A considerable part of Bagni di Lucca’s high street is increasingly presenting a forlorn panorama of closed-up shops. This is especially so in the section leading from the Piazzetta, with its now-shuttered bar where we would once enjoy live music, to the post office. Gone is Daddo’s shoe store. The Aesthetic Butterfly beauty centre has flown off and the gardening store has long since stopped blossoming. The hardware shop expired forever when its owner died. Even the elegant coffee bar has ceased refreshing its customers with the best pastries in town.
However, all is not utterly lost. Walking to Boldi’s garage yesterday I noticed on the street’s left-hand side a shop front displaying a collection of photographs. Finding the door open I entered into a fascinating exhibition.
Behind one of the easels the photographer Marco Pistolozzi appeared.
Marco explained to me that felt he should use the emptiness of the shop to display his work. What a good idea to brighten up a dilapidating high street! Here is a selection of what I saw. Some you will recognise the Galgani smithy, the Orrido di Botri and at least one of the girls.
One should also visit Pistolozzi’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/marco.pistolozzi1
The photographer is particularly good at using drones and has made some fascinating aerial videos of Bagni di Lucca from the air. See https://youtu.be/PgDOJLp7Rgg
More people like Marco should be around to help save the High Street and turn it into something more lively. I remember a similar thing happening during the series of exhibitions held during those glorious summer years from 2013 to 2015 when Bagni di Lucca’s Arts Festival was celebrated in the otherwise, boarded-up shops at Ponte di Serraglio. I just hope that something can be done when this blasted pandemic is over. As-near-as-normal social life has to be restored soon before we all become hermits and waste our lives away in a societal desert like saint Simon Stylites who spent most of his life on top of a column.
The exhibition is open most mornings.