My only remaining aunt celebrated her hundredth birthday this month. Regrettably she had suffered a fall shortly before which caused a fracture in her left arm just below her shoulder.

We were unable to attend the event but are assured that it went very well indeed and that it was a truly convivial gathering celebrating a remarkable lady whose professional life has been dedicated to social betterment.

We were also told that, despite her age and her injury, my aunt has still been unable to receive the care to which she is fully entitled as a British citizen.

Evidently, caring is in a very difficult situation in the United Kingdom at present. There just aren’t enough carers around and the waiting list to obtain the services of one is horrendously long. A major reason for this is (wait for it…..) brexit since new rules regarding work permits for non-UK citizens exclude carers from being classified as skilled workers thus causing many former carers from other parts of Europe to return to their country of origin. Ironically, my aunt voted to leave the EU but, clearly, I have no wish to remonstrate with her here regarding that decision.

In Italy there are no such problems with carers. In our own village caring provides a substantial source of income for many women who will also help out with their clients’ needs regarding shopping, cleaning and health requirements. Furthermore, in Italy aged relatives tend to be kept at home as far as possible without being farmed out to ‘case di cura’ (rest homes) which can be expensive here too (though not as stratospherically priced as their British counterparts). This is as it should be for the last thing most of us would wish is to be turfed out of our hard-earned dwelling and institutionalised in a macabrely-named ‘home’.

Indeed, an increasing number of older people from the UK are eagerly emigrating, not just to Italy, but further afield to exotic eastern locations like the Philippines where not only does a balmier climate save on heating costs but also where dedicated full-time carers can be much more easily found.

My maiden aunt has shown an admirably independent state of mind throughout her life and luckily this quality, together with support from good neighbours, will see her through this particularly trying time for her. I cannot help thinking, however, that, with an increasing proportion of our population living longer and becoming more dependent on care, I am probably better off where I am living in Italy than in a bungalow on the Costa Geriatrica in the kingdom of Brexitania.

(Our crisp dawn this morning.)

Today commemorates all women who have been victims of violence and murder by men. In Italy feminicide is a particularly touchy subject since, on average, one woman is murdered every seventy-two hours by males. In most cases the murderer is someone known to the victim, in particular a husband, an ex or a boyfriend; the excuse given by the assassin for taking the life of someone who once loved him is that ‘she’ left him as if ‘she’ was an object, a chattel he owned and would never let anyone else have alive. Sadly, in so many countries a woman is, indeed, legally still a chattel; no more so than in martyred Afghanistan where that country’s women’s football team has recently flown to safety in Portugal and escape from the wrath of the new Taliban government who clearly have devastating problems regarding women.

In Italy much has been done to raise male consciousness regarding the issue of violence to women since the days when murderers here got more lenient sentences by invoking the plea that their crime was one of ‘honour’… Today most towns and villages in the peninsula have red benches dedicated to victims of feminicide. Bagni Di Lucca’s public garden hosts one in memory of a victim shot by a jealous lover just outside the doctor’s surgery there and a more recent red bench is at San Gemignano. The chain bridge at Fornoli has today been spotlighted in red to commemorate this saddest of days.

I used to think that the UK did rather better in preserving women from violence and murder than Italy. Not so! In fact the scenario in Brexitania may be even more terrible in that a woman may be attacked by men she does not even know and who, in the horrific example of the abduction, murder and burning of Sarah Everard earlier this year, may even be police officers!

Last year we enjoyed a lovely walk through Fryent country park in North-west London on!y to find that the following day two sisters had been murdered there by a Satanist-indulging youth who hoped by this method to win the lottery. What added to the horror was that two police officers took photos of the bodies, describing them as ‘two dead birds’ and plastering the shots all over Facebook.Violence upon violence added to violence!

Even worse than this, if such a thing could ever be imagined, happened in the UK a few days ago with a whole family shattered when both mum and dad were murdered in their home while their children were sleeping upstairs. The motive was not jealousy, nor terrorism, nor satanism, nor perversity; it was the result of a dispute over parking!

Which brings me to parking in our own mountain comune. Fortunately, parking is generally reasonably disciplined with clearly allotted places for cars: no mean achievement for settlements built in an age when the main form of transport was by foot, if not by mule or horse.

However, there is at least one case I have heard of occurring in a local village where violence, if not murder, has occurred. But I do not wish to burden my readers with more unpleasantness on a day which should be dedicated to the memory of women abused and killed by male violence in the hope that the male conscience may be directed to eliminating this shameful practise not only in Italy, not only in the UK but throughout the world.

The chain bridge at Fornoli lit up to commemorate this day dedicated to women who have suffered under or been killed by men. (Courtesy Valerio Ceccarelli).

From my childhood, partly spent in Milan, I remember the ‘lavandaie’ or laundresses who would wash their and their clients’ clothes in the waters of the ‘navigli’, the old canals (now sadly largely filled in) which connected the city with major rivers like the Adda and the Po. It must have been back-breaking work to be a ‘lavandaia’, bent double with her heap of laundry on the towpath but camaraderie helped to alleviate a tedious occupation which stretched back into the mists of time.

