PICTURES: End of an era for Highland Italian Circle after Farewell Dinner at Kingsmills Hotel after almost 50 years of activity
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"It was like a funeral, where you celebrate the life of a person who has died – and I was trying to do that for the Italian Circle."
There is no easy way of closing a chapter of a community that has been uniting people and cultures for almost five decades, and this comes in the words of Neil Campbell (78), enthusiast of history, languages and former president of the Highland Italian Circle.
The association, which was born in the 1973 as a group for anyone with an interest in Italian culture in the Highlands – "from opera to ice cream and language" – saw the end of an era with a farewell dinner at the Kingsmills Hotel, which had previously hosted other events of the group.
"There are only four of us that survive from the original meeting where it all started," said Mr Campbell. "Sadly, Covid was the final blow for us, but it had been going downhill for a while.
"Such things have a life and they come to an end – young folks nowadays spend their times on other things, they live online and they don't join societies any more."
Mr Campbell was an Italian, German and French teacher in different schools around Inverness, among which the Inverness Royal Academy.
Back in the day, he recalls, there was a very active Italian community in Inverness, with many second and third generations opening cafés and chip shops in the city.
"There were so many that were interested in learning Italian back in the day, and many wish to study it – as well as Spanish – as it was a very popular holiday destinations for locals."
"It all started when our daughter was about two years old, we were a young couple, with a new job, new house and we were really busy, we all did our stints and we came back on. We were very enthusiastic.
"There was a period when we had a cheese and wine tasting at one of the city's hotels, and a lot of people turned up for these, they were really successful. Back in the day normally this type of tastings would last from 7 or 8pm and then you went home at 10pm, but for us, when the food and drinks were finished the singing and dancing started, and you wouldn't get home up until one o'clock. It was very popular, we sold a huge amount of tickets for this. That's where all the club's funds came from and this allowed us to get speaker from Edinburgh or Glasgow.
"We had guests from Edinburgh University's Italian department and other well-known experts, and once we had a guest who was from the School of Scottish Studies who spent some time with the partigiani and spoke about his experiences there and about the fascists, as he had been in the intelligence corps during the war.
"We then started having summer excursions – we had a coach taking us down to Leith where there was an Italian training sail ship, the Amerigo Vespucci, then we went to hear a young opera singer singing arias at the Nairn Book Festival in its starting years, we went to the Italian Chapel in Orkney – we had a lot of these activities back in the day."
Unfortunately, the final night couldn't go exactly as planned due to one of the most awaited acts – a performance by Italian singer Rolando Allori, who often entertained the nights of the circle's night with Italian songs and arias – had to be called off, with a couple of members having to go back earlier in the night.
"Thankfully we had our member Marjory Peckham, who has lived in Italy for over 30 years, who brought her guitar and sang some popular songs like Bella Ciao.
"It wasn't quite the send off we hoped for, but I guess this is something that affects many other events these days and at least we were able to meet one last time.
Mr Campbell said he now has the German Society, of which he is president, to keep him going.
The Farewell Dinner also raised £400 funds in support to Ukraine, with a basket for donations at the event and the remaining funds in the circle's account being donated to the British Red Cross Ukraine crisis appeal.
