IT’S an intriguing thought: how do others see us? In pursuit of answers, journalists are, now and then, take to the streets in search of tourists who might be happy to volunteer an opinion about the newspaper’s town or city.
Just such an exercise was carried out by an Evening Times reporter in the summer of 1977, and among the visitors he approached were Giovanni Vigneri and his wife Anastasia, from Sicily (pictured above). Their Glasgow base was the Ivanhoe Hotel in Buchanan Street.
Giovanni, a public notary, said: “Glasgow suits us. It’s a good place to visit the Highlands from and it’s a good spot to come back to. I visited it once, 17 years ago [ie, in 1960] and I had heard there were a lot of changes, but I can hardly believe the difference. It has a much sunnier aspect somehow and there are so many fine new buildings. Everything seems much brighter.”
If the couple had one complaint, it was about the lack of camping facilities in the city.
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Also interviewed was Alex Pratter, a solicitor from Salzburg, who was visiting with his wife, Gertraud. “The general picture of Glasgow”, he said, “is that it’s an industrial city with over a million inhabitants but it is well known for its buildings. There have been quite a few changes for the better, although we were puzzled by the large number of broken-down and ruined houses in the districts as you enter the city”.
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