There were two fabulous concerts we attended yesterday.
First, in San Francesco’s monastery church, the Macle’ piano duo (Sabrina Dente and Annamaria Garibaldi) with music from both North (Gershwin) and South (Piazzolla) America. The artistes played with supreme elan giving a top performance in the wonderful series of concerts organised by Borgo a Mozzano’s ‘Salotti’ music school director, fine guitarist and all-round impresario Giacomo. Brunini.
Second, in Bagni di Lucca’s Casino’ Maurizio Geri (Guitar) and Riccardo Tesi (accordion) performed songs related to the Italian resistance movement in WWII, some traditional and others composed by them. An equally memorable concert with music which similarly combines life’s comedy, tragedy and ecstasy in great sounds.
How lucky we are to live in an area which offers so much to make us feel lucky to be alive to enjoy and appreciate!
Ieri abbiamo assistito a due concerti favolosi.
Primo, nella chiesa del monastero di San Francesco, il duo pianistico Macle’ (Sabrina Dente e Annamaria Garibaldi) con musica sia del Nord (Gershwin) che del Sud (Piazzolla) America. Gli artisti hanno suonato con supremo slancio, dando una performance di prim’ordine nella meravigliosa serie di concerti organizzata dal direttore della scuola di musica ‘Salotti’ di Borgo a Mozzano, bravo chitarrista e impresario a tutto tondo Giacomo Brunini.
Secondo, nel Casino’ di Bagni di Lucca Maurizio Geri (chitarra) e Riccardo Tesi (fisarmonica) hanno eseguito canzoni legate al movimento di resistenza italiano nella seconda guerra mondiale, alcune tradizionali e altre composte da loro. Un concerto altrettanto memorabile con musica che unisce in modo simile la commedia, la tragedia e l’estasi della vita in suoni grandiosi.
Quanto siamo fortunati a vivere in una zona che offre così tanto da farci sentire fortunati di essere vivi per godercela e apprezzarla!
This time of year is wonderful walking weather. Today we made it up the path from Ponte di Catagnana to Sommocolonia, scene of the last battle in the Garfagnana during WWII where lieutenant John Fox of the US ‘Buffalo’ forces died for Italy’s freedom.
This footpath is actually the old mulattiera (mule path) to Sommocolonia.
The path is beautifully engineered and graded: a ‘super highway’ of the mediaeval age.
This little chapel on the path is a lovely place to get one’s breath back.
The Buffaloes: Afro-American soldiers who helped so much to win the war in this part of Italy.
The views from this part of the path are spectacular: down the valley one can see the city of Barga
The memorial of the Martyrs of December 1944
Memorial plaque. Gerry’s attack almost synchronised with the battle of the bulge and was Nazi Germany’s last attempt to attack the Allies before its final defeat the following year
Lieutenant John Fox’s USA army memorial stone.
The church of San Rocco in Sommocolonia
Something more about the battle of Sommocolonia:
During the Second World War, on December 26, 1944, Sommocolonia was the scene of “Operation Wintergewitter”, a limited offensive conducted on the Gothic Line by the Italian-German forces against the US troops (92nd “Buffalo” Division), supported by the partisans of the XI zone.
There were over 150 casualties among the Allied forces (including John Robert Fox, awarded the US Medal of Honor) and 7 civilian victims, and over 50% of the buildings were destroyed by the bombings. The last large bomb dropped by a US plane was found unexploded near the Rocca in the 1980s. The last devices, two American Mk2 hand grenades, were removed and detonated in July 2009, near the “Campeglio” location.
On February 19, 2010, a delegation of American soldiers from the Camp Darby base (PI), visited the town and the sites of the battle of Christmas 1944. They were subsequently hosted by the local town committee for refreshments and a visit to the small but very well-kept museum that collects the war material found and the collective memory of Sommocolonia.
On July 6, 2010, Lieutenant Richard Neumeister of the 4th Alpine Battalion, who launched the attack on Sommocolonia on December 26, 1944 during the “Winter Storm” operation, asked to visit the town and the small museum, accompanied by his family. Arriving there, he cried when he saw those places again. Subsequently, numerous delegations of American soldiers from the nearby American base of Camp Darby went to Sommocolonia to visit the battle sites.
