Film shot by Emilio Pieracinni – 1954 to 1975 – barganews.com v 3.0

Film shot by Emilio Pieracinni – 1954 to 1975

My grandfather was Emilio Pieraccini, (1906-1978) who was born in Barga but lived most of his life in Scotland. He made cine films from 1954 to 1975, a lot of footage being shot in Barga, starting in 1954

Emilio Pieraccini, “Grampa”, my grandfather, commonly known as Leo, was born in 1906 in Barga, Italy He was a diminutive, lively, loveable Italian. With his wee hat perched on his head at a jaunty angle, dazzling smile and heavy dark-rimmed spectacles, he reminded me of the American comedian Phil Silvers, who played ‘Sergeant Bilko’. He was universally popular. Gregarious, kind-hearted, charming; people readily took to him. He was the ideal Grandfather. He would play games, jokes and take us for trips. 

He came to Scotland aged 12. The impoverished economy of early 20th Century Italy forced many to leave and find work abroad. Grampas father, Florindo Pieraccini, first moved to New York where he sold plaster statuettes, or figurini, a common practice amongst Italian emigrants then. Such was the anonymity of the figurini, and Florindos native business nous, that he was able to adapt them to suit his customers; to the Irish they were ‘Saint Patricks’, to Italians ‘Saint Joseph’, and so on. But he struggled, and like many of his countrymen from Barga later followed an established pattern and moved to Scotland, arriving in Glasgow just before World War 1 broke out. This was part of a large scale emigration that created an offshoot culture in Scotland- the ‘Italian-Scots’ or ‘Tartan ‘Tallies’. 

  Grampas step-uncle, Luigi Seraphini, took him to join his father in Scotland in 1918. After 4 years they moved north to the fishing town of Wick, on the extreme, north-eastern tip of Scotland, where they established successful businesses using the established Italian model selling ice cream, and fish and chips. It was a long haul from the sun-kissed hills of Tuscany to the wind-blasted, rain-soaked plains of Caithness! Not that the dramatic change in climate troubled Grampa too much. Decades later, his daughter (my mother) Ida, asked him whether he might consider returning to Italy for his retirement (he never did retire) as so many Italian businessman, including relatives in Inverness, had done.

No thanks!’ came the dismissive reply; ‘It’s too hot…!’.

The move to Wick did not start well. Grampa was only 16 when his mother, Ida Cardosi, died there. She never did adapt to the harsh northern climate. Florindo returned her body to Italy and eventually retired there himself in the early 1930s. 

Grampa enjoyed teasing us if we asked about our ancestry; 

You’re descended from Corsican bandits…’ he would tell us cheerfully ‘…and Hungarian Counts!’. It sounded very exotic and, although exaggerated, true in part. His fathers’ ancestors (the Pieraccini’s) were of Corsican origin, whilst his mothers (the Cardosi’s, the businessmen of the family) were rumoured to be Hungarian (although given there is a small village called Cardosa above Barga, that seems a more likely point of origin). As his brother Charlie liked to say, the family ancestry was ‘a right pastacioutto!’. 

Grampa and his elder brother, Primo, went into business together, buying the Chocolate Shop on Lamington Street, Tain, in 1929, the year my mother, Ida, was born. Above the ‘Chocolate shop’ nameplate a new one was mounted- ‘Pieraccinni Bros’- and the shop came to be known locally as ‘Pers’. 

In 1939, Grampa was on holiday in Italy when World War 2 broke out. Had Italy joined the war at that time, he would have been conscripted there and then. My mother, Ida, recalled their frantic trip back home, taking them through what she remembered as the ‘bright blue lights’ of Paris, made eerie by the tense atmosphere that accompanied the outbreak of hostilities. During and after the war they lived above the Chocolate Shop, along with Idas  maternal “Grannie”, who provided her and her brother Alfy with a fortifying ”thimbleful of sherry” each night. Grannie had Ida, and Alfy slept in her bedroom so that if Tain were ever bombed ‘We’ll all be together…’.

When Italy entered the war in 1940, Grampas brothers were interned on the Isle of Man, along with many other Italians. Damaging and disruptive though it was, they were more fortunate than other Italians in that the regime on the island was relatively relaxed; many others were deported to Canada, and hundreds lost their lives when a ship carrying them, the Aranadora Star, was sunk by German torpedoes. 

Although his brothers Charlie and Primo had been resident in Scotland for over 20 years, they were now foreign nationals in a country at war with Britain. The decision to intern was taken by the local Chief Constable, based on his judgement as to whether these concerned represented a threat to security. Grampa was not interned. But as Tain was, at that time, a military zone along with all of the Highlands north of Inverness, he was compelled to move to Pitlochry and leave his family behind. He was eventually moved to Inverness, but was separated from his family for 3 whole years, until Italy surrendered. It must have been an ordeal for a family man like Grampa to be parted from his wife and young children for so long, but one which he by all accounts understood and accepted. His wife, Rosanna, however, was far from pleased when, as the spouse of an Italian, she was obliged to swear an oath of loyalty to the Crown in order to retain her British nationality.  

When the war ended, Grampa held a homecoming party for the local lads who returned, young men he had last seen leaving Tain railway station in 1940. Many had been regulars at the Chocolate shop where they had spent happier times playing the slot machines and games of billiards. These who returned in 1945 had spent the five years of World War 2 as Prisoners of War. Some had not come back, but these who did were touched by the reception. 

He  was an enthusiastic motorcyclist and when courting his wife to be, Rosanna, took her around in his sidecar. He would demonstrate his biking skills on the links, where he rode on the wall of death when it came to Tain, and won a silver medal when he rode in the 1926 Scottish 6 day trials.

