5 AUGUST 2000, Page 26

Pro- and anti- Yank

From Mr Michael Hugill Sir: The American quoted in Mr Raby's let- ter (29 July) is clearly not typical. Neither were the two Americans sitting behind me on a bus from Rome to the airport who expressed loudly their relief at being on the way home, and their contempt for Italy and the Italians, summed up in a clinching, dis- missive remark by one of them: 'They'll never catch up.'

Michael Hugill

Kersfield Road, London SW15

'He said he's scared of stepping on the cracks in the road.'