Our days are fanning out into more and more activities and events since the restrictions imposed by the Italian government because of the pandemic have been largely lifted from the beginning of June. When we think about what we had to go through for over two years: everything from the mask-wearing to the showing of green passes, the curtailment of social events, the social distancing, the staying-at-home, the avoidance of ‘unnecessary’ journeys, the daily news-litany of covid-19 deaths, the sadness of schoolchildren being deprived of their natural social development, the closure of playgrounds, theatres and concert halls, the abandonment of fetes, carnivals and celebrations… What we have had to go through will all sound soon almost unbelievable although it has taught us humans that we are infinitely adaptable and, even more, that hope springs eternal. ‘Andrà tutto bene’ – it’ll turn out OK in the end has been the permeating motto in Italy and although we are not yet out of the woods it’s lovely how quickly we can readapt ourselves to normalcy even though it is obviously a ‘new’ normalcy.

Two positive social signs of a return to a new normal (for we can never return anymore to the old ways after what hit the world at the start of 2020) were apparent last weekend.

The first was our afternoon spent in Napoleonic-style company at the Villa Reale at Marlia, Elisa Baiocchi’s (Bonaparte’s sister) favourite residence when she was Princess of Lucca.

It was lovely to wander among a mask-less public again in glorious summery sunshine, to appreciate the care the participants had taken with their costumes and , above all, to enjoy one of Italy’s finest garden landscapes.

The second event was a contrast between luxurious leisure and tormented wartime conditions: the visit to some bunkers on the Gothic Line, used by Jerry to slow down the Allied progress up the Italian ‘wellington boot’. These precious remnants of Second World War defences are now under the protection of an association who have refurbished a magnificent museum ‘della memoria’ at Borgo a Mozzano.

The new museum, opened last year, is housed in a former chapel. Our guide signor Pieroni brilliantly explained some of the outstanding objects on show there. Most helpfully, the panels were described in both Italian and English.

A visit to two nearby bunkers followed. I was amazed at the standard of cement form-work and the finely conserved features. This first gothic line, built by the Todt organization using largely slave-labour, was never put to the test since it was cut off in 1944 by invading allied and Brazilian forces causing Fascist and Nazi forces to hastily move north to Castelnuovo di Garfagnana where the major battles took place and where the allied forces advance was halted throughout the winter of 1944-5.

It is the events particularly concerning this second Gothic Line which form the background to Anna Valencia’s enthralling first novel ‘The Chestnut House’. The book, the subject of my post at https://longoio3.com/2022/02/27/the-chestnut-house/, narrates a story of love and war, hope and treachery, tragedy and joy in a country torn apart by civil strife. We were privileged to have the author present her novel as the highlight of our gothic-line events before a select audience and to sign copies of the book for lucky purchasers.

Life is, indeed, an unpredictable mixture of sybaritic pleasures and the most difficult of austerities, of languorous pleasures and of unimaginable atrocities.  Attending these events last week-end fully made us aware of how tenuous our precious individual life timelines are. Let us always be aware of our luck in the face of what is happening elsewhere in our tortured but beloved planet earth.