Yesterday I visited Lucca’s Santa Zita clinic with its sweet garden.
The ‘Casa di Cura’ Santa Zita was opened in Lucca in 1955 by an association composed mainly of doctors. Since 1958 it has been managed by the Oblate Sisters of the Holy Spirit. Their Religious Congregation was founded in 1882 by Elena Guerra, born and raised in Lucca. Like the other main clinic in Lucca, the Barbantine, it works closely with the Italian national health system.
Lucca boasts many saintly women (and some less so like Lucida Mansi!) Of the saintly there are three who are particularly venerated. They are
I’ve written about the two saints in other posts but said nothing about Elena so far.
Maria Elena Antonietta Guerra was one of the six children of Antonio Guerra and Faustina Franceschi, a wealthy and pious aristocratic married couple from Lucca. Only three children reached adulthood. Elena Guerra, after time spent in assisting the sick, decided to dedicate herself to a more intense religious life.
In 1882 she founded a lay female community in Lucca dedicated to the education of girls and to Santa Zita, patron saint of the city. It was a community without vows, a fellowship of volunteers dedicated to teaching. Gemma Galgani was also among her students.
The spread of spiritualist practices in those years and the anticlericalism of the Italian State pushed Guerra to publish several booklets and convinced her to turn directly to Pope Leo XIII, so that the Church would rediscover the action of the Holy Spirit of which she was a particular devotee.
Guerra died in Lucca on 11 April 1914. Her body was transferred in 1928 to the church of Sant’Agostino, next door to the Santa Zita clinic, which constitutes the conventual chapel of the Oblate Sisters of the Holy Spirit, where it is still venerated. Elena’s remains were subjected to canonical recognition and placed inside the main altar where they can be seen.
Elena was given the title of Apostle of the Holy Spirit. In 1930, the process for her beatification was opened and in 1953 she was beatified on April 26, 1959 by Pope John XXIII.
A sudden and baffling healing miracle attributed to invoking her name by the very ill person led to the reopening in 2012 of the ‘causa’ for Elena being made a saint. The healing was declared scientifically inexplicable by the medical board and on 13 April 2024 Pope Francis recognized it as a miracle and decreed that the canonization ceremony of the blessed Elena Guerra take place on 20 October 2024. Thus Lucca will now have three fully-fledged female saints from next month.
Incidentally what is the difference between a venerated person, a beatified one and a saint?
A venerated person is someone who has shown heroic virtues in a religious life.
A beatified person is one who in addition has caused one miracle to happen.
A saint is someone who has two miracles attributed to them in addition to being a great inspiration to humanity.
I think most of us would be extremely lucky to be even vaguely respected, let alone venerated!
The Santa Zita clinic visit was followed by one to the Palazzo Pfanner.
Here the garden is being restored but the palace museum was open where clinical instruments and documents used by Dr Pfanner (who was also a psychiatrist) were on show in the frescoed interiors.
I was so glad they’re not much used today! To take my mind off them I Imagined Nicole Kidman going down the monumental staircase in ‘Portrait of a Lady’ which was filmed in the Palazzo.
The Palazzo Pfanner (or Controni-Pfanner to give its full title) stands on the north side of Lucca. Built by the Moriconi family in 1660 using their wealth acquired through silk manufacture it was sold by them to Controni, another silk manufacturer, in 1680 who expanded it and added the monumental staircase designed by the Luccan architect Domenico Martinelli (who was also much in demand by the Hapsburg courts of Vienna and Prague).
The beautiful formal garden was designed by Filippo Juvarra. Born in Messina in 1678, Juvarra became one of Italy’s greatest baroque architects. His best work can be seen in Turin but he spent some time in the Luccan republic and designed the Villa Mansi and the Villa Garzoni together with their dramatic gardens.
In the nineteenth century the palazzo was bought by the Bavarian beer brewing family of Pfanner who still own it today and who have been engaged in a loving restoration project on their lovely house since 1996.
