Monthly Archives: February 2019

Due ‘spazii aperti’ a Londra

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E’ stato calcolato che un terzo del territorio metropolitano di Londra e’ coperto da ‘spazi aperti’, cioe’ parchi, giardini e campi da gioco.

Ieri, in una giornata riempita di sole e 20 gradi ho visitato due di questi polmoni della citta’.

Il primo era Ealing Common, una volta proprieta’ della famiglia Rothchild.

Il secondo era il parco dedicato al Re Edoardo VII, figlio della Regina Vittoria a Wembley. Anche qui’ ci sono zone dedicate ai giochi dei bambini, campi da tennis e sentieri per l’agonismo.

Insomma, cosa vale una citta’ senza i suoi parchi?

(Ps nel secondo parco abbiamo portato la mamma di Sandra che tra qualche mese compiera’ 98 anni….).

Gli scoiattoli

corrono fra i rami:

è primavera?

Responsible Local Supermarkets

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Supermarkets are often accused of being irresponsible for several reasons, some of which are:

  1. They help to close down local shops (just look at BDL’s high street)
  2. They spread pollution through clients’ cars driving there
  3. They encourage food wastage by bulk buying and special offers.
  4. They throw away a lot of the overdue date items instead of distributing them to people on low incomes.
  5. Some of them underpay and overwork their staff.
  6. They are too often built on green field rather than brown-field sites.

It makes, therefore, a pleasant change when some supermarkets show a bit of social community consciousness. I won’t advertise this particular supermarket except to say that it’s near Ghivizzano.

There’s clearly-marked encouragement to buy food which is near its sell-by date at a discount.

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There are collection points for voluntary giving of food to stray, and abandoned pets and animals (with a free token gift if one contributes).

There are also collection points for giving of food to needy families, so rapidly and shamefully increasing in Italy (not to mention what is happening in the UK and what will become worse after March 29th this year).

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There are also posters making people aware that abuse towards women (in a country where there’s at least one woman killed by a man every three days) doesn’t have to be visibly seen but can also be psychological and kept out of sight.

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I wish more supermarkets had a social conscience like this…

Another way that supermarkets can be more socially aware is with regard to the payments they make to their sources. Recently, because of the low price they obtained for their milk, Sardinian dairy farmers protested by throwing away large quantities of the stuff. ‘It’s just not worth us selling milk at the prices we get for it.’

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An extreme protest indeed…at least the farmers could have donated the milk to needy families. Meanwhile, a well-known UK supermarket chain has issued these labels on its milk products. I thank Sandra Pettitt for bringing this to my attention and for sending me these photographs.

What a Load of Rubbish….

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Have you as a resident of the comune of Bagni di Lucca received one of these notices recently?

AVVISO A TUTTI! CITTADINI

A PARTIRE DAL 11 MARZO INIZIERÀ’ PER I PAESI DI GUZZANO. LONGOIO. PIEVE DI CONTRONE. SAN GEMIGNANO E VETTEGLIA IL SERVIZIO DI RACCOLTA DIFFERENZIATA PORTA A PORTA. PER TALE MOTIVO LE OASI PRESENTI SUL TERRITORIO VERRANNO PROGRESSIVAMENTE RIMOSSE DAL 5 AL 9 MARZO. PER I RESIDENTI VERRANNO DISTRIBUITI I BIDONI IN DOTAZIONE NEI GIORNI 23 FEBBRAIO ORE 9 – 10 PRESSO LA PIAZZA DI GUZZANO. ORE 10-11 PRESSO PARCHEGGIO LONGOIO. 11-12 PRESSO LA PIAZZA DI SAN GEMIGNANO E 25 FEBBRAIO ORE 9-10 PRESSO LA PIAZZA DI SAN GEMIGNANO. ORE 10-11 PRESSO LA PIAZZA DI PIEVE DI CONTRONE, ORE 11-12 PRESSO IL PARCHEGGIO DI VETTEGLIA. GLI UTENTI CHE NON AVRANNO POSSIBILITÀ’ DI RITIRARE I BIDONI IN QUESTI GIORNI SONO PREGATI DI RECARSI AL CENTRO DI RACCOLTA DI LUGLIANO NEGLI ORARI DI APERTURA. LE MODALITÀ’ DI SVOLGIMENTO DEL SERVIZIO SARANNO ILLUSTRATE DURANTE LA RIUNIONE CHE SI TERRA’ IL 22 FEBBRAIO ALLE ORE 21 PRESSO LA CANONICA DELLA PIEVE DI CONTRONE. •

