Monthly Archives: February 2018

Let’s Resource our Pools by Pooling Our Resources

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A forlorn sight greeted me as I returned home yesterday via the back route which passes by Bagni di Lucca’s swimming pools.

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It’s a picture of the covered pool which would have been used during the winter period. Look at the state of its covering and the rusting framework!

In fact, both the covered pool and the two open-air pools in Villa Ada’s grounds have been closed since October last year.

Why? It’s basically a question of money. The pools required urgent maintenance of their pumping system and updating of their facilities; the local council and the company leasing the pool couldn’t come to any agreement on how to finance this.  Last autumn there was, indeed, a demonstration against the closure by Bagnaioli  but it was ineffective.

This is really sad for we have used the pool facilities in winter as well as in summer. It was great to escape from the sometimes below-zero temperatures of our winter and seek refuge in the warm pool atmosphere. It was also a great way to get rid of Christmas time indulgences: swimming is brilliant for this.

Here are some pictures of the pools in happier days.

 

Whenever a facility is closed down the costs of reopening it increase with the time it’s shut down. There is absolutely no doubt that Bagni di Lucca’s swimming pools are a major attraction here.  After all, Bagni is a thermal establishment!

Despite the fact that there are several private swimming pools in the surrounding properties and that it’s fun to swim in the river Lima there’s nothing more pleasant than meeting up at the town’s ‘piscine’ and enjoying a good social time.

Let’s hope that a solution may be found that will allow Bagni di Lucca’s swimming pools to be reopened in time for the summer season. It would be tragic if they continued to remain shut.

 

A Plant That Cures Madness

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Looking through the price lists of British gardening catalogues I discovered that here, in Longoio (indeed throughout our region) we are surrounded by wealth as precious as finding oil or gold.

£20.99

It’s all to do with this plant which in the photo below forms the border of the path leading down from our little church.

Indeed, the hellebore also grows by the church’s porch wall:

 

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The botanic genus ‘helleborus’ is an evergreen perennial flowering plant consisting of twenty different species. Sometimes called a winter or Lenten rose it’s not related in any way to roses. In this respect the name’s a misnomer. (As the ‘Christmas star’  is for the Poinsettia, since that plant originally had nothing to do with Christianity as it originates in Mexico and was used by the Aztecs to produce dye from its red leaves).

Italy has five species of hellebore:

Foetidus. So called because it emanates an unpleasant odour. (Yet it’s a popular indoor house plant!)

Lividus. Found only in Sardinia

Viridis. The one that grows around here. Has an unpleasant smell. The petals are greenish, a paler version of its leaves. It’s poisonous but animals are sensible enough to steer clear of it.

Odorus. This is a perfumed variety.

Bocconei. This species is largely found in South Italy.

Niger. This is the one known as Rosa di Natale (Christmas rose) or black or rock hellebore.

Despite the poisonous nature of most varieties, the hellebore has medicinal properties, well known since ancient times. Here is a list of how a hellebore can improve your life:

  • The powder obtained from the plant’s roots and rhizomes, when dried, has cardiotonic, narcotic, emetic qualities and cures oedemas. It is also a strong purgative.
  • Externally used the hellebore can cure some skin diseases
  • The fluid extract of the roots and rhizome of the hellebores which grow around here have sedative properties.
  • In literature there’s a reference to the hellebore’s curative properties in Petronius’ Satyricon. Written around 40 A.D. it’s the account of an orgiastic banquet. (Have you seen Fellini’s film?). In the book Crisippus, a Stoic philosopher, “to refine his perceptive capacity clears his mind three times drinking a potion made with hellebore”. There’s also a reference in Floccus’s third satire where hellebore is regarded as an effective remedy against madness. (Good to know that…)
  • If one is not interested in the hellebore’s medicinal properties one can always use it to distil a hallucinogenic drink as described by Pliny and Lucian. I have yet to verify this characteristic of the plant.

I’d better check out with Betti’s chemist shop in Bagni di Lucca Villa as the former mayor is an authority on natural cures.

Since, like the poinsettia in Mexico and Asia, the hellebore is here considered something of a weed I should bring some specimens to the UK and sell them in London’s Columbia Road flower market (open on Sundays). Perhaps their sale might help me subsidise my fare?

Incidentally what does the name ‘Hellebore’ mean? It’s actually from ancient Greek ‘ellos’ meaning ‘fawn’ and ‘bore’ meaning ‘eating’. So a hellebore is a plant eaten by fawns? How come they don’t get poisoned I wonder…

 

 

US Jeeps Cross the Devil’s Bridge

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Recently, photographs dating from the last years of WW2 have appeared on local Facebook pages.