Going through my photographic archive I realised that I’d visited this palace in the distant 1980’s when it still housed a collection of eighteenth century costumes. Today the costumes have gone and instead there are those surgical instruments. I think I’d prefer the costumes to be back!
The rest of the palace is little changed as these almost forty (!) year-old photographs show:
We became involved in a fierce battle yesterday when we accompanied the US forces fighting it out with the German Wehrmacht for the capture of Castellaccio hill dominated by a beautiful Romanesque church which was sadly ruined by the bombs the allies had to launch to win the strategic position. Luckily the Allies won and the remnant of the Axis platoon gave themselves up.
All this actually happened eighty years ago to the day. We hope that all wars will end like this. We hope in a war that will end all wars…..We hope that people will remember not to forget!!!
We were admitted yesterday to Maggiano, our local asylum for the insane. Here are some pics of Dr Tobino, the nurse of our ward and some of the inmates. The asylum dates back to the fourteenth century and its architecture is beautiful (there’s even a cinema/theatre) although it’s crumbling. Dr Tobino decided we were not completely mad so we were eventually discharged.
Sandra adds:
The Asylum finally shut its doors in 1999. Dr. Tobino was unique in the method that he helped his patients through art, music, dancing. Sadly though many of the released inmates had nowhere to go and consequently as they were institutionalised had become societies misfits sleeping rough as families turned their backs on these poor maladjusted souls. Who is so called “normal” in this world? People are still categorized in boxes and given absurd labels!
After a summer I have spent close to being barefoot much of the time a neighbour has gifted me these socks she knitted herself to my size in subtly shaded wool. The way the heels and brims have been crafted are more than worthy of Kaffe Fassett. They are truly socks to be worn for special occasions and put a completely different light on the cliche of ‘socks for Christmas’…Anyway they were for my birthday in August!
Realising that in the recent broadcast of the ‘Last Night of the Proms’ there was rather more audience waving EU flags than the Union Jack let’s hope that the following news statement will not only be the start of greater cooperation between the two countries, including reappraisal of freedom of movement of young people from both countries for work and study, easier ways for British musicians and artists to perform and create in the EU, trade and veterinary agreements, but also a genuine rethink of the relationship Starmer has with the EU. The new UK government just cannot carry on with the brexitian arrogance of the Tories still haunting it like Banquo’s ghost.
“Starmer says that Italy has made remarkable progress on dealing with irregular migration in the Mediterranean.
Regular arrivals are down 60%, he says, adding that he is pleased to see that cooperation between Italy and the UK is deepening on this front, including with intelligence and tactics being shared.
The prime minister says he discussed developing these opportunities for cooperation with Meloni today.
Let us also remember that on this same day another eight victims were murdered by the actions of criminal human traffickers in the Channel.
A starry concert with guitar virtuoso Giacomo Brunini at Monte Agliale observatory tonight and an insight into the telescopes there. Truly a heavenly evening with music of the spheres.
The observatory’s main telescope is a Newtonian reflector with a diameter of 51 cm, and it also has two other Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes (with diameters of 30 and 25 cm).
It has been assigned the code 159 of the International Astronomical union.
Among the observatory’s most prominent members is Matteo Santangelo, with the discovery of 21 asteroids to his credit…and many supernovae too!
Un concerto stellato del virtuoso della chitarra Giacomo Brunini all’osservatorio di Monte Agliale ieri sera e uno sguardo ai telescopi lì presenti. Una serata davvero celeste con la musica delle sfere.
Our lovely Piazza Circolo dei Forestieri at Bagni di Lucca Villa has just been reopened after a E450,000 refurbishment including new paving, gardens and ABOLITION OF TRAFFIC.
The ceremony was very well attended with dignitaries, mayors and the Corsagna band. After the national anthem speeches followed.
A tasty rinfresco rounded off the event with savouries, cakes and prosecco as is the custom here.
Every village in our part of the world has its own very special character accentuated by the varying landscapes in which they are sited. We visiting Lucignana yesterday and literally ‘capered’ around.
After visiting an old acquaintance whose house has some of the best views we know we followed the little road to Tereglio which has a quite different appearance seen from its northern slope.
PS So pleased to know that it’s going to rain today!!!!
