For over a week the weather has been so unpredictable. Hot, almost summery, intervals have been interrupted by violent thunderstorms sometimes lashing the earth with hail. North of us, in Emilia Romagna, severe flooding has ruined many crops. In Florence a recent hail storm turned the city white and almost drowned motorists attempting the ring road underpasses.

Despite all this we did not want to miss out lunch, a book presentation and a nature walk given last Sunday at the agritourism village of Pian di Fiume.

Originally a small settlement a little way up the Lima valley Pian di Fiume was abandoned after the last war until it was bought and restored as an attractive holiday resort and events centre by Massimo Betti, Bagni di Lucca’s chief chemist and former mayor. It’s in demand too as a wedding centre and boasts an excellent restaurant.

A fete champetre had originally been planned for the events but because of the changeable forecast we had our meal in the restaurant’s main hall. For ‘primo’ I chose a plate of large-cut ravioli savoured with herbs.

I followed this with capocollo (seasoned, cured, and thinly-sliced cold cut of pork taken from the neck or shoulder) and roast potatoes.  Both dishes were totally scrumptious!

We were thus well-prepared to pass an afternoon strolling in the company of plant expert, local historian, anthropologist, novelist, shaman and TV personality Marco Pardini. We were first introduced to this universal naturalist at a local event and have since become devoted acolytes. Marco has an extraordinary way of talking about his pet ethnobotanical subject; he not only describes plants in Linnaean terms but also explains their curative qualities, symbolic and mythological significance. Magic!

We read Marco’s second book ‘Erbario Poetico’ where he describes meeting local country people who tell him about their family’s farming traditions and where he weaves an enjoyable pilgrimage through some of the plant families inhabiting our amazingly diverse part of the world. With his third book  Marco has turned novelist. ‘La casa delle parole ritrovate’ (The house of rediscovered words) combines two eras: the present with the first half of the seventeenth century. It is a partly historical novel whose themes involve the Thirty Years War which tore Central Europe apart from 1618 to 1648, the sack of Magdeburg, the plague which spread through Italy around 1630, the dreadful Roman Inquisition, ethnobotany and a beautiful love story.

(Massimo Betti (left) and Marco Pardini).

It’s really two books in one. The “modern” character is Fabio, an antique dealer of Lucca and the seventeenth-century one is Samuel, a German soldier who, shocked by what he saw and did during the siege of Magdeburg, decides to atone by making a pilgrimage to Rome. The novel’s modern narrative is printed on white and the seventeenth century one is on a grey background. The graphics are particularly lovely with period prints of flowers, plants and animals for the ancient chronicle.

There are many similarities between the two male characters. They are both pharmacists but also practice restoration. Above all a psychological thread binds them together: they are tormented men who have lived through dramatic events that change the course of their lives.

Of the two women involved in the narrative Marta is a rather secluded character, while Agnese is more central. She is a healer and herbal expert able to save Samuel who, during his long pilgrimage, gets infected by the plague near Camaiore.

The flower on the book’s cover has an important meaning both within the novel and for the author who told us that the main theme of the book is really the healing power of women. Marco mentioned his considerable research in Lucca’s archives and stated that the publisher Maria Pacini Fazzi gave him complete freedom to write whatever what he wanted.

We did manage in part to do our stroll among the plants surrounding Pian di Fiume. But the rain came with some insistence.

Perhaps another day we’ll be able to learn further about the curative power of plants thanks to Pardini’s amazing knowledge. In the meanwhile we have started reading out aloud to each other Marco’s extraordinary novel.

In this respect I realised that I too have mentioned the horrible massacre of Magdeburg in one of my writings. Looking at the date 1631 carved into a corner stone of the little chapel in Longoio where I once lived I was stimulated to write the following:

CRONACA BREVE PER L’ANNO DEL NOSTRO SIGNORE 1631

Il primo giorno dell’anno 1631 fu un mercoledì.

All’inizio di quell’anno si sentirono le urla disperate di più di venti mila abitanti, uomini, donne e bambini, massacrati a punta di spada nella città tedesca di Magdeburgo, già saccheggiata da un esercito imperiale.

Era l’anno quando, nel Massachusetts del nuovo mondo, John Winthrop fu eletto il primo governatore, quando “la gazzette”, il primo giornale francese, fu fondato, quando il trattato di Cherasco terminò la guerra della successione Mantovana, e quando i pirati algerini saccheggiarono il porto di Cork nell’Irlanda.

Era l’anno quando la città di Wurzburg fu catturata dal re della Svezia, Gustavo Adolphus, ma non prima che circa novecento persone furono messe al rogo per il reato di stregoneria. Guai a quelli che giocano con le forze delle tenebri. Le streghe si convocano ogni notte sul prato fiorito, dove risiedono in un fosso profondo vicino alle rovine di un antico monastero.  Sentite i loro gemiti cupi durante i crepuscoli tempestosi, non entrate nei castelli fantastici che costruiscono sulle vette dei monti, abbiate paura e tenetevi lontani dalle forze di negromanzia e dalle lusinghe del demonio.

