My sister, Anne Parry, who has died aged 75, made her career in English language teaching. In 1991 she moved to Italy, teaching at various language schools and eventually at Verona University (2002-11) and Ca’ Foscari University in Venice (2000-10).
Anne integrated perfectly, speaking fluent Italian and eventually acquiring Italian citizenship. Even her appearance seemed to change and become more elegantly Italian. She adapted easily to a European way of life, taking visiting friends and family on tours of the Valpolicella vineyards, round her favourite spot, Lake Garda, and to the Arena di Verona opera festival.
She would travel from her home in Verona to work in Venice by train and then gondola, standing with the locals, as sitting down would have marked her out as a tourist. Emma, her daughter from a relationship with Mario Vaccari, was born in Italy, and grew up bilingual and immersed in European culture. Later, in 1991, Anne met Mario Zenari while hiking on Monte Baldo, and they were married at Juliet’s Tomb in Verona in 1998.
A turning point in Anne’s life came with the Brexit referendum in 2016, which she saw as an attack on her very identity. She had always been a force of nature and a fighter for human rights, but now she “burst into action”, as one of her friends put it. She wrote about her own experience for the In Limbo project launched to give a voice to EU citizens in the UK and vice versa, lobbied politicians and joined demonstrations. She also researched the history and the workings of the EU so she was always well informed. She was skilled in publicly explaining her views and winning support for them.
Anne joined the European Federalist Movement and was the secretary of its Valpolicella branch. In 2022, she stood as a candidate to the Italian senate on the Più Europa (More Europe) ticket. In 2024, she campaigned on behalf of the British politician Graham Watson (also an Italian citizen) when he stood for election to the European Parliament on the Stati Uniti d’Europa list. Horrified at the invasion of Ukraine, she also campaigned hard for Ukrainians’ rights and for democracy and did what she could to expose misinformation and propaganda reaching Italy from Russia.
Born in Liverpool, Anne was the eldest of four children of Ron Parry, a doctor, and Mary (nee Peace), a former teacher. When our father took up a post as a consultant pathologist in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, the family moved to Retford in the county. Anne attended Retford high school for girls before going in 1968 to Leeds University to study French and Italian. She fell in love with Italy during her year abroad. After living for a few years in Oxford, where she helped set up the Lake School of English, she moved to Italy.
Latterly, despite treatment for cancer, she continued with her activism, and specifically requested that her support for a strong united Europe and for Ukraine should figure at her funeral.
Anne is survived by Mario, Emma, her granddaughters, Diana and Tara, and her siblings, Richard, Katie and me.
