Last night, in the cool and mercifully (at least for me…) mosquito-free garden in front of the villa Webb, we attended the inaugural evening of ‘Scritture’, Bagni di Lucca’s literary festival which is dedicated to novels and books on music, art, poetry and photography. Tralerighe book publishers, with the patronage of the Municipality of Bagni di Lucca and in collaboration with the ProLoco and the Vicariate of the Val di Lima, have launched an event presenting these various literary expressions. The event is curated by Andrea Giannasi in collaboration with a group of authors.

The villa Webb was the holiday home of Lord Byron and overlooks other important buildings where writers such as Percy Bysshe Shelley resided. The French philosopher Michel de Montaigne, Alexandre Dumas author of ‘The Three Musketeers’ and ‘The Count of Montecristo’, poets Carducci, Montale, Pascoli, and musicians Puccini, Strauss, Paganini, Listz, Verdi and Mascagni were all guests at Bagni. In addition Napoleon Bonaparte’s family holidayed in our spa town.

All ‘Scritture’ events start at 9 pm. They are followed by wine-tasting organized by the newly-opened Cantabruna wine shop in Fornoli and a visit to three exhibition spaces in the palazzo.

The ‘Scritture’ festival opened yesterday on the theme of crime and thriller novels with Marco Amerigo Innocenti, author of ‘Why a gigolo dies’ and Lida Coltelli, author of  a historical thriller’ Il calzare della sposa’. These are two rather different thrillers but are united by investigation, mystery and doubt. Andrea Giannasi moderated the event. Afterwards there was a guided tour of the scary ‘Museum of the Impossible’ which I have described in my post at Walking around Bagni di Lucca – From London to Longoio (and Lucca and Beyond) Part Three (wordpress.com) .

On Wednesday 27 July, the theme will be ‘documents and history’ referring to the history of Bagni di Lucca from the Jewish concentration camp, to the arrival of the Brazilian forces, the Afro-American infantry and Pippo’s partisans. It will mention the importance of Bagni di Lucca’s location on one of Italy’s most important roads, the SS 12. The meeting will include interviews with Andrea Giannasi and Virginio Monti and will be moderated by Marco Innocenti. Afterwards there’s the Cantabruna wine-tasting followed by a guided tour of weapons and armour of the Vicariate of Val di Lima by Virgilio Contrucci.

On Thursday 4 August the theme is ‘letters of the past to today’s photographs’. It’s a journey into the Republic of Lucca’s history with the correspondence of the poetess and dancer Teresa Bandettini based on research by Simonetta Simonetti and deals with the noblewoman’s letters from Vienna to Bagni di Lucca. There’s also a trip through twentieth century history by Aldo Bertozzi with his novel ‘Storia di due diffidenti’. Finally there are photographs taken world-wide by Duccio Casini. As before there will be the Cantabruna wine-tasting followed by a guided tour of Virgilio Contrucci’s marvellous collection of games of chances once played by visitors to the Bagni.

We found the first night of the ‘Scritture’ festival both interesting and convivial. It’s a great way to while away those mercifully cool evenings in Bagni, buy some ‘novel’ novels and indulge in good conversation and excellent wine!