I was particularly struck by this one showing the famed Ponte Del Diavolo / Ponte Della Maddalena at Borgo a Mozzano being crossed by Allied Jeeps in 1944.

Here is the fabulous bridge as I saw it the other week. How the weather changes from one day to the next!

 

 

 

With all the other bridges blown up by the retreating Nazi-fascist troops the mediaeval bridge at Borgo a Mozzano was the only way to cross the Serchio north of Lucca. I suspect Jerry didn’t blow it up because he thought no vehicles would be able to use it. He was obviously wrong…

Thank goodness Jerry thought that. It would have been another tragedy to have lost this lovely bridge to the ravages of war. For instance, there used to be an attractive mediaeval bridge at nearby Calavorno:

After the war a new bridge was built further upstream which anyone going from Bagni di Lucca to Gallicano will recognize:

I’m wondering whether the Devil’s bridge was tested for carrying capacity before the Jeeps crossed it. I would have loved to hear the conversation among the US troops at the time.

Of course, it’s impossible to cross this amazing bridge by car now as there’s a bollard stuck in the middle of its entrance. If it were possible to get past this I’m sure arrests would follow, quite apart from having one’s photo plastered on the regional newspapers.

It’s a sobering thought, however, that a bridge built in the twelfth century by that formidable woman, Matilde di Canossa, to facilitate the crossing of pilgrims to the Holy See via the Via Francigena was used in the twentieth century, not to save people’s souls but to save Italy from having to suffer further years of fascist-Nazi hell and help to found a new peaceful vision of Europe.

Here are some further photos taken during that ever more tragic last year of WW2 when Allied troops were fighting the final battles against the Axis powers along the Gothic line crossing our part of the world.

 

 

 

Let us remember the over sixty years of peace we have enjoyed as a result of Robert Schuman’s vision (not to be confused with the romantic composer who has 2 ‘n’s at the end of his name).

The terrible thing about what is happening in the UK right now is not just the false promises proffered by a rapidly weakening government but the division it’s causing in families, constituencies, political parties and, ultimately, the country itself. The wounds inflicted by this atrocious dogmatic nonsense are, in my opinion, similar to those caused by the policy of appeasement in the 1930’s and the changed imperial outlook after the last conflict.

Bagni di Lucca’s Three Carnival Venues

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There’s a great carnival tradition in Bagni di Lucca both at Fornoli and Villa and also at Ponte.

The wonderful costumes representing Italian regions were a highlight of Fornoli’s 2013’s carnival:

 

Here are glimpses of 2014’s carnival.

And this year will be no exception; the sign at the entrance into Bagni di Lucca is there to show it:

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This is the programme at Fornoli.

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And there’s going to be a grand programme at Bagni di Lucca’s Real casino the following Sunday, 18th February, specially for children of all ages with Roberto Lucchesi, otherwise known as Coco and other events from face-painting to a disco.

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It’s thanks to the likes of Marco Nicoli of the Mammalucco association and Roberto Lucchesi that these events are able to take  flight here.

However, do spare a thought for all those unfortunate souls who won’t be here at Bagni di Lucca to enjoy the fun…

 

Guzzano’s Church on the Hill

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The Chiesa Del Poggio at Guzzano, the next but one village to Longoio is a quite large and beautiful building. The church is easily missed as it’s hidden by a thick forest on top of the little hill (poggio) which gives the church its name.  Here are some photos I took of it in 2008 when it was always locked up and quite neglected.

On January 25th 2013 the church was extensively damaged by an earthquake. As a result much of the ceiling above the altar fell down, damaging the floor and benches. Fortunately, no-one was in the building at the time, else they could have been seriously injured or even killed.

I felt that the vaulting, which is a later 1537 addition, did not need to be restored but that the uncovered roof beams should be left exposed as they are more in the spirit of the original mediaeval construction and are also interestingly decorated.

Happily, thanks to local efforts, the church was restored and reopened for church service in August 2014. Fortunately it was hardly touched by the great storm of March 8th 2015, a tribute to its restorers.

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever and the church certainly has its own special beauty features.

First, is its position in the centre of a thick wood and at the top of a hill which (for me) evokes passages from Malory’s Arthurian romances.

Second, is its size: there are aisleless bays separated by five beautiful arches, the one nearest the altar flanked by gorgeous classical Tuscan columns in Pietra Serena – part of the ceiling here still retains its mediaeval lozenge-painted beams,.

Like so many churches and chapels in our part of the world the church, dedicated to the Madonna of Succour, is rarely open. The best time to visit it, however, is during May, the month dedicated to the Virgin.