through the fascist group. As Neda couldn’t go on holiday with her family she was sent on colonie for a month or so. Neda recalls the songs they would sing during the fascist regime: they give her fond memories of being in her late teens in Italy. They were in fact very political songs which, as youngsters, they didn’t fully understand. Neda believes that the colonie were one of the positive things that Mussolini did for Italy.

04.30 Tuscany is known for talking a more standard, pure Italian but there is also slang spoken in Florence. The history of ‘pure’ Italian in Tuscany goes back to Dante who wrote for the first time in volgare, spoken Italian language, instead of Latin which was the language that had always been used in writing until that time. Neda supposes that had Dante not been the first to write in spoken Italian, perhaps the dialect from another region would have become known as the standard Italian.