PER INFO CONTATTARE IL NUMERO 3407726629

My translation follows:

Please note all Citizens!

Starting from the 11th March there will be a door-to-door refuse differentiated collection for the villages of Guzzano, Longoio, Pieve di Controne, San Gemignano and Vetteglia (or whatever village you are resident in…).

For this reason the present refuse disposal bins in the villages will be progressively removed from 5th to 9th March.

For residents new bins will be supplied at the following times:

February 23rd

9 to 10 at the piazza of Guzzano.

10 to 11 at Longoio car-park.

11 to 12 at the piazza of San Gemignano

 

February 25th at

9 to 10 at the piazza of San Gemignano.

10 to 11 at the piazza di Pieve di Controne,

11 to 12 am at Vetteglia car park.

Residents unable to collect the new bins at these times must go to the isola ecologica (refuse dump) at Lugliano during its opening times.

(Which are as follows:

 

Monday closed
Tuesday closed
Wednesday closed
Thursday 09:00 – 13:00
Friday closed
Saturday 09:00 – 13:00
Sunday closed

 

The new refuse disposal procedures will be explained at a meeting on 22nd February at 9 P.M. at the rectory of the church of the Pieve di Controne.

For further information please contact Tel no 34 0772 6629

Base s.r.l. Bagni di Lucca services s.r.l. Via Val di Lima 10 / a 55022 Bagni di Lucca (Lu) p.lva 02403960467 email: baqnidiluccaservizisrl@legalmail.itwww.bagnidiluccaservizi.it

 

***

My observations:

I fear this new system has been brought in because too many people are irresponsibly undifferentiating their refuse. Considerable talk in Bagni di Lucca comune has been about rubbish.

It would, of course, have been much better to have had people responsibly using the old system where there were three or four large bins for each village (then replaced by the multiplicity of smaller bins we see today, with overflowing rubbish at peaks holiday times).

In London most houses have this system of bins with door-to-door collections without many problems. But then the average London dwelling is terraced, semi-detached or detached with a front gate and a garden path to the front door by which the bins can be located.

I fear, next to the pollution of telephone and electricity wires, which often make it difficult to take lovely photographs of local street scenes and sunsets we will now have the spectacle of a multitude of bins lining the often narrow and steep streets of our picturesque villages. In any case, so many dwellings open out directly onto the streets, lanes and alleys. So where will these bins go? And if the street is steep, how will they be balanced?

Moreover, many residents are not full-time residents. So what happens if they are away, not just to collect their bins, but also to put out the correct bin for the right day of collection and collect it at the end of the day?

I suspect these are problems that will have to be tackled by several full and part-time residents of Bagni di Lucca.

Meanwhile thank you so much to those irresponsible undifferentiated refuse disposers for forcing the comune of Bagni di Lucca to adopt this new system, the third one to be adopted in the fifteen years that we have been resident here..

 

A Brilliant Photographer’s Request

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Recently I received the following idea  from Sergio Garbari.

In case you didn’t know who he is, Sergio is a professional photographer who has worked for the Uffizi gallery in Florence and is well-known through his remarkable pictures. One of Sergio’s exhibitions was a highlight in the season of shows that were held in our much lamented Shelley House at Bagni di Lucca, Villa.

