I would rate the Bagni di Lucca Games as one of the major things that have happened here in recent years. In fact, I would put them up there with the great art festival that ran between 2013 and 2015. That was another extraordinary period for Bagni di Lucca, when there was a tremendous amount going on and people seemed to be coming from everywhere.
But the Games are different. They are not really about art, and they are not really about sport either. What they are about is people.
And that, I think, is enormously important.
They are about people getting together, talking to one another, exchanging ideas, making friends, cooperating, cheering each other on and, above all, developing that rather old-fashioned thing called a sense of community.
And we need that.
We particularly need it now because, in some respects, we are still suffering from the aftermath of that ghastly COVID plague. COVID did an enormous amount of damage to the way people communicate with one another. Suddenly, you couldn’t meet people, you couldn’t have parties, you couldn’t simply wander into a bar and start talking to somebody. Everybody became rather suspicious of everybody else.
And although that was several years ago now, I think some of the effects are still there.
So anything which gets people out of their houses and actually meeting other people has to be a good thing.
Because there has to be a sense of community here. It is rather pointless coming to Italy and then spending your entire existence sitting in a lonely farmhouse in the middle of the woods, surrounded by wolves and wild boar. If you do that for long enough, you eventually become a boar yourself.
Anyway, the Games have demonstrated just how productive this sort of community spirit can be.
The Games originated with an idea from Priscilla Valentino, the daughter of our local doctor, who is himself a very proactive and community-minded person. Priscilla was inspired partly by similar events in Barga and, more generally, by the Italian tradition of festivals and sporting competitions, particularly the Palio.
The most famous example, of course, is the Palio di Siena, where Siena is divided into its contrade, each with its own identity and traditions, and they compete against one another for the famous Palio.
Obviously, we haven’t got horses charging around Bagni di Lucca.
Well, not yet, anyway.
But we do have our own teams.
This year there were four of them: the Trote from Controneria, the Alci from Fornaci, the Vipere from Bagni di Lucca and the Granchi from Monti di Villa.
And, I have to say, with some considerable satisfaction, our Granchi won!

What I found particularly interesting about the Games was what they revealed about the people who live here.
I have always thought that everybody has what I would call a community factor.
Some people have an extremely high community factor. They are social beings. They like joining in. If there is something happening, they want to know about it. If somebody needs help, they are there. If there is a party, they go to it. If there is a competition, they enter it.
Then, at the other end of the scale, you have the hermits.
They are perfectly happy in their own little world and don’t particularly want anybody else interfering with it.
And then, of course, there is everybody else in between.
The Games brought out this community factor rather beautifully. Some people became absolutely absorbed in them. They seemed to spend half their lives on WhatsApp, following the latest developments, discussing the teams, finding out who had won what and who was going to compete in the next event.
Others didn’t participate at all. Indeed, there were probably people who didn’t even know what was going on.
Although, to be fair, by the time the Games really got going, it was becoming increasingly difficult not to know.
The opening procession certainly saw to that.
I thought it was absolutely wonderful. There were bands, standard-bearers and all that smoke—particularly the red smoke—which suddenly appeared and filled the streets.
You couldn’t exactly miss it.
It was Bagni di Lucca saying, in effect:
The Games have arrived!
And I suspect that next year even more people will want to be involved.
One of the things I particularly liked this year was the increased number of activities for children. That is very important.
We have people here from all sorts of different countries, and if they have children, then events like this give those children an opportunity to become part of the place in which they live. They don’t simply become people who happen to live in a house in Bagni di Lucca. They become part of Bagni di Lucca.
And that is precisely what a community is supposed to do.
There was something for almost everybody: hay-baling, tug-of-war, sack races, frisbee, darts, quizzes,football tennis, activities for persons of all abities – and disabilities- and goodness knows what else.
And there were women everywhere.
I thought that was particularly good. Women were not simply standing around watching the men do things. They were actually doing things themselves, and doing them extremely well.
Sandra, for example, was hoping to be part of the darts team.
Unfortunately, there were eliminations, and a very strong team including women was eventually selected.
And, as it turned out, they actually won the competition.
So Sandra was very pleased.
And I was very pleased.
Although, in my case, I was mainly involved in cheering.
Then there was Trivial Pursuit.
This was obviously my moment.
I have spent most of my life accumulating completely useless information, and suddenly I discovered that it might actually be useful.
In fact, I have been doing this sort of thing since 1966, when, way back in the dark ages, I was a member of the sixth-form challenge team appearing on ITV.
So perhaps I have always had this rather strange ability to remember things which nobody in their right mind would ever need to know.
And that, really, is the wonderful thing about the Games.
They aren’t ultimately about winning the tug-of-war or throwing a frisbee further than somebody else. They are about discovering that the people who live around you are actually people.
People you can talk to.
People you can laugh with.
People you can compete against.
People you can cheer for.
And, perhaps most importantly, people you can get to know.
There was a wonderful atmosphere throughout the whole occasion. People were praised, people were cheered, people encouraged one another, and there was a genuine feeling that everybody was contributing something.
And there was something else which I think is important: self-confidence.
Not just individual self-confidence, but confidence in Bagni di Lucca itself.
We need to feel that this is a worthwhile place.
That we can actually organise things.
That we can create something ourselves.
That people who live here—whether they are Italian, British, German, Dutch, French or whatever—can actually get together and make something happen.
And the Games have demonstrated that we can.
Of course, there will always be people who prefer to keep themselves to themselves. That’s life. Some people are simply not interested in community activities, and that’s perfectly legitimate.
But I do sometimes wonder what people are doing here if they have absolutely no interest whatsoever in what happens around them.
Perhaps they are perfectly happy sitting in their farmhouse in the woods.
Perhaps they are even happier if there are no other people within ten kilometres.
Who knows?
But for the rest of us, the Games have provided something extremely valuable: a reason to come together.
And the important thing is not simply to win.
It is to participate.
Having said that, I was not entirely surprised—but I was certainly very, very chuffed—when I heard that the Granchi had won.
They had put in an enormous amount of effort, and people such as Lui Rondina did a tremendous job of getting everybody fired up and keeping the whole thing going.
So, yes, I’m proud of the Granchi.

But I am even more pleased about the Games themselves.
Next year there will presumably be even more events, more competitors, more children, more spectators and, hopefully, more people who discover what they have been missing.
And I think that is the great thing.
Every year will be different. New events will appear. Different people will get involved. New friendships will be made. People who didn’t participate this year might decide to participate next year.
And perhaps even some of the hermits will come out of their caves.
Although I wouldn’t count on it.
So, ultimately, the great achievement of the Bagni di Lucca Games is not that the Granchi won.
Although, naturally, that was extremely important.
The great achievement is that Bagni di Lucca came together.
And frankly, I couldn’t have wished for anything better for the place many of us call home.

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