Grampa lived in Tain until 1945, then moved to Parkhill, near the Kings Mill Hotel, in Inverness where he and Primo had established ‘the Highland Restaurant’, jointly running their twin businesses in Tain and Inverness. Grampa worked hard, and had apparently been doing so for the past few centuries; he often told us of his conviction that he had spent a previous life as a slave on a Roman galley! In 1947 he returned to Tain when he bought ‘Roselea’ on Scotsburn Road from a Jimmy MacKenzie who farmed at Golspie. Grampa and Primo ran the Chocolate shop together for the next 17 years, until Primo died in 1964 aged just 67. Grampa continued to run the shop, supported by a hard-core of loyal staff, for a further 14 years, until he passed away in his sleep at his home, Roselea, in November 1978.

Grampa happily spent most of his life in the Highlands rather than return to Italy. He loved the countryside, and genuinely appreciated the hospitality he received. He grew to think of Scotland as his real home. He had worked and raised his family there, and been warmly accepted by the local people who came to regard him as a ‘character’, a ‘worthy’; a high accolade in Tain. Being involved with and supporting the community was important to him, and he contributed enthusiastically to community life. He often took the opportunity to publicise his adopted home town, at one time personally stamping ‘Visit Tain, the oldest Royal Burgh in Scotland’ on much of the paper currency passing through the shop tills. It was an effective advertising ploy, with the eye-catching stamped notes travelling far and wide throughout Britain. There was just one hitch; it was illegal. Before long he was visited by the Police who warned him, in no uncertain terms, that despite the benefits to the local economy, the practice must cease.

Grampa was a shrewd businessman. He began to reap the benefits of his hard work when he reached his fifties and his business was doing well. He could then afford to take regular holidays abroad, and bought himself a cine camera to record the results. He filmed many events in and around Tain; fancy dress parades; bands marching down the high street, pipes skirling; motorcycle races on the links; and the bi-centennial celebrations in 1966. He got involved with local events including carnivals and sport, and organised an under-16s football tournament. The prize for this competition was a silver cup, which would be filled with milk shakes to be drunk by the winners. 

Tain Football Club bought their own ground while Grampa was Treasurer, and his business acumen secured them a good deal. Forbie Uqhuart, a neighbouring businessman, wrote a memorable account of another of Grampas sporting enterprises.

‘Leo was a generous supporter of local groups- the football club, the golf club, and the picture house to mention only three. He was particularly supportive of the youth in the town. I can remember him talking to teenagers on summer evenings in front of the shop. Sometimes he would split them up into two age groups and line them up across the road for a race. The course was up Geanies street, along to Manse street, down Hill street, then back along Academy street and the High street. First back (in each age group) got a large ice cream and second back a small one. There was very little traffic then and, of course, teenagers could not afford cars to speed along our streets like today.’

That story highlighted one of Grampas many endearing characteristics; he was playful and had plenty ‘joie de vivre’!! During visits to our house, while the family were talking, he would slip out for ‘a run’ in his car. Like his brothers, he had an Italian taste for fast driving. In his twenties, he took part in the Scottish motorcycle trials, a gruelling cross-country event on difficult roads such as the “Bealach”, by Applecross in Wester Ross. When he met and courted Rosanna he took her out in the sidecar strapped to his motorbike. Even in his seventies he was out with his older brother Charlie ‘doing the ton’ (ie 100mph) along the straight near Inverness airport in Charlies new car. 

He often took us along on his ‘runs’, our favourite being up the Struie hill, near Balaharn. There, he would turn the car round, switch off the engine and see if we could ‘coast’ all the way back to Edderton. There were always a few spots where we came close to stopping, which created a ripple of excitement; but then we would pass the summit and roll gently on towards the village. This was the kind of simple but enjoyable pleasure that seem to be most enjoyed by the very young and the very old. Whatever his age, Grampa remained young at heart.  

Not all his runs in the car were enjoyable though. He really did fancy himself as a racing driver, often forgetting he had passengers and accelerating around corners to their great discomfort. Longer motor trips out west on twisting, single track roads could be quite an ordeal. 

For Gods’ sake Leo, will you slow down!!!’, Rosanna would chastise him with their practised chorus. 

Christ, I’m already going slow!’ came Grampas somewhat disturbing reply; Apparently he drove even faster when alone. 

Once Grampa latched onto the horrible yet ever-present possibility that unwell passengers might soil the pristine interior of his beloved car, he cleverly installed sick-bags pinched from aircraft whilst on holiday, their origins betrayed by the distinctive logo: ‘Air-Italia’. As a gesture of compensation for his robust driving, he would offer us acid drops, the vile smell of which served only to make us feel worse. But he always kept a tin in the glove compartment (along with the sick bags) anyway. Just in case. 

Whilst in Caithness, Grampa met and married a local girl, Rosanna Bremner, from Staxigoe; our ‘Rosanna from Tain’, a Caithness Lass. Rosanna was working at the local drapers, Miller and MacKenzie (known as ‘M&Ms’), while Grampa was working for Peter Cardosi in the John o’ Groats café. Rosanna was born in Wick in 1906. Three of her brothers had died in infancy and her father, Rose Bremner, had died of pneumonia before she was born. Despite (or perhaps because of) these hard circumstances, Rosanna was cheery, kind, and mischievous, with raven black hair that never turned grey, she was quiet but never dull. She was grand fun and, like Grampa, fond of and had a way with children. Rosanna insisted that her family were not of Scots ancestry, but descended from seafaring folk; the Vikings who once ruled the northern isles and the eastern tip of Caithness. 

 

Article by Paul Donnachie