‘Shelley House’, Bagni di Lucca Villa’s brilliant bookshop run by Luca and Rebecca, is closing after barely two years.  This is, indeed, sad news since ‘Shelley House’ was more than just a bookshop; it was a meeting place for poets, authors and all those interested in literature and the arts. Rebecca and Luca organized book presentations, art exhibitions and special events like the Brownings’ evening walk along the Lima river, described in my post at:

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2015/08/18/a-romantic-evening-of-poetry-along-bagni-di-luccas-river/

Luca and Rebecca also organise the well-known Shelley Festival which has received the patronage of the Italian President. They are also publishers (Edizioni Cinque Marzo) for several writers including myself (‘Septet’, ‘Four Kingdoms’).

Strangely enough, I had presentiments, even before the news, that this lovely bookshop in Bagni di Lucca would not last all that long. Encountering difficult moments in their former location at Viareggio, with its sixty thousand plus inhabitants, how could Luca and Rebecca have captured a more receptive market, despite their most valiant publicity efforts, in a town which barely counts six thousand unless they had an immensely strong on-line presence?

Looking at  comments in Facebook I see the same thoughts came to the mind of several other persons. Here are some of them:

“It’s sad but, unfortunately, they don’t see a future. They came to Bagni di Lucca full of hope and courage but they had to give up”.

“It lasted from morning till evening. I’m sorry.”

“What a pity!”

“It’s a pity. They did their best for our area even if they aren’t from here. They seemed so interested in Bagni di Lucca’s history, culture and everything to do with it. I’m sorry. Bit by bit nothing will remain for us.”

“It’s a pity but with on-line sales and e-readers this is what happens. And not only bookshops..”

“I’m sorry but I’m not surprised, I would be astonished if the opposite happened…”

“On-line sites are destroying so many high street retail shops. How many people have never bought a book? Let’s add, too, how little Italians read. Even in Lucca famous bookshops have closed. Let’s ask ourselves some questions.”

***

With this sad news about Bagni di Lucca’s only dedicated bookshop let’s look on the positive side of things and note the following new hopes for this town in 2018:

• A newly refurbished Corona hotel which will soon open as a ‘boutique’ hotel.
• A new greengrocers’ opening at BDL Ponte
• A new beauty parlour opening at BDL villa.

However, these are no substitute for the departure of Luca and Rebecca (who had been encouraged to come here by former mayor Betti) from Bagni di Lucca Villa. I, for one, shall miss them and all the activities they dedicated to a place they had fallen in love with for its Shelley connections. The irony is that if the bookshop had been kept open it would have been able to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of the arrival of Percy Bysshe and Mary Shelley to Bagni di Lucca (plus, of course, the anniversary of the first edition of Mary’s novel ‘Frankenstein’).

‘Plus ça change’ in Bagni di Lucca, it seems.

For your reference here are the links, chronologically arranged, to all the blog posts I wrote on the subject of Luca and Rebecca’s Shelley House:

 

2015

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2015/08/18/a-romantic-evening-of-poetry-along-bagni-di-luccas-river/

 

2016

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/01/21/two-new-exhibition-spaces-in-bagni-di-lucca/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/01/30/bagni-di-luccas-casa-shelley/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/02/09/loves-philosophy/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/02/14/cassiopeia-and-the-female-principle/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/02/16/after-the-world/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/02/27/septet/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/02/28/allegra-con-spirito/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/03/11/meet-the-stars-at-bagni-di-luccas-1950s-fashion-show/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/vitalitis-sculpture-opens-at-shelley-house/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/04/08/a-plea-for-justice-and-civility-in-italy/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/04/16/stunning-photography-at-shelley-house/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/04/23/heres-to-will/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/04/24/the-beechwood-of-the-black-fate/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/05/04/sunset-with-shelley-and-respighi/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/05/27/shelley-at-the-house/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/06/07/green-landscapes-in-a-pink-room/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/06/08/on-indian-ink-in-art/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/nino-chiesas-mastery-of-artistic-techniques/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/08/10/infra-red-at-bagnis-shelley-house/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/09/03/light-boxes-at-bagni-di-lucca-villa/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/11/19/the-sounding-cataract-haunts-me-like-a-passion/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/12/06/shelley-houses-first-birthday/

 

2017

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2017/03/04/peace-doves/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2017/03/14/yielding-mothers/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2017/03/15/water-and-life-at-bagni-di-luccas-shelley-house/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2017/03/20/my-life-as-a-woman/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2017/04/08/love-of-literature-in-mediaevalle/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2017/05/21/vico-pancellorums-secret-language/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2017/06/15/cor-cordium/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2017/06/17/of-summer-love-and-death/

https://longoio3.com/2017/07/03/puccini-and-shelley-again/

https://longoio3.com/2017/07/22/an-evening-of-poetry-by-shelleys-house/

https://longoio3.com/2017/08/02/767/

https://longoio3.com/2017/10/14/poetry-please/