Calling All Wireless Set Lovers!

Posted on February 19, 2020 by Francis

The fortress of Mont’Alfonso which crowns the hill dominating Castelnuovo di Garfagnana was in a sorry state not so long ago. Slowly crumbling away its only use was as a local’s small-holding complete with geese and goats.

Happily, thanks to EU money, the fortress has recently undergone an extensive restoration project: its walls are once again magnificently impressive and its guardhouses and gatehouses have been excellently reinstated.

Mont’Alfonso now hosts several events ranging from food initiative to beauty contests to art shows to car rallies. One of the most memorable of the events we have attended was that dedicated to the great Italo-Argentinian composer and creator of the Nuevo tango Astor Piazzolla whose family it was lately discovered originated from a village in Castelnuovo comune, that of Massa Sassorosso. This gorgeous event with live music and a barbecue is described in my post at

Don’t cry for me Sassorosso

The fortress was built as a garrison of the Duchy of Ferrara to defend the border with the Republic of Lucca. Constructed between 1579 and 1586, it was an Este military garrison in the 16th and 17th centuries and during the Napoleonic period (1805 – 1814) was part of the Principality of Lucca and Piombino.

The fortress was sold back to the Este property in 1814. At the beginning of the twentieth century it passed into the hands of private individuals. The fortress, which had already deteriorated over time, was further damaged by the appalling earthquake that hit the Garfagnana in 1920.

It was only from 1980, that an impressive restoration project has been carried out on the fortress greatly contributing to the cultural and economic revitalization of the upper Serchio valley.

The fortress is also planned to become an important alternative energy research hub rather like the one we visited in Wales: the Machynlleth alternative technology centre.

We found out another use for the fortress yesterday. After attending Santa Croce hospital Castelnuovo we visited Mont’Alfonso. It was a bleak foggy day and we were the only visitors present. In the ‘casa delle arcate’ – the former officers’ mess – we discovered an astounding museum dedicated to vintage wireless sets. It was truly a delightful discovery for us radio hams.

“Radio: Voice of History” is the title of the exhibition of over eighty rare and precious pieces, part of the collection donated by a certain Armando Goldoni. The utterly captivating and certainly nostalgic presentation is a sort of itinerary of the history of radio from its golden years of the 1920s through to the 1960s and from the first ‘crystal sets’ to the sophistication and fashionable design of an item which, before television was certainly the centre-piece of the domestic scene.

(All photos courtesy of Alexandra Cipriani)

The display aims at highlighting not only the technological and aesthetic evolution of the ‘wireless set’, but also its social and cultural function. From being a novelty in Italian homes it spread rapidly throughout the country becoming the first mass communication medium, used for news, political propaganda, both popular and classical music and sports commentaries.

There’s also a section, recounting the contribution of this area of Garfagnana to the history of radio through Francesco Vecchiacchi (1902-1955) who was born in Filicaia, a hamlet in the municipality of Camporgiano. Francesco worked at Magneti Marelli (which still exists today as a major automotive firm manufacturing car dynamos and electronic components), where he took over the direction of the Radio Laboratory directing his research towards new achievements in electronic technology, the transmission of radio signals through radio links and inventing, during the Second World War , innovative radar systems.

The free admission exhibition is open to visitors from Monday to Friday from 9 to 1 pm; on Tuesdays and Thursdays, in addition to the morning, also from 3 pm to 5 pm at other times by appointment only.) More information can be had by phoning 0583 – 643201 or emailing montalfonso@provincia.lucca.it.

Carded in Cardiology

Posted on December 29, 2019 by Francis

The upper reaches of the river Serchio valley are served by two hospitals, one at Barga and the other at Castelnuovo di Garfagnana. Both were founded over fifty years ago and each has specific departments which don’t always overlap.

