Bracchi - Here Be Dragons

As the century began

A few miles south of Milan

Was where and when my great Grandad was raised

As unemployment hit hard

All around his back yard

He drew the card of the emigree

The British empire was a draw

For all the region’s poor

So to Britania’s shore he set sail

Set off with a goal in mind

He walked a day or nine

To the mining valleys of south Wales

Call me Bracchi Welsh can’t remember Cottica or Campanini

Call me Bracchi in Italiano mi chiamo Michelini

Call me Bracchi in Galese Bracchi

There was the Franci and Sabrini

Rabbiotti Campanini

Balestrasi Michelini and the Sacchi

And as we raised our homes

Amoungst the Davies and the Jones

We got known after the first here the Bracchi

40, 000 men

Worked underground back then

But we did not intend becoming miners

Though we worked the Rhondda seams

We kept our fingers clean

Served coffee and ice-cream in Bracchi diners

But the bubble didn’t last

Soon the mining boom had past

The economy sank fast to it’s knees

Though the coal reserves weren’t spent

The will to mine them went

As they sent cut-price coal from overseas

So as the mining stops

The population drops

So like the pits the Bracchi shops are closing down

Looks like our time in Wales is done

Like Grandfather like Grandson

It’s to London this emigree is bound