Italia 'n' Caledonia is heart-warming story of the Italians who emigrated 100 years ago and started new lives in Scotland, told by Mike Maran with music performed by David Vernon on accordion.
Mike Maran and Philip Contini bring to Easdale Island a new version of a show they first produced 17 years ago.
Italia 'n' Caledonia celebrates Scots and Italians and is a new look at the story of our grandparents.
Italians started coming to Scotland towards the end of the nineteenth century. They were craftsmen, musicians, and small businessmen.
Italians fought alongside Scots in the 1914-18 war but when Mussolini declared war on Britain in 1940 these same Italians were labelled as 'enemy aliens.' It was a tragic time for Italian families who had made their homes in Scotland.
The postwar years were a time of rebuilding. In every town and village there was an Italian cafe - a window onto a southern Mediterranean culture. Happy the boys like Mike Maran and Philip Contini who grew up in a community where their aunts and uncles served ice cream and fish and chips! Happy indeed to belong to a community with a heritage of wonderful stories. And proud to be two of the Scottish Italians working today in diverse businesses, universities, services and industries throughout Scotland.
Listening to Mike and Philip The Scotsman reviewer said, "I thought I had died and gone to heaven!"
Ferries
Mon to Sat
07.15 (not Sat); 07.45; 09.00; 09.15; 09.30; 09.45; 10.15; 10.45.
On demand from 11.15 until 12.50 and from 14.00 until 16.15.
16.45; 17.15; 17.45; 18.00; 18.15
19.30; 20.00; 20.30; 21.00; 23.00 (bookable on Friday and Saturday only with 24hr notice)