Last Friday I had an appointment at Barga hospital for a checkup since I was feeling increasingly puffed out. I thought it was bronchitis. The doctor, however, thought otherwise and before I realised what was happening found myself strapped in a trolley, wheeled into an ambulance which pelted at breakneck speed through the mountain roads with sirens blaring away towards Castelnuovo di Garfagnana.
The view from Barga hospital over the Apuan alps is quite stunning with the majestic Pania della Croce massif lording it over the range.

borghi-barga-garfagnana-AP-600x401 By the hospital entrance is the ancient convent of Saint Francis whose church has some exquisite Della Robbia terracotte including this one of the Nativity.

At Castelnuovo hospital I was admitted to the cardiology department where I was administered various tests and scans and given a bed in a two-place ward.

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This Monday I shall be ambulanced to the region’s big hospital, San Luca at Lucca, where I will undergo a coronarography.
The Italian National Health System has been voted the fourth best in the EU, beating even the UK’s NHS. It’s the second time this year it has rescued me (see my post on the Urology section of Lucca’s Barbantine clinic) and I feel I’m very lucky to have been treated in this country.

Around 2011 there was talk of combining Barga and Castelnuovo hospitals into one new complex to be built at Pieve Fosciana. I’m glad this project has been shelved and that, instead, money has been used to improve facilities at both sites. This year, for example, a new maternity unit has opened at Barga and a new A and E centre is planned for Castelnuovo.
Like Barga, Castelnuovo hospital has views which would be the envy of any Swiss sanatorium.

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Around the hospital, which dates from 1959, is a nice bar, a car park with canopies supporting solar panels and a set of abandoned buildings which once housed an admin block and a chapel of rest.

It would be good to bring these fine examples of post-futurist buildings back into some kind of use.

Anyway, let’s make the best of where we are and enjoy the surrounding freezing temperatures from the comfort of a warm hospital ward!

Snowy May?

Posted on May 3, 2019 by Francis

This year the seasons have gone really crazy in Italy, especially in our area of Media Valle, just north of Lucca. For much of the first three months of this year temperatures were often well into their twenties and for weeks we had no precipitation at all. Camellias, which normally blossom at the end of March, were already budding in January and are still blossoming now over three months later, the longest time I have known our own camellia to come into flower.

Then in April things changed; temperatures actually went down and we had days of often precipitous rain. We hoped that things would brighten up in May yet worse was to come; our mountains, so long without their hoary blankets, were covered by snowfalls, clearly welcome to skiers but not so longed-for by farmers and gardeners.

A couple of days ago we went on one of our favourite trips: to the highest village in the Italian Apennines, San Pellegrino, nestling on the side of the main ridge at a height of 5003 feet. Our route became marked by extensive snowfalls; it truly seemed that we were just emerging from winter instead of being at the start of the merry month of May!

San Pellegrino strides between the regions of Tuscany and that of Emilia Romagna. Indeed, one of the bars has its counter divided between the two very different parts of the peninsula…

The village grew around a refuge for pilgrims crossing the mountains on the via Francigena in their way to Rome. The views we have enjoyed from this spot are truly wonderful but on this day everything was enveloped in mist.

What was still visible, however, were the two saints, San Pellegrino and San Bianco, in all their mummified glory. Pilgrims still come today and write their prayer wishes on a slip of paper which is deposited by the graceful shrine.

Meanwhile our own garden is showing defying colours against the louring greyness of the skies.

Nuts About Chestnuts

Posted on September 21, 2018 by Francis

In Italy school classes started on September 17th after their very long summer break of over three months. Of course, those students who have failed their exams will have spent much of their summer revising their subjects and for teachers there’s a lot of preparation time involved, so it’s not all sunshine, beaches and ice-cream for many.

The ‘feste’, however, continue and now that today is the autumn equinox the ‘sagre’ (or food festivals) concentrating on local produce are ready to launch.

‘Castagnate’, or chestnut festivals, abound in this Apennine part of Italy. Their main features are products made from the flour of the chestnut tree, or Castanea sativa (not to be confused with the somewhat inedible Horse chestnut prevalent in the UK, well-known to any schoolchild who has enjoyed playing ‘conkers’.

Actually, horse chestnut or Aesculus hippocastanum has its useful medicinal purposes in treating such ailments as varicose veins, haemorrhoids, enlarged prostate and diarrhoea. If eaten raw however it’s a useful way of doing someone in as it contains a poison called esculin. This was a particularly popular procedure in mediaeval times.

No such problems with the Castanea sativa, however. Some of its very edible products are:

Chestnut jam. (Crema di Marroni). Absolutely delicious. I like it spread on crumpets.
Chestnut flour pancakes, usually rolled up and filled with ricotta cheese, Nutella and , in some areas, pancetta (a type of bacon).
Chestnut honey.
Bomboneccio. A sort of chestnut cake made with chestnut flour, pine kernels, fennel and raisins.
Pane casereccio. Chestnut flour bread.
Mondine. Roast chestnuts

It’s fascinating to visit the Castagnate festivals just to watch these products being made. Every area has its own particular recipe and names. For example, our ‘Castanaccio’ is called ‘Migliaccio’ in Florence.

What is remarkable is that chestnut-derived products were scorned at by the immediate post-war generation since they were associated with poverty and famine – indeed were called ‘food for the poor’. Now, of course, these items have regained their full worth as wholesome and tasty items rather like polenta. I wonder which ‘poor man’s food’ have become fashionable again in the UK? Faggots, tripe, offal, chitterlings, oats? Do let me know please. It could be useful after March 29^th next year.

The main Castagnate festivals in our area are the following:

Item	Date	Place	Features
1	October 7, 12.30	Camporgiano	Polenta festival
2	October 7, 15.00	Metello, Castelnuovo di Garfagnana	Local products
3	October 8, 14.00	Cascio, Molazzana	Local products, food trail
4	October 14, 14.30	Trassilico	Local foods and products
5	October 14, 14.30	Castiglione and Trassilico	Local foods and products
6	October 21, 12.00	Pieve Fosciana	Local foods and products
7	October 28, 12.00	Pontecosi lakeside	Local foods and products
8	November 11, 11.00	Lupinaia, Fosciandora	Stalls, old trades, local products

CastagnataCascio

Two useful web sites to explore are at

http://www.sagretoscane.com/

And

http://www.eventiesagre.it/cerca/Eventi/Sagre/Ottobre/Toscana/

Here you can research into what kind of food festival you are looking for, where it is and when you want to visit it.

What about chestnutty things happening in Bagni di Lucca?

Last year there was a castagnata but to date I have found not indication of one for this year. Maybe later on?

The following events, not necessarily to do with chestnuts, are on the menu, however.

22-3 September. All day. The fabulous paese dei balocchi or Toyland for children of all ages, inspired by Carlo Collodi’s immortal book about a famous puppet’s unpredictably elongating nose.

28 September. 9 pm. Il Volo della farfalla, theatrical evening in memory of a young actor, Stefano Girolami.
29 September. Patron saint feast with procession at Granaiola.
30 September. Bagni di Lucca’s second-hand street market and attic sale.

Further afield there is the big castagnata at Marradi which takes place every Sunday in October.

There will be plenty more happening, of course. The main task, however, is to enjoy this extraordinarily warm autumn before the weather changes and we huddle around a wood fire.

New England Orchestra Plays at Castelnuovo

Posted on February 20, 2018 by Francis

ORCHESTRA OF THE NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY CONDUCTED BY MICHAEL MUCCI

On Tuesday, February 20th at 9 pm there’s a great concert at the Teatro Alfieri in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana organized by “Il Baluardo”, the vocal group from Lucca. The New England Conservatory (NEC) will perform. This is a school of music recognized and appreciated all over the world for its professionalism. It’s based in Boston and is the reference school of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, one of the finest orchestras in the world. This is a unique opportunity to hear one of the most renowned youth orchestras.

Conducted by Michael Mucci, the orchestra will perform pieces by Rossini, Sousa and Colgrass.

Artistic direction is by Elio Antichi with free entry for an unmissable opportunity.

