Cerreto’s ‘Place of the Heart’

Posted on September 30, 2018 by Francis

The nearest Italian equivalent of the United Kingdom’s National Trust is F. A. I., which stands for ‘Fondo Ambiente Italiano’ (Foundation for the Italian Environment). Founded in 1975 and, like the National Trust, looking after and campaigning for the conservation of beautiful buildings and landscapes, FAI has a web site at https://www.fondoambiente.it/.

(See also my post about FAI at https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/03/19/its-fai-week-end-again/ )

Every year a ‘luogo del cuore’ campaign is launched in which people vote for a building or place worthy of protection from the ravages of time. I remember when that exquisite baroque jewel of a church, Santa Caterina, was restored and re-opened to the public in 2014 after years of neglect. (To see what wonder could have been lost for ever see my post and pictures of her at https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2014/07/09/luccas-baroque-flower-blossoms-anew/)

Friend Rita Gualtieri has been campaigning hard to save Bagni di Lucca’s magnificent Villa Ada in the old part of the town on the hill. As Rita writes “Fino al 30 novembre 2018 si può ancora votare. . Ma al 30 settembre il FAI “I Luoghi del Cuore” farà il primo vero resoconto fra i voti via internet e le firme sul cartaceo. . Vogliamo darci da fare questa settimana ed arrivare almeno a 500 su Facebook e Google . .. Adesso siamo a 370 voti. Forza ..” (“Until November 30, 2018 one can still vote. . But on 30 September the FAI “I Luoghi del cuore” will issue the voting results. . We want to get at least 500 on Facebook and Google. .. Now we are at 370 votes. Come on..”)

(The Villa Ada at Bagni di Lucca)

Originally a late Renaissance structure owned by the De Nobili Lucchese family, the Villa Ada was completely renovated in the nineteenth century, by Sir MacBean British consul at Livorno, when the two tall hexagonal towers were built giving the villa its present characteristic appearance. The building is surrounded by a large English-style park, enriched by artificial limestone caves, wrought iron railings in the shape of intertwined branches, and other elements of garden furniture typical of the period. A path, starting from the terrace near the villa, leads to a pergola and continues towards an artificial cave. The villa, purchased in 1975 by the Municipality of Bagni di Lucca, was used as a spa treatment establishment. To date, however, the villa is abandoned, with obvious structural problems due to poor maintenance.

It’s quite unacceptable that Bagni di Lucca can’t muster up at least 500 votes (needed for a building or place to qualify for consideration) with its population of 6,000 plus. Even if you are not a resident of BDL you can still vote. Do it now!

My own ‘place of the heart’ would be the Pieve di San Giovanni Battista, Cerreto’s former parish church. One wonders at first why the old church was built so far from Cerreto which lines the hill above Borgo a Mozzano. The fact is, however, that originally Cerreto occupied this site and only moved to its present position in late mediaeval times.

Built by order of that great Lady, the Countess Matilde di Canossa, in the eleventh century, San Giovanni Battista has a dazzling apse and some geometrically intricate stone walls.

The campanile is joined to the church by a picturesque arch.

Unfortunately, San Giovanni Battista is also at risk, as seen in my photos taken a few days ago. Some of the rifts in the stonework are quite frightening.

We never had the chance to visit the interior but evidently the church still has its hexagonal font. San Giovanni Battista di Cerreto antica has truly a place in my heart!

Autumnal Seaside

Posted on September 28, 2018 by Francis

It’s officially autumn in Italy and the seaside is more glorious than ever.

Baba Cesare remains near us at Guzzano which means he still finds the weather warm enough to delay any return to his ashram in Hampi, India.

Last Friday we had our own ‘fish Friday’, Italian style, by lunching off the catch from the little fishing boats in the port of Viareggio.

We finished our lunch with a delicious ice cream on the spacious seaside promenade.

For swimming we chose our favourite ‘secret’ spot near Migliarino which was wonderfully sparsely peopled.

I enjoy the start of the Italian sea bathing season and its end (which this year is lusciously prolonged). I’d happily give a miss for the ‘high season’ here and head for some secluded spot in the southern part of the peninsula.

Last Friday we had the best of everything at the seaside, fried fish, ice-cream, clean, almost empty beaches, a gentle sea and a splendid sunset.

affaccio-sulla-spiaggia

We took Sandra’s mum with us. This year was her 97th birthday.

A Reassuring Concert at Borgo a Mozzano

Posted on September 26, 2018 by Francis

Some events are unmissable but, unfortunately, they still can be missed. Fortunately Lia of the Borgo a Mozzano School of music let me know just in time of a not very well publicised concert.

On the 15^th of September, in the beautiful parish church of San Jacopo al Borgo, a concert with three young Lucchesi (and Australians) who now illuminate the international musical world from Germany to the United States to Ireland to Korea took place.

Do you perhaps remember their operatic debuts at the Teatro dei Rassicurati in Montecarlo in 2013 when the Mozart Da Ponte operas were performed in extremely original productions?

(To learn more see my reviews at

Phenomenal Figaro

“It’s more Fun in Hell” says Don

https://longoio.wordpress.com/2013/09/03/tutti-non-fan-cosi-con-cosi-fan-tutte/)

It was really a pleasure to hear and meet them after all these years, particularly in the sonoral environment of the magnificent Ravani organ of 1631, with music by Guami, Handel, Mozart, Merula, Zipoli, Bohm, Tomeoni, Puccini and Monteverdi.

Indeed, it was Brandani’s enthusiasm to play the recently restored ravishing Ravani which prompted the concert.

Mattia told me after the concert that he had an idea to return to the Rassicurati with at least one further production for, as he said (and we the audience utterly agreed) it was absolute fun to perform there.

Sometimes it’s important not just to trawl the web or discover some poster in a bar to find out about special musical events in our area. It does help to have musical friends. Thanks Lia!

(From left to right, Mattia Campetti (baritone), Don Francesco Maccari, Michelle Buscemi (soprano), Jonathan Brandani (organist))

(PS Future concerts are planned at San Jacopo now that the Ravani organ has been restored, I’ll see if and when I can get further information about them.)

Paese dei Balocchi = Toyland

Posted on September 24, 2018 by Francis

Il paese dei balocchi, ‘toyland’, is none other than Bagni di Lucca. Born and brought up in Collodi, where his mum was in service at the elegant villa Garzoni, Carlo Lorenzini, alias Carlo Collodi, was aware of Bagni’s hedonistic reputation as a centre of gaming and gambling with its famous casino, and as place of flirtatious encounters in its thermal baths.

Journalist and Mammalucco founder Marco Nicoli is well aware of this fact and has miraculously restored Bagni’s faded reputation into a centre for fun for children of all ages in these two days of September when the care-free days of summer encounter the realities of back-to-school and back-to-work.

From elf-man to bubble-man to bungee jumping with a difference to mad-hatters tea-party to old-tyme children’s games to lucky dips to azure magic fairies to shark-infested ponds to stalls of all varieties to face painting to Pinocchio himself transformed into a puppet show punch-and-Judy style to a Balkan-style street band from the Maremma there was so much to please and entertain.

It’s just a pity that life isn’t always like toyland for, as the chap from Stratford (not the one at the end of the Jubilee line, I hasten to add) said ‘if all the world were playing holidays to sport would be as tedious as to work’. However, you can have still have fun playing the game of life provided you don’t cheat at the rules….

Nuts About Chestnuts

Posted on September 21, 2018 by Francis

In Italy school classes started on September 17th after their very long summer break of over three months. Of course, those students who have failed their exams will have spent much of their summer revising their subjects and for teachers there’s a lot of preparation time involved, so it’s not all sunshine, beaches and ice-cream for many.

The ‘feste’, however, continue and now that today is the autumn equinox the ‘sagre’ (or food festivals) concentrating on local produce are ready to launch.

‘Castagnate’, or chestnut festivals, abound in this Apennine part of Italy. Their main features are products made from the flour of the chestnut tree, or Castanea sativa (not to be confused with the somewhat inedible Horse chestnut prevalent in the UK, well-known to any schoolchild who has enjoyed playing ‘conkers’.

Actually, horse chestnut or Aesculus hippocastanum has its useful medicinal purposes in treating such ailments as varicose veins, haemorrhoids, enlarged prostate and diarrhoea. If eaten raw however it’s a useful way of doing someone in as it contains a poison called esculin. This was a particularly popular procedure in mediaeval times.