You can read about Sergio’s experiments with infra-red photography in that exhibition at:

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

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More recently, and in honour of the fallen on the hundredth anniversary of the Great War, Sergio went around our villages in the Lima valley photographing, both lyrically and tragically, their war memorials. You can see some of his results in my post at:

https://longoio3.com/2018/11/06/for-our-valleys-fallen/

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Sergio has proposed the following project:

Despite the untimely end of the ‘Borgo degli Artisti’ the members of the former cultural association have stated that they will present an exhibition at the Casino on the occasion of ‘Women’s week’ which opens on the 8th of March. Sergio has in mind to put together a small series of black-and-white photographs, similar to what was done last year, and presenting portraits of English women who reside, either part or full-time, in the comune of Bagni di Lucca.

Sergio is looking for twelve ladies (it is, after all, going to be women’s week!) who have come to stay in our area. I can think of several ladies who fit the bill perfectly . I will not mention their names here but I know them through their contribution to the arts and in entrepreneurship.

Realising Sergio’s brilliant photography I am quite sure that there will be many ‘signore’ who will be interested. All they have to do is to contact me via my email address at fpettitt@gmail.com.

I will then relay the information to Sergio who will arrange a photography session. Incidentally, this is similar to Kevan Halson’s photographic and interview project. The main difference is that Sergio’s project specifically concentrates on women and will be presented as part of Bagni di Lucca’s women’s week celebration at the casino of Ponte a Serraglio.

I am sure, ladies, you will agree that this is a very worth-while project and that you will be happy to take part in it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enter the Spirit of ‘Il Carnevale’ at Bagni di Lucca!

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The word “Carnevale” means “farewell to meat” and, in the Christian calendar, is the last time to have a real binge before the forty days of Lent austerity which, this year, starts on Wednesday, March 6th and ends on Thursday, April 18th, Easter being on Sunday April 21st. It’s going to be truly a late Easter – the latest date Easter can fall upon is April 25th and one will have to wait until 2038 for that to happen again.  Incidentally, the earliest date Easter can fall upon is March 22nd. We got pretty close to that date in 2016 when Easter fell on March 27th.

Easter is a moveable feast set according to the Christian liturgical calendar’s lunar cycles rather than its fixed feasts, like Christmas, which are set by the solar calendar. I don’t quite know why some liturgical feasts are fixed and others are moveable but I feel they may be a reflection of primeval pagan beliefs in which the Moon is regarded as the female principle as the Sun is the male source.

Parenthetically, the day on which Easter falls in any particular year is computed (as has been ever since the Council of Nicaea in 325) as the first Sunday after the first full Moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox of March 21st.

All over Italy Carnevale is celebrated with colourful processions, events and costumes. Those who have been to the carnivals of Viareggio and Venice will know what it’s like. It’s a great pity we don’t have a similar carnival season in the UK. It would certainly liven up things between the end of Christmas and the start of Easter. (Of course, there is one of Europe’s biggest carnivals at Notting hill but it should really be called a festival as it occurs outside the traditional carnival season).

Bagni di Lucca is no exception to the celebrations of ‘Carnevale’. Indeed, readers of my blog will have come across my descriptions of the various Carnevali we have had in the following posts, which are full of photos of happy participants in festive costume:

https://longoio.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/from-carnevale-to-pasqua/

https://longoio.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/il-carnevale-di-fornoli/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2015/02/07/its-carnival-time-again/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/02/03/two-carnivals-at-bagni-di-lucca-and-more/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/02/08/villas-carnival/

https://longoio3.com/2018/01/29/its-carnival-time-in-viareggio/

https://longoio3.com/2018/02/02/bagni-di-luccas-three-carnival-venues/

https://longoio3.com/2018/02/14/fabulous-fun-at-fornolis-carnival/

https://longoio3.com/2018/02/16/bread-and-confetti-at-bagni-di-luccas-casino/

https://longoio3.com/2018/02/22/loads-of-bread-and-confetti-at-bdls-casino/

What about Carnevale at Bagni di Lucca this year? In our area there will be two main events.

One is at the casino of Ponte di Serraglio with the inimitable presentation of Roberto Lucchesi:

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The other is at Fornoli under the direction of Marco Nicoli who has asked me to be part of the jury in selecting the best costumes and acts. (Note the reference to the first lunar landing fifty years ago….)