(The New England Conservatory, Boston)

A Novel Based on the ‘Arandora Star’ Tragedy

Posted on February 19, 2018 by Francis

Italy has ever been a nation of emigrants. It wasn’t just the working classes who went abroad to find jobs, it was the professional ones too. Just to take Lucca and its fabulous composers: Luigi Boccherini sought his fortune in the Spanish court and Francesco Geminiani found fame with the English aristocracy. Today the Italian tradition in the UK cultural scene continues with such persons as Gabriele Finaldi, director of the National Gallery, and Antonio Pappano at the Royal Opera House.

In London I am constantly surprised at the number of young Italians working there: it’s a rare bus ride in that city where one doesn’t hear some Italian spoken. The good thing is that they are not all working on zero hour contracts but have been able to obtain prestigious jobs in finance, commerce and, naturally, catering.

The obverse is also true: for example, the head of Italy’s great Brera Gallery in Milan is James Bradbourne, born in Canada but a British citizen.

That’s why, of course, this Brexit nonsense is so hopeless and retrograde: a sign that an outdated colonial attitude still infiltrates the minds of too many English. As for those British emigrants (note: emigrants – not ‘expats’) to such places as our own Bagni di Lucca, and who still believe they voted ‘out’ correctly, I can only suggest that (unless they have since repented of their ill-informed choice) they are either unhinged or else totally without regard to the younger generation who, thinking about their future, overwhelmingly voted to remain within the European Community.

Sadly, the attitude of those persons reflects a similar attitude which permeated the background to the ‘Arandora Star’ tragedy. This was a British cruise liner requisitioned for war purposes. Loaded with Italian and German civilian internees on their way to camps in Canada, the liner was sunk off the Irish coast by a torpedo, launched by the U-47 enemy submarine under the command of Gunther Prien, on the 2^nd of July 1940 with the loss of 865 lives of which 446 were Italian and 13 from our area of Garfagnana,

This tragic incident has inspired writer Caterina Soffici to write a novel to be presented on Monday 19th February at 11 am in the Great Hall of Castelnuovo di Garfagnana’s Istituto Superiore di Istruzione. “Nessun puo’ fermarmi” (‘Nobody can stop me’) is published by Feltrinelli with a historical introduction by Pietro Luigi Biagioni of the Paolo Cresci Foundation.

locandina-nessuno-puo-fermarmi

The novel begins with the casual discovery of a letter shedding new light on the disappearance of her grandfather, believed dead in action during the Second World War. The search for the truth leads the protagonist to discover the real cause of death: the sinking of the Arandora Star.

Those who drowned were innocent victims of suspicion and xenophobia: they had lived in the United Kingdom for years and many were second or even third generation. Yet all were considered aliens, even spies, and a threat to a country at war.

I can only imagine what these people must have felt when they were arrested for being ‘aliens’ and interned. It’s not surprising that something of the same fear permeates Italian and other European Union citizens living in the UK at the present time. To wake up after years of living in a country which seemed so open-hearted, in which one had a career, raised a family, a place one truly loved, and then suddenly feel unwanted, unwelcomed, uncertain of what may happen to one’s status; indeed to feel betrayed, as the result of a referendum which imposed a ‘will of the people’, using, incidentally, the same word as Leni Riefenstahl’s 1935 film ‘Triumph Des Willens‘ which extolled the Nazi credo.

(The Will of the People?)

This is, indeed, what has happened, since the June 2016 Brexit referendum, to EU citizens who have made their life in the UK. (In this respect, “In Limbo: Brexit testimonies from EU citizens in the UK” by Elena Remigi, is an essential read: a book of testimonies from those who now feel in limbo in the UK).

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It’s also useful and educational to visit the Paolo Cresci museum of the history of Italian emigration in Lucca, situated to the right of the ducal palace in Piazza Napoleone.

Well set-out in a former chapel, the museum guides one through photographs and objects from the emigrants’ moment of departure through to the arrival in foreign lands and describes their difficulties and dangers. What is especially poignant is the fact that this is one place where a memorial to the victims of the ‘Arandora Star’ is found:

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The museum is part of the Paolo Cresci foundation which has a significant archive relating to emigration and also publishes a monthly bulletin. Full details are available at http://www.fondazionepaolocresci.it/.

From London to La Costa (and Lucca and Beyond) Part Three

Category Archives: Castelnuovo