In May we had a visit from the President and Events Secretary of the Associazione Suonatori di Campane a Sistema Veronese. The first contact had been made by Malvena, a member of the association who rang with Loughborough and Hathern ringers during her PhD studies at Loughborough University. Last minute admin meant that Malvina was unable to come but Michele (confusingly for us pronounced Mickayla) and Valeria were well looked after by local ringers and Valeria did an outstanding job of translating as Michele has very limited English and all of the local ringers who spoke some Italian were away for the weekend!

The visit started with rope time at the Foundry to allow Michele and Valeria to get the feel of our style of ringing. They both adapted very quickly and it became obvious that visiting other towers was feasible. In total they rang at 6 local towers, both managed call changes (with lots of hand gestures) and Michele covered for several touches, including from the Tenor at All Saints Loughborough. Many thanks to the local ringers who welcomed them to their practices and to those that attended extra practices – lots of things were not confirmed until the last minute as it all depended on how well our visitors adapted to bells with stays and sallies.

Michele and Valeria’s visit also included a guided tour of the foundry, led by Sally, one of the regular tour guides and also of course our tower captain, and a visit to the Worthington Cup striking competition. At this point we were reeling from the suggestion that a coachload of Italian ringers might come over next year so we were fascinated to hear that there had been several exchanges between ringers from Italy and Leicester in the 1990s. Watch this space and expect to be involved!

On the social side, Michele and Valeria could not be persuaded to try a curry but they had several pub meals and we had great fun, after the bbq, learning how to ring ‘Veronese style’ using hand bells. Below is the crib sheet we all used and you can listen to it by following this link https://www.facebook.com/reel/1197401374982980 but I think ‘you had to be there’!

Valeria had been warned that it always rains in England and that English people are unfriendly. As you will remember May was particularly dry and they were both bowled over by the warm welcome given to them by all of the ringers they met.

Liz Watson