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When it matters ....
The drive from Austria to Italy will always baffle the senses. Cold mountain air with crisp, neat lines and everything in perfect order soon replaced 2 hours down the road with summer warmth, people and cars everywhere, crazy babbling conversation all around but,… still it all seems to work. Mad Italy! With a long public holiday in Milan this weekend the road to the city was paved with empty lanes meaning a perfectly timed arrival to the city and accommodation. A step up from Innbsruck in a nice quiet suburb of Milan. The boys looked immaculate as we left for a planned 4.30 start to the ceremony. The bump in the road was literally a bump in the road as every corner to the cemetery our driver tried was road blocked or out of action for another reason (one signpost later we spotted said road improvements would take 5 years and were due to end in 2015! – now that makes the Caversham extension look like a breeze!). We arrived to the cemetery which was surrounded by a civic park filled with people enjoying their day off work. Music blaring, BBQs sizzling away did not deter our boys as they conducted from start to finish a very moving ceremony. Lasting around 30 minutes of song and speech, the boys then spent 45 minutes reading the headstones and waiting to sign the book of remembrance. A meal in the heart of the city in a real Italian restaurant ended our day. One to be mightily proud of for our school and country. And what could make mums and dads swell with even more pride … well the sight of many of their sons doing their own washing at the end of the night. Well done boys. You stepped up when it mattered and displayed tremendous pride and loyalty in your school. |