Ponte a Moriano Welcomes the Bard’s Scottish Play

Posted on April 17, 2019 by Francis

When teaching English at the Da Vinci secondary school in the San Concordio area of Lucca I collaborated with a colleague in the writing and production of a play with the theme of English history from the Romans to the Beatles. We felt that this would be a great way for our pupils to really speak the language and express themselves through theatre. We obtained the help of a choreographer who taught our classes dances appropriate to various period of England’s history: pavanes for Shakespeare’s time to twist and jive in the 1960’s.

The play was a great success, both with the pupils and with the audience, and it had to be repeated outside the school hall at Lucca’s San Girolamo theatre.

The medium of the theatre is, indeed, a great way to improve language skills both in speaking and in comprehension. It was, therefore, no surprise that the majority of the audience were school children at the English Theatre group‘s production of Shakespeare’s Scottish play in Ponte a Moriano’s Nieri theatre last week.

Five actors played all the parts in this, the bard’s most concise and fast-moving play.

The performance was generally convincing and certainly the attention of the young audience was fully engaged.

But who are the English theatre company? They are a touring group of actors based in Pisa. Some are native English speakers others are speakers of English as a second language. The company’s main aim is to present both classic and original plays in English (with subtitles) so that the audience can get something of the cadences of the language and see it truly work in dramatic situations. In one word …communication. That’s why I feel that English first language speakers in the Bagni di Lucca area who lack confidence in speaking Italian would do well to attend plays in Italian. We have completed a successful and very varied season at Bagni di Lucca’s own theatre. I wonder how many residents from English speaking areas attended any of the plays.

Zeffirelli’s ‘Inferno’ Re-Created in Florence

Posted on December 17, 2018 by Francis

I’ve mentioned Franco Zeffirelli’s foundation and museum in Florence in my post at https://longoio3.com/2018/05/06/an-invitation-from-franco-zeffirelli/

Last October we made a return visit to Florence as we hadn’t yet seen the museum.

Where to start with Franco’s achievements? In operatic scenography (Callas in ‘Tosca’)? In theatrical productions (‘Taming of the Shrew’ with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton)? In films (‘Tea with Mussolini’ with Judi Dench)?

I have my favourites (‘Jesus of Nazareth’, whose film sets we stumbled upon during our Tunisian honeymoon forty years ago),

‘Filumena Marturano’, a West End production with Joan Plowright, Larry Olivier’s widow, and the rehearsals of which we witnessed personally at the Italian Institute with the master himself, my father-in-law’s (the institute’s secretary-general from its inception) good friend, and, particularly, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, which had me transfixed as a teenager.

DSCN3348_1

There’s an excellent web site for Franco’s museum at

https://www.fondazionefrancozeffirelli.com/en/the-museum/

The immense achievement in theatre, opera and cinema of this genius, who was born in Vinci and is a direct descendant of Leonardo himself, is fully displayed in the fascinating museum which occupies the San Firenze baroque complex formerly occupied by the city’s tribunal. Here is a selection of costumes, photographs and posters showing the breadth of the master’s achievements.

The palazzo’s setting is spectacular and there is a very convivial bar and a cortile to relax in after your visit.

For me the most fascinating section was that dealing with the unfinished 1972 project of making a film of Dante’s ‘Inferno’. Sandra was involved in typing the scripts and the maestro’s scenic directions. But why was the project abandoned? Zeffirelli needed special effects which, although, today, are common place in any US type blockbuster, were then not yet available. The digital revolution was in its infancy and the master’s imagination could then not be realised in cinematographic form.

These are the preparatory sketches for the imagined masterpiece.

There are so many artists in history whose vision is far ahead of any technology that could achieve it. Zeffirelli is one of them. And this is the astounding re-creation of these sketches in the film which climaxes this very special museum. Of course, you have to see it in its full size in the splendid room which displays it, to fully appreciate the unrealised masterpiece.