No such problems with the Castanea sativa, however. Some of its very edible products are:

Chestnut jam. (Crema di Marroni). Absolutely delicious. I like it spread on crumpets.
Chestnut flour pancakes, usually rolled up and filled with ricotta cheese, Nutella and , in some areas, pancetta (a type of bacon).
Chestnut honey.
Bomboneccio. A sort of chestnut cake made with chestnut flour, pine kernels, fennel and raisins.
Pane casereccio. Chestnut flour bread.
Mondine. Roast chestnuts

It’s fascinating to visit the Castagnate festivals just to watch these products being made. Every area has its own particular recipe and names. For example, our ‘Castanaccio’ is called ‘Migliaccio’ in Florence.

What is remarkable is that chestnut-derived products were scorned at by the immediate post-war generation since they were associated with poverty and famine – indeed were called ‘food for the poor’. Now, of course, these items have regained their full worth as wholesome and tasty items rather like polenta. I wonder which ‘poor man’s food’ have become fashionable again in the UK? Faggots, tripe, offal, chitterlings, oats? Do let me know please. It could be useful after March 29^th next year.

The main Castagnate festivals in our area are the following:

Item	Date	Place	Features
1	October 7, 12.30	Camporgiano	Polenta festival
2	October 7, 15.00	Metello, Castelnuovo di Garfagnana	Local products
3	October 8, 14.00	Cascio, Molazzana	Local products, food trail
4	October 14, 14.30	Trassilico	Local foods and products
5	October 14, 14.30	Castiglione and Trassilico	Local foods and products
6	October 21, 12.00	Pieve Fosciana	Local foods and products
7	October 28, 12.00	Pontecosi lakeside	Local foods and products
8	November 11, 11.00	Lupinaia, Fosciandora	Stalls, old trades, local products

CastagnataCascio

Two useful web sites to explore are at

http://www.sagretoscane.com/

And

http://www.eventiesagre.it/cerca/Eventi/Sagre/Ottobre/Toscana/

Here you can research into what kind of food festival you are looking for, where it is and when you want to visit it.

What about chestnutty things happening in Bagni di Lucca?

Last year there was a castagnata but to date I have found not indication of one for this year. Maybe later on?

The following events, not necessarily to do with chestnuts, are on the menu, however.

22-3 September. All day. The fabulous paese dei balocchi or Toyland for children of all ages, inspired by Carlo Collodi’s immortal book about a famous puppet’s unpredictably elongating nose.

28 September. 9 pm. Il Volo della farfalla, theatrical evening in memory of a young actor, Stefano Girolami.
29 September. Patron saint feast with procession at Granaiola.
30 September. Bagni di Lucca’s second-hand street market and attic sale.

Further afield there is the big castagnata at Marradi which takes place every Sunday in October.

There will be plenty more happening, of course. The main task, however, is to enjoy this extraordinarily warm autumn before the weather changes and we huddle around a wood fire.

Bridging a much-needed gap

Posted on September 20, 2018 by Francis

In Italy bridges have assumed a tragic import since the collapse of part of Genoa’s Morandi Bridge in which over forty persons lost their lives. Italy, however, is the genesis of modern bridge building. The country abounds with some of the most ancient structures in the world. Roman bridges still stand after two thousand years and our mountains have timeless ancient packhorse bridges.

As for technological innovation I’ve already mentioned the amazing suspension bridge near Mammiano in my recent post at https://longoio3.com/2018/09/12/suspense-in-val-di-lima/ . An older suspension bridge is the stupendously elegant Ponte delle Catene bridging the Lima and two comuni, Bagni di Lucca at Fornoli and Borgo a Mozzano at Chiffenti.

Designed by Lorenzo Nottolini and inspired by his journey to England where he studied the structure of London’s Hammersmith Bridge (by William Tierney Clark, reconstructed by Joseph Bazalgette)

600px-Hammersmith_Bridge_1,_London,_UK_-_April_2012

and Bristol’s Clifton suspension bridge (Isambard Kingdom Brunel)

330px-Clifton.bridge.arp.750pix

the Ponte delle Catene was built in the 1840’s. Each side of the bridge is prefaced by imposing Roman-like triumphal arches and also has a terrace which serves as a centre for social gatherings.

On Saturday 15^th of September two important events took place at this bridge.