Of course, there are no ‘lavandaie’ on the Milanese’ navigli’ today.  The coming, first of launderettes and then of affordable home washing machines, have spelled their end.  In the hill villages of Lucca province springs supplied instead the ‘lavanderie’ or communal wash-basins. There are some fine examples of these village ‘launderettes’ and interesting excursions can be made to visit them. For example, there is a sweet one at San Romano di Borgo a Mozzano. Here two covered basins are fed by four spouts. The larger basin was used to get the worst of the dirt off the clothes and the smaller to get them spotlessly clean. Woe betides if the wrong basin were used by a novice!

Just outside Trassilico and dating back to the 16^th century there is a delightful fountain with wash-house.

On its wall are some inscriptions. One of them (in translation) reads: “There’s no fire that burns more than a tongue that talks too much” which could, more idiomatically, be rendered as “dangerous talk costs lives” – it was inscribed by Spanish mercenaries quartered there in the 1500’s during a campaign between Lucca and the Estense army. (Was it a hint to loquacious washerwomen to keep their mouths shut I wonder?) The water tastes delicious.

Before the advent of modern detergents clothes were washed by hand with the use of ‘lisciva’ or a solution composed of ash and water. (Today modern detergents continue to have ash incorporated as part of their ingredients).  Laundry would also be boiled in a large pan with ‘lisciva’ before being rinsed at the lavanderia. I am suitably informed than this solution made whites dazzlingly white!

We are increasingly entering a society where communal activities are gradually being lost. Television and internet streaming are removing audiences from cinemas and launderettes are closing down now that washing machines are standard for so many homes. With the continuing pandemic home-working has become the norm for many employees and on-line shopping has expanded exponentially. We must lament the disappearance of those locations where one could meet neighbours and friends and exchange gossip and banter and never feel alone or isolated.

It’s now over seven years since tobacco shop and hotel owner Renato Petri died. His tobacco shop (which also has a bookshop stocking titles of local interest and a sports department), is still thriving. However, the Hotel Roma, formerly the original residence of Elisa Baciocchi, sister of Napoleon I, when she visited Bagni di Lucca for her summer holidays, remains closed and dilapidating.

There is the usual controversy behind the situation but let us hope that the hotel, where Puccini would also stay, will not decay much further and that a resolution may be found for the building is so much a highlight of Bagni’s main street and the town’s history that its loss would be unpardonable.

Today the sun is back after days of deluging rain. It’s so welcome and at last we can hang out our washing to dry. At the same time there is heavy morning dew and temperatures are forecast to plummet near freezing by the end of the week.

Looking through my recent photographs I note another visit to the seaside at Marina di Pisa and the nearby early Christian basilica of San Piero a Grado erected at the spot where traditionally Saint Peter is said to have landed and where he started his journey to Rome and martyrdom.

The basilica seems to be very popular with cats and the local feline population love to wander both outside and inside this glorious building which I have described in various other posts including the following:

Fishing for Compliments at Marina di Pisa

A More Interesting Way of Getting to Pisa Airport

Saint Peter’s Landing Place in Italy?

Our visit this time was no exception for feline encounters and were it not for this friendly cat we should have found ourselves quite alone among the pews.

I wonder if these cats attend Morning Service as well. I am reminded of Doorkins Magnificat at Southwark Cathedral about whom I have written posts (in Italian) at:

Bach e il Gatto della Cattedrale

and at:

Una Cattedrale Sconosciuta di Londra

Lucca’s ‘Giglio’ Theatre, one of Italy’s oldest public theatres, dates back to the seventeenth-century and got its current name in 1817 in honour of the Bourbon dynasty whose coat of arms shows three golden lilies.  

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We have been regular patrons of this delightful venue for many years now and have attended some excellent productions. I have described some of these in the following posts:

Nuts About Ballet in Lucca

Stop! You’re Beautiful

Early New Year Hours in Lucca

A ‘Manon’ to Die For

This November the Teatro Del Giglio organised four public tours of its premises.  We joined the first of these last week.

Since its foundation in 1688 the theatre has had a prestigious life as one of Italy’s ‘Teatri della Tradizione’. This means that, together with theatres like Venice’s La Fenice and Milan’s Alla Scala, it aims to preserve all that is best in Italian sung and spoken culture.

The present building dates from 1816 and was designed by Lazzarini for Maria Luisa di Borbone. (He was also the architect of her villa in Viareggio).  In its nineteenth century zenith the theatre hosted notable performances including operas by Pacini and Rossini with conductors which included Paganini. Puccini came to the fore in 1911 when his ‘Fanciulla Del West ‘(‘Girl of the Golden West’) was performed at the Giglio. It was in the same year that the plaque to Lucca’s greatest operatic son was installed in the theatre’s foyer.

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The tour included such items as the Royal Box with its salon. Our guide pointed out that, in fact, no royalty has ever graced it; even Lucca’s mayor and his guests choose to book themselves in the stalls.

Our guide told us that theatre has undergone several refurbishments and renovations which have happily preserved its appearance and, most importantly, its acoustics.  In 1957, for example, the gallery was opened out at its rear to provide much increased seating. (This where we prefer to sit because of its excellent visuals).