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A postscript: since there is still no Carnevale at the correct pre-Lenten time in Britain I experienced as a small child one of those times when one bursts into tears. It was in Italy when, as a child born and bred in the UK, but with an English-naturalised Italian-born mum, I was, in Milan, invited by my grandparents to a children’s Carnevale party. I turned up in my everyday clothes to discover that all the other children were dressed up for the occasion; the boys, for example, as Arlecchino or Donald Duck, the girls as the azure fairy or Colombina. When I overheard an adult saying to another, referring to my plain clothes: ‘why isn’t he in a costume?’ I began to sob ‘I want a costume too’. The occasion was saved by a cousin lending me his Arlecchino hat.

In retrospect, I excuse my grandparents but the situation for a child of not being properly ‘fancy-dressed’ for a special occasion can never be forgotten. Perhaps that’s why Sandra and I as adults, still love dressing up for special occasions like Rochester’s Dickens festival, or Lucca’s comics and games.

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(At Rochester’s Dickens Festival somewhere in the past….)

 

 

 

Fieldwork at Longoio?

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The weather in our valley continues to be splendid. Today I checked out one of our fields and was glad that our olive grove has endured well so far. I planted one extra olive-tree. The reservoir and tank appear to be full – no wonder in view of the heavy rains almost two weeks ago.

I love the catkins and the temperature was just right. The fruit trees show signs of life again and all we need now are the first buds of darling spring to leaf out:

 

 

Springing into Life

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Spring has definitely sprung in Longoio. The evenings are still spent snugly round the fire:

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Daytime temperatures, however, are truly warm.  In our valley flowers are already impatient to awake from their winter lethargy and return to life.

Primroses abound, our Camelia tree is blossoming and I’m at present in a T-shirt and sun-hat.

But I’ll let the photos speak for themselves:

 

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Be My Valentine 2019

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Our love is written in the mountain rocks;

the river’s swirl bathes our passionate words.

It’s carried wide on the wings of keen-eyed hawks

and sets to the soft music of bluebirds.

Our love has no age, no limit, and lives

beyond this world: enters celestial spheres

where time dissolves and purest gold survives

beyond all ages, beyond all our years.

My love, your bright eyes live with mine to see

the still centre of stirring creation,

the heart of the sun and the moon’s silver sea:

enliven, my Valentine, my love’s gestation!

(Traduzione)

Il nostro amore è scritto nelle rocce della montagna;

il turbinio del fiume bagna le nostre parole appassionate.

È portato ovunque sulle ali dei falchi dagli occhi acuti

e unito alla musica sottile degli uccelli del paradiso.

Il nostro amore non ha età, ne’ limiti, e vive

oltre questo mondo: entra nelle sfere celesti

dove il tempo si dissolve e l’oro più puro sopravvive

oltre ogni età, oltre tutti i nostri anni.

Amore mio, i tuoi occhi luminosi vivono con i miei a vedere

il centro immobile della creazione agitata,

il cuore del sole e il mare d’argento della luna:

anima, mia Valentina, la gestazione del mio amore!

 

Our Villa Ada: Results?

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Not so long I posted an item about Villa Ada, one of Bagni di Lucca’s grand villas, now sadly empty, prone to vandalism and subject to the elements. You can see the interior of this startling building in my ‘urban exploration’ photos at:

https://longoio3.com/2018/12/29/the-secrets-of-villa-ada/

I also asked people to vote for Villa Ada as a building at risk at.

https://longoio3.com/2018/09/30/cerretos-place-of-the-heart/

As co-ordinator of votes for Villa Ada, Rita Gualtieri wrote: “this is our sad result. In Bagni di Lucca we only know how to complain and be divided among ourselves. But do not believe it’s all over. . We will try again.”