First was the inauguration of a defibrillator on the Chiffenti side of the bridge. (It’s now becoming increasingly difficult to perish of a cardiac arrest in our area. You may remember my post on the defibrillator inaugurated at San Cassiano thanks to the efforts of Paul Anthony Davies at https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/10/16/living-more-safely-at-san-cassiano/)

Second was the inauguration of explanatory signage describing the history and importance of the bridge. These are located on each side of the bridge: at Chiffenti:

And at Fornoli:

After the inauguration and the speeches of the mayors and all those concerned with the two new features of the bridge there was the customary spread.

It was a beautiful day weather-wise, for Nottolini’s masterpiece and for our health welfare. Well done all those concerned. Where there’s a will there certainly is a way and one across a bridge that will stand for at least another few hundred years!

The Best Sin of My Old Age

Posted on September 18, 2018 by Francis

How on earth do they do it in Italy? Get together a cracking professional choir with four supreme soloists, hire two grands and a harmonium, have a truly on-the-ball conductor, find an idyllic setting in a Franciscan monastery, and play Gioachino Rossini’s eloquent, eclectic masterpiece, his ‘Petite Messe Solennelle’, on the occasion of the Pesaro composer’s 150^th death anniversary. Then, after a superlative musical banquet, provide another foody one in the Arcadian grounds of the monastery gardens with pasta, a multitude of finger dishes and a mouth-melting selection of sweets. And all for a voluntary donation to the local Misericordia or emergency and ambulance service…

This wouldn’t happen in London except if one pays for three-digit priced tickets (and then the drinks would be extra, unlike the free-flowing prosecco of Sunday evening).

The simple fact is that in Italy it’s often too much of a bureaucratic bother to set up ticket sales, what with all the government taxes and so forth. Furthermore, Italians are generous towards such organisations as the Misericordia and, of course, the Banks of Lucca are not mean-minded machines like they are in Europe’s former (after March 29th next year, that is) financial capital, but are true Maecenases of the arts.

Rossini packed everything into this greatest of his ‘sins of my old age’ as he termed his post-theatre productions. Gioachino had given up opera over thirty years previously, realising full well that his style was going out of favour (he’d anyway earned his dosh out of writing such masterpieces as the ‘Barber of Seville’ and ‘William Tell’).

It’s a ‘Petite’, (lasting well over an hour…), ‘Messe’ (perhaps that’s right as it’s a hotchpotch with everything from the strictest double fugue counterpoint in the ‘Quoniam’ and the ‘Vitam Venturi’ to heroic arias worthy of the finest operatic stage) ‘Solennelle’ (strictly speaking a Mass is solemn but there are plenty of witticisms in Rossini’s version which can bring a smile to the most dour-faced listener.

The gorgeous evening was also the concluding event in the greatest music festival this side of Lucca. Maestro Roni’s inspiration for the ‘Serchio delle Muse’ (translation unnecessary) was to bring music to the smallest village, to the highest mountain side to the most distant valley. This year was as varied as ever with a concert on the heights of the majestic Pania della Croce mountain, with three wonderful operettas (yes Italy has a great operettic tradition equal to anything that G n S, Offenbach and Lehar can conjure up) and lots more.

If you know nothing of the Serchio delle Muse festival then inscribe it in your brain ASAP. It’s the best thing going around here and more than makes up for the sad demise (temporary, I hope) of Barga Opera.

I should add that the evening was also a nice social event and I met up with truly valuable friends, some of whom had come from Pisa just on my Facebook announcements.

Don’t miss out for next year and the great maestro Roni’s festival if you’re in our lovely part of the world.

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The Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness

Posted on September 16, 2018 by Francis

The somewhat uncertain Italian August and the incredibly sunny September have combined to produce a vintage harvest of our trinity – grapes, olives and mushrooms.

(Yesterday’s haul….the rain did help!)

I will keep the places where I find the much prized cheps mushrooms to myself but they are there, hiding under the foliage, shy to peep their heads towards our salivating palates.

The vendemmia, or grape harvest for wine, is already declared a success. Which leaves the olives. This morning I found my teenage olive trees already promising very rich harvests when the end of October and the start of November start.

Let’s hope the frosts don’t get at them before then.

Meanwhile the seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness is truly descending upon us. There was a distinctly autumnal tinge to the air today and the clouds never lifted to reveal any azure patches.

