In April this year Fabio Lucchesi, a former deputy mayor and counsellor of Bagni di Lucca, died peacefully aged 95 at his home near his family run Borghesi restaurant in Via Umberto. This is my belated tribute to a fine and good person.
Fabio’s life in the community of Bagni di Lucca was very full. As a member of the erstwhile Christian Democrats, he distinguished himself in three municipal legislatures, from the 1960s to the 1980’s, as counsellor for culture. He was also a correspondent from Bagni di Lucca for ‘La Nazione’ newspaper from 1970 to 1988.
Fabio was a very well-informed person, always calm and kind in his manner. He was a director of Bagni di Lucca’s Post Office and earned respect and affection from his fellow citizens for his affability and availability towards everyone in his daily life and in his political role as administrator.
Fabio Lucchesi was born in New York on December 22, 1927. He arrived in Italy with his mother in 1931, and went to live in Castelnuovo Garfagnana until 1943, where he attended primary school and then the Commercial Technical Institute, concluding his studies at “Vallisneri”. Scientific High School. In 1964 in Bagni di Lucca he married, Stefania Borghesi, from the old-established café and restaurant owning family of the same name. Borghesi restaurant remains managed by the same family.
(Fabio with his beloved Stefania who sadly has died too last month)
Fabio was also deputy director of the local newsheet the ‘Nuovo Corriere’ of Bagni di Lucca and president of the Lions Club, Garfagnana. He gave me a whole series of very informative booklets on artistic treasures in our area which were produced under his presidentship.
Interested in literature and in a wide range of cultural matters in general, Fabio was for many years president and co-founder of the Unitrè (University of the Third Age) branch at Bagni di Lucca. It is in this context that I came to know him. Fabio had attended conferences given by a previous generation of Englishmen resident in Bagni di Lucca like Ian Greenlees. He heard about my interest in cultural matters and invited me to present an English theme. ‘How about the architecture of English gardens?’ Fabio suggested. Of course I loved English gardens which in Italy had become very popular in the nineteenth century through their natural informality so different from the rigid patterns of the baroque gardens. But how on earth would I be able to speak to a well-informed audience in a language I had never used in a public context? Would I be at all effective as a ‘public speaker?’ ‘You can do it’ Fabio said, encouraging me.
So I prepared and delivered a talk on the English landscape garden. Thanks to Fabio’s reassurance the lecture went down a treat and I received many compliments for my first incursion into the Italian conference field.
(Fabio at work with Unitrè and Mario Lena our much missed poet laureate of Bagni di Lucca).
Fabio’s directorship of the Università della Terza Età for the following years at Bagni di Lucca enabled me to give further talks on Italo-English themes. A more complete record of these talks and of the aims and social aspects of Unitre may be read in my posts, some of which I list here:
Learning for the Third Age | From London to Longoio (and Lucca and beyond) Part One (wordpress.com)
Unitre End of Year Nosh | From London to Longoio (and Lucca and Beyond) Part Two (wordpress.com)
Fifth Time at the Third Age | From London to Longoio (and Lucca and beyond) Part One (wordpress.com)
Learning for the Third Age | From London to Longoio (and Lucca and beyond) Part One (wordpress.com)
I feel it was a great privilege to have met and become friends with Fabio Lucchesi. He gave me an excellent chance to continue my own life-long learning experience and enabled me to gain confidence in delivering talks in Italian. His advice to me to let by-gones be by-gone in the taxing situation where I was involved in a legal case and his support for me at Lucca tribunal was especially appreciated. Fabio’s generosity and affability towards me shall never be forgotten as long as I live. I just wish there were more people like him around to guide me, encourage me or just talk about inspirational subjects with me.