This is the history of votes for Villa Ada since 2003:

CENSUS 2018 258° Place 1.074 Votes

CENSUS 2016 3.283° Place 19 Votes

CENSUS 2014 11.035° Place 1 Votes

CENSUS 2012 5.309° Place 3 Votes

CENSUS 2010 287° Place 2 Votes

CENSUS 2004 1.332° Place 1 Votes

CENSUS 2003 1.697° Place 1 Votes

I don’t think Rita should be entirely dejected. After all, thanks to her determined efforts, the most recent census for Villa Ada saw an increase of over a thousand votes compared to previous occasions, besides a placement raised from 1,697 to 258th. We can only be on the up and up.

As for two points, often mentioned with reference to Bagni di Lucca and Villa Ada:

  1. Lack of interest: publicity and sponsorship are the keystones today. The comune through its various departments, the pro-loco and the tourist office should be much more forcibly behind these efforts at conserving and revaluing Bagni di Lucca’s wonderful architecture.
  2. Lack of use of these buildings: this has been brought up before and it’s true that some buildings, in particular, thermal buildings have been restored only to lie neglected and dilapidated because no entrepreneur has come forwards to use and maintain them. Again strong and far-reaching publicity and sponsorship are needed badly.

You might ask what came at the top of the list of endangered places and buildings. It is a location which was at risk of almost complete devastation, as described in my post at: https://longoio3.com/2018/10/01/hell-on-earth-near-pisa/

It is, of course, that natural wonderland known as the Monte Pisano, which divides the Lucchesia from Pisa.

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The Monte Pisano got 115,670 votes! Clearly, the devastating forest fire last year raised people’s consciousness and it certainly deserved to be put at the top of the list of endangered locations (of which in Italy there are just too many…).

However, let us hope that Villa Ada may still remain standing in some dignity before local arguing inhabitants of all heredities finally realise what they might be losing.

In the meanwhile I applaud Rita and say, ‘Well done! We can only do better next year.’

 

 

 

A Beautiful View in the Südtirol

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In my post on my father at https://longoio3.com/2018/11/02/happy-birthday-papa/ I included the following paragraph:

Serving in the Eighth army under Monty in WWII, and at the battle of El Alamein, my father was then transferred to the Italian peninsula. It was here in the closing days of 1945 that he met my mother who was a nurse in the Tyrol. He was immediately infatuated by her with her amazing looks and her long Veronica Lake-like hair. I remember the sketch Harvey did of the mountain refuge restaurant where they would meet. (My dad was a brilliant amateur artist and, if given more time off from work, could have done a lot more in this art). Many years later Harvey and Vera returned to the place; the owners were still the same and it was truly a touching re-union.

I have since been contacted by a cousin who, quite by chance, mentioned she possessed some drawings which might have included something by my father. My cousin sent me photocopies of the drawings and I instantly recognised my father’s signature in one of them and, indeed, his style of drawing.

Subsequently, my cousin very kindly sent me the original drawing and here it is!

Although it’s not (as I remember the sketch) of the restaurant terrace of the hotel, it remains the ‘Albergo Bella Vista Monte Bullacia, Alpe de Suisi’, in the region of Sud Tirol, Italy. (The nearest big town to the hotel is Cortina d’Ampezzo).

The date next to my father’s signature shows 1945.

This is the albergo Bella Vista today.

I don’t have very much belonging to my dad in my possession (except, of course half of my genes) so this is truly a valuable possession.

Coincidentally, on the day this January that I received the photocopy of the drawings., I was waiting for the train at Bagni di Lucca railway station when I met an artist friend and his friend.

I mentioned to them about the possibility that I might receive the original of my father’s picture and showed them the photocopy. On the train the artist’s friend showed me on his cell-phone a photo of a war-time sketch his father had made. It was almost certainly of mountains in the Südtirol area and was drawn with the same fine-black-pen technique that my father used. (A copy of this other drawing is being sent to me)

I believe in intentional coincidences, if such an oxymoron can exist.

(I could add that my wife’s mum was born in the adjoining region just south of the hotel…)

Our lives are as gigantic jigsaw puzzles made up of myriads of tiny pieces which, in providential cases, fit together. Only find and only connect………

 

So was this the place

where thoughts of my life began:

amid snow-mountains?