Era un altr’anno nella guerra più spietata di tutti i tempi – la guerra dei trent’anni. L’elettore di Sassonia – fino ad’ ora neutrale – si schiera con il re della Svezia per cacciar fuori l’esercito imperiale dalla Sassonia. Una flotta spagnola è intercettata e quasi interamente distrutta da una flotta olandese nella battaglia dello Slaak. Il sangue cola senza fine, e nell’autunno dello stesso anno, nella battaglia di Breitenfeld, l’esercito imperiale è sconfitto dal re della Svezia, segnando la prima vittoria per i protestanti nell’infame guerra.

Era l’anno quando, all’oriente, nella città di Agra, nell’impero dei Moghul, cominciano a costruire gli architetti Ustad Ahmad Lahauri, Indiano, e Geronimo Veroneo, Italiano, il Taj Mahal,  segno supremo di amore di un uomo per una donna, e una delle nuove sette meraviglie del mondo.

In quest’anno nacquero tra tanti ricordati e dimenticati:

La poetessa gallese, Katherine Philips

Il poeta inglese, John Dryden

Il giudice ai processi di stregoneria di Salem, William Stoughton

La filosofa inglese, Lady Anne Finch Conway.

Muoiono in quest’anno: Michelagnolo Galilei, compositore e liutaio fratello minore di Galileo Galilei

Il poeta e prelato inglese, John Donne.

Mumtaz Mahal, la moglie prelibata di Shah Jahan, creatore del Taj Mahal

Cesare Cremonini, filosofo Italiano.

Guillén de Castro y Bellvis, il drammaturgo Spagnuolo

La regina della Danimarca, Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow,

Michael Drayton, il poeta inglese, amico di Shakespeare

In quest’anno, come si legge sulla pietra angolare, costruiscono degli architetti ignoti e dei muratori obliati, tra la selva e la mulattiera che conduce alla torre della roccaforte, nella Controneria della val di Lima, nel villaggio di Longoio, la chiesina, dedicata alla Madonna dei dolori, dove vi trovate tutt’ora.

Glória in excélsis Deo et in terra pax homínibus bonæ voluntátis.

Laus Deo anno 1631.

***

Enlish translation follows:

SHORT CHRONICLE FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1631

The first day of the year 1631 was a Wednesday.

At the beginning of that year, the desperate cries of more than twenty thousand inhabitants, men, women and children, were heard massacred at the point of the sword in the German city of Magdeburg, already sacked by an imperial army.

It was the year when, in New World Massachusetts, John Winthrop was elected its first governor, when “la gazzette”, the first French newspaper, was founded, when the Treaty of Cherasco ended the War of the Mantuan Succession, and when the pirates Algerians sacked the port of Cork in Ireland.

It was the year when the city of Wurzburg was captured by the king of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, but not before some nine hundred people were burned at the stake for the crime of witchcraft. Woe to those who play with the forces of darkness. The witches convene each night to the flowery meadow, where they reside in a deep ditch near the ruins of an ancient monastery. Hear their dark moans during the stormy twilights, do not enter the fantastic castles they build on the mountain tops, be afraid and keep away from the forces of necromancy and the allurements of the devil.

It was another year in the most ruthless war of all time – the Thirty Years War. The elector of Saxony – hitherto neutral – sides with the king of Sweden to drive the imperial army out of Saxony. A Spanish fleet is intercepted and almost entirely destroyed by a Dutch fleet at the Battle of the Slaak. Blood flows without end, and in the autumn of the same year, at the battle of Breitenfeld, the imperial army is defeated by the king of Sweden, marking the first victory for the Protestants in the infamous war.

It was the year when, in the east, in the city of Agra, in the Mughal empire, the architects Ustad Ahmad Lahauri, from India, and Geronimo Veroneo, from Italy, began to build the Taj Mahal, the supreme sign of a man’s love for a woman, and one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

In this year among many remembered and forgotten were born:

Welsh poet, Katherine Philips

The English poet, John Dryden

The judge at the Salem witchcraft trials, William Stoughton

The English philosopher, Lady Anne Finch Conway.

Die in this year: Michelagnolo Galilei, composer and luthier younger brother of Galileo Galilei

The English poet and prelate, John Donne.

Mumtaz Mahal, the dainty wife of Shah Jahan, creator of the Taj Mahal

Cesare Cremonini, Italian philosopher.

Guillén de Castro y Bellvis, the Spanish playwright

The Queen of Denmark, Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow,

Michael Drayton, the English poet, friend of Shakespeare

In this year, as we read on the cornerstone, between the forest and the mule track that leads to the tower of the stronghold, in the Controneria of the Val di Lima, in the village of Longoio, the little church dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, where you are may be today.

Glória in excélsis Deo et in terra pax homínibus bonæ voluntátis.

Laus Deo anno 1631.