Covid which has so drastically curtailed the life of the world’s theatres has had a positive side for ‘il Giglio’ and our guide enthusiastically pointed out the theatre’s new features installed while its performances were blacked out for over a year. Most important is the facilitation of the change from operatic to prose performances by the transformation of the first three stall rows into an orchestral pit at the touch of a button using a gigantic hidden lift mechanism. This is an operation which would previously have taken a team of operatives a whole day to carry out.

We were glad to have been part of this visit to a theatre which has contributed so much to Italy’s operatic and prose culture. With the improvements carried out, in spite of a world pandemic, we are sure that the ‘Giglio’ will continue to supply not only Luccan but world audiences with all that is best in sung, spoken and dance performances. We very much look forwards to its new productions which are listed at the theatre’s web page at:

https://www.teatrodelgiglio.it/it/

PS you may find the following theatrical terms with their Italian equivalents useful:

ATTREZZISTA [property man]

BARCACCIA [stage-box]

BATTUTA [cue]

BIS [encore]

CAMERINO [dressing room]

CAPOCOMICO [manager of a theatre company]

CARTELLONE [play-bill]

CAVALLO DI BATTAGLIA [speciality act]

COMMEDIA MUSICALE [musical]

COMMEDIA (play)

COMMEDIA LEGGERA (Comedy)

COMPARSA [extra]

COPIONE [script]

CORO [chorus]

COSTUMISTA [costume designer]

DIRITTO D’AUTORE [copyright]

DIRETTORE D’ORCHESTRA [conductor]

DIRETTORE DI SCENA [stage-manager]

DRAMMATURGO [playwright]

FARSA [farce]

FONDALE [backcloth]

FONICO [sound technician]

RIDOTTO/FOYER [foyer]

GALLERIA [circle]

LIRICA [opera]

LOCANDINA [poster]

LOGGIONE [top row of circle]

MASCHERINA [attendant, mask]

MATTATORE [spotlight chaser]

MESSINSCENA [production, mise-en-scène]

OSSATURA [outlines]

PALCO(SCENICO) [stage]

PAPERA [actor’s slip]

PERSONAGGIO [character]

PIÈCE [play]

PLATEA [stalls]

PRIMA [opening (night)]

PROSCENIO [forestage]

PROVA [rehearsal]

PROVINO [audition]

QUADRO (DI SCENA)/TABLEAU [scene]

QUARTA PARETE [fourth wall]

QUINTE [wings]

RECENSIONE [review]

REGIA [direction]

REGISTA [director]

REPLICA [repeat]

RIBALTA [apron stage]
– luci della ribalta [footlights, limelight]
– chiamare gli attori alla ribalta [to make a curtain call]
– presentarsi alla ribalta [to take a curtain call]

RIFLETTORI [spotlights]

RUOLO [role]

SCALETTA [outline]

SCENOGRAFO [set designer]

SIPARIO [curtain]

SPETTACOLO [play]

SPETTATORE [audience]

SUGGERITORE [stage prompter]

TOURNÉE [tour]

TRUCCATORE [makeup artist]

Sandra was lucky enough to see the ghost of Puccini in the theatre and took this photo of it:

On this day thirty two years ago the Berlin Wall was breached. By the end of the year Germany was reunited and the former East German republic became part of the European Community. Today the UK is in the eleventh month of a new wall called brexit which divides it from the rest of Europe. Let us remember these facts

I’ve been organising my photographs on this rather dull November morning. Up until the new millenium my collection was somewhat limited: indeed for so many years there was just a handful of snapshots to bear witness to what I was up to. How I wish, for example, I had so many more pictures of my school and university days! When I purchased my first digital camera, a Nikon, as all my cameras have been since, my photographic collection expanded exponentially and in just a couple of months I’d taken more pictures than in all previous years put together.

In 2002 Sandra and I joined a small group for an adventure holiday in Egypt. Among other delights, this involved a stay in Cairo, an exploration of the Pyramids, a railway journey to Aswan, a felucca sail up the Nile to Luxor and of course, the statutory camel-ride down to the Valley of the Kings. Below I select some pictures of my wife in some mythical sites of the land of the Pharaohs. It was a truly fabulous holiday and it’s lovely to rediscover these photos of a pre-covid, a pre-brexit and a pre-pensioner time!

It’s all very well to have a quartet of cats in the house. Our felines are brilliant with keeping down wee unwanted rodents, warming up the bed, taking walks with us and generally being good company.

However, there are certain occasions when they can become a real nuisance. I am not talking about cat litter or of some of their progeny to scratch one somewhat badly. Rather I am referring to at least one of our cats to fail in respecting some of the petite wild life around us as they should (but can’t because they are not programmed that way). Archie, our only tom, who loves to find his way around our house even climbing to the highest kitchen cabinets…

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was noisily scuffling around under our bed when Sandra noticed he had grabbed a sweet little greenfinch and was playing with it ignoring all the other toys at his disposal like balls with bells and tunnels.

Fortunately Sandra saved the little feathered songster in time from the hideous claws of Archie and Mr Greenfinch was permitted to live another day, we truly hope…