Yesterday evening at 8 pm a group of over twenty poets and lovers of poetry met up in Marina’s bar and restaurant at Casoli. Organised by Luca and Rebecca of Shelley House it was a highly convivial occasion. I met friends I’d not seen for a long time and the conversation was excellent. The dinner was very tasty including an antipasto, ravioli, maccheroni and finishing with a nice dessert.

Luca compered a group of five poets : Rossana Federighi, Maura Bertolozzi, Claudio Stefanini, Roberto Ragghianti and myself who read out two poems each from one of our volumes.

The event was part of the series of events celebrating ‘Bagni di Lucca, town of poetry’.

There is poetry in the beautiful setting of the town and this has attracted such poets as Pascoli, Byron, Shelley and the Brownings to the area. Our present Bagni di Lucca poet laureate is certainly Mario Lena on whom I have written at https://longoio3.com/2017/09/09/bagni-di-luccas-poet-laureate/  and he has inspired many younger persons to take up the art. I’m sure the tradition will continue well into the future if the standard of the poems I heard last night is anything to go by.