Found Audio – A Trip to Italy in the Early Eighties

Over forty years ago, Lee and Netteka recorded a tape for a friend in the US about their trip from a United Kingdom to Italy. I found this at a thrift store and thought I would share it.

Over the years, I have picked up a bunch of used audio cassettes at flea markets and garage sales. While many are just filled with a music mixes, some are a bit more unusual. They will be recordings of radio stations, complete with commercial breaks, or messages exchanged with people through the mail. Recently I decided to digitize and share one of these tapes.

The tape was purchased right outside of Seattle, WA and was recorded on a 60-minute Philips Fero cassette. The case label says, “Our Fun Trip to Italy by Lee & Netteka.” It was intended for someone named Martha from Netteka because on the cassette, which she can see above, she has written.

Based on what I have learned while listening to the cassette, Netteka was going to send the tape, to Martha back in the United States. Netteka, who is a teacher, appears to be from the United Kingdom, but spent some time in the United States, and Martha is her friend?

She and Lee, who is older, departed from Liverpool and took a bus to Venice, Italy, and they recap the highs and lows of the trip. They are an amusing duo and I thought other people might be interested in their antics. So I digitized the tape and uploaded it to the Internet Archive as Found Audio for your listening enjoyment.

The recording is in two parts, Sides A and B. Each is about 30 minutes long. I didn’t do any editing or cleanup of the audio. The first 30 seconds of Side A is a little rough, but it gets better as it goes along, and I believe they get better at recording.

Listen to Side A

Listen to Side B

I based my guess that this is from the early eighties because of some of the things they mention on the tape, as well as the tape itself. The tape is a Phillips Ferro, which they didn’t start selling until 1978. They also mention discotheques, which I know lingered as a term well into the eighties, but I am pretty sure had fallen out of fashion by the middle of the decade.

They also mention that to visit the Doge’s Palace cost £4, which they say is the equivalent of 4000 Lyra. I tried running it through some historical currency exchange data and it sort of aligned to some early eighties’ data. That said, I am not sure how accurate their numbers or my math is, so I can’t properly nail it down.

So I am putting the window of this recording between 1979 and 1985. I would guess something in the earlier side of that range, although I could be wrong.

I am not sure who Lee or Netteka are or how old this recording actually is, but if you pick up some clues while listening or know Martha, Lee or Netteka, please let me know.

If you like this recording, I have a bunch of other Found Audio that I will be happy to share, so please let me know in the comments below.