Happy, happy shall we be!

Posted on September 14, 2018 by Francis

This year, thanks to an exceptionally dry spell, la Vendemmia, or grape-picking for wine-making, has been going swimmingly well. It’s an occasion for bringing friends and family together and returning to one’s rural roots.

Fortunately, many Italians have kept ancestral homes and lands in the country as Italy, unlike the UK, with its nineteenth century industrial revolution, has only become a predominantly urban centred society since the last war. In 1945 over half the population was engaged as agricultural workers. Now it’s just over 5%.

I joined in a vendemmia last week-end in the beautiful hills of the Compitese between Lucca and Pisa. Since they are rather gentler than the slopes we have around here it meant that the vineyards were much easier to work.

The grapes were transported to a press which cleverly separated the grapes from their stems and leaves and formed a must which was poured into a fermenting vat.

Here it will stay for some weeks and be stirred daily to encourage the fermentation process.

We had a beautifully extended lunch break with some excellent samples from that other harvest’, the spaghetti one (!)

The end product is, of course, Bacchus’ gift to mankind.

As the final lines of Handel’s ‘Bawdy’ (to use the eighteenth century’s description) oratorio ‘Semele’ puts it neatly:

From Semele’s ashes a phoenix shall rise,
The joy of this earth, and delight of the skies:
A God he shall prove
More mighty than Love,
And sighing and sorrow for ever prevent.

Happy, happy shall we be,
Free from care, from sorrow free.
Guiltless pleasures we’ll enjoy,
Virtuous love will never cloy;
All that’s good and just we’ll prove,
And Bacchus crown the joys of love.

It was as an eight-year old that I discovered the obvious difference between Italy and the United Kingdom. One was a wine country and the other wasn’t (although it’s fair to say it’s making rapid progress to catch up in that direction, thanks to climate change and cultural tastes).

Suspense in Val di Lima…

Posted on September 12, 2018 by Francis

Recently I was asked by friends for suitable places and activities for their three year old grandchild’s forthcoming visit.

Of course, the big event in our area for children of all ages is the ‘paese dei balocchi’, running on the week-end from 22 to 23 of this month, in which Bagni di Lucca gets transformed into a giant toytown for children of all ages, with treasure hunts, the fairy’s parlour, face painting, street bands and theatre, the invisible man and so forth.

Unfortunately, the little one was unable to attend Toyland, and so I settled on the standard list of Collodi’s Pinocchio Park, Pistoia zoo, the playground at Villa and, generally, just enjoying the special natural ambience of our area.

One place was mentioned and the other day I checked out the suitability of taking a three year old across one of the world’s longest pedestrian suspension bridges. (The longest, incidentally, is the 494 metre Charles Kuonen bridge opened in Switzerland in 2017).

The ‘ponte sospeso delle ferriere’ (suspension bridge of the iron foundries) is a pedestrian walkway that connects the two sides of the Lima torrent between Mammiano Basso and Popiglio in the municipality of San Marcello Piteglio.

It rests on four steel cables and measures 227 metres in length, 36 meters maximum height above the river bed and and is 80 cm wide. In 1990 it was included in the Guinness Book of Records as “the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in the world”. That is, until the Swiss got in on the act…

Inaugurated in June 1923, the bridge was built following the design of Vincenzo Douglas Scotti, Count of San Giorgio della Scala, and director of the Mammiano Basso steel mill. It allowed worker from Popiglio, on the other side of the Lima valley, to get the factories without having to walk a further five miles to reach the workplace.

Count Vincenzo Douglas Scotti (of Scottish ancestry) commissioned Filiberto Ducceschi, who was responsible for the construction of the cables, while the masonry and support work were entrusted to Cesare Vannucci.

Work began in 1920 with the help of some thirty workers, who anchored the cables. At this point it was possible to create a pedestrian walkway, consisting of planks and metal nets hinged to the supporting structure, which connected the two opposite banks of the Lima river without any intermediate support.

However, after the mills closed down the bridge took on a new function as a thrilling tourist attraction. It has undergone important maintenance and consolidation over the years, the latest being in 2004, which have made the bridge more stable and resistant through the complete replacement of cables, side bolts, walkways and protections, with stronger and lighter material.

Spectacular LED Bridge lighting was inaugurated in 2014.