Of Italian Bars and their Collectors

Posted on October 16, 2018 by Francis

Thankfully Italy is still largely a land of small businesses and nowhere is this more apparent than in restaurants and, particularly, bars.

This beautiful country is still essentially free of monstrosities like star-a-buckets and costalots (although one of them has recently opened in Milan and, in concession to Italian class and quality, has had to serve drinkable coffee in a surrounding which is probably the finest this chain has ever possessed):

Most bars retain their own individuality. I am particularly drawn to those bar-owners who are collectors. For example, at Aulla station this bar (since regretfully closed) had a scenic model railway running round its interior perimeter:

(See my post at https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2014/07/11/on-or-off-the-rails-to-pontremoli/ for more).

If you’re a biker, or even just a mopedier, rather than a rail anorak then there’s the extraordinary bar-pizzeria described in my post at https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2014/09/20/the-wild-one/ :

While traipsing around Florence the other week I chanced upon a bar whose owner was an avid collector of the hippie bus.

In case you don’t know what a hippie bus is it’s the Volkswagen Type 2, introduced in 1950 (sadly discontinued now) and officially known as the Kombi but better known to us travellers to eastern promises during the idyllic sixties as the hippie bus.

The owner told me his cabinet display was just a small part of his collection. His passion for the type 2 was ingrained in him for years and many exquisite examples of the ‘Kombi’ were donated to the bar owner from friends.

I admit I didn’t travel to Kathmandu on a type 2 but in a superior class (as Janis Joplin might have sung) Mercedes Benz. L 319 which transported me as far as Teheran.

Here it is in Beirut before that ghastly civil war and even greater post-war building vandalism destroyed the exquisite charm of this Paris of the Levant.

Journey to the East008x

Anyway, sipping a caffè macchiato con un pezzo dolce con crema in that Florentine bar, surrounded by seductive models of the classic L319 really started my day in a big way for me; Florence was no longer just a place where

in the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

(From T. S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock in case you’re one of those ‘rational’ people who don’t read poetry).

Autumnal Seaside

Posted on September 28, 2018 by Francis

It’s officially autumn in Italy and the seaside is more glorious than ever.

Baba Cesare remains near us at Guzzano which means he still finds the weather warm enough to delay any return to his ashram in Hampi, India.

Last Friday we had our own ‘fish Friday’, Italian style, by lunching off the catch from the little fishing boats in the port of Viareggio.

We finished our lunch with a delicious ice cream on the spacious seaside promenade.

For swimming we chose our favourite ‘secret’ spot near Migliarino which was wonderfully sparsely peopled.

I enjoy the start of the Italian sea bathing season and its end (which this year is lusciously prolonged). I’d happily give a miss for the ‘high season’ here and head for some secluded spot in the southern part of the peninsula.

Last Friday we had the best of everything at the seaside, fried fish, ice-cream, clean, almost empty beaches, a gentle sea and a splendid sunset.

affaccio-sulla-spiaggia

We took Sandra’s mum with us. This year was her 97th birthday.

The Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness

Posted on September 16, 2018 by Francis

The somewhat uncertain Italian August and the incredibly sunny September have combined to produce a vintage harvest of our trinity – grapes, olives and mushrooms.

(Yesterday’s haul….the rain did help!)

I will keep the places where I find the much prized cheps mushrooms to myself but they are there, hiding under the foliage, shy to peep their heads towards our salivating palates.

The vendemmia, or grape harvest for wine, is already declared a success. Which leaves the olives. This morning I found my teenage olive trees already promising very rich harvests when the end of October and the start of November start.

Let’s hope the frosts don’t get at them before then.

Meanwhile the seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness is truly descending upon us. There was a distinctly autumnal tinge to the air today and the clouds never lifted to reveal any azure patches.

Suspense in Val di Lima…

Posted on September 12, 2018 by Francis

Recently I was asked by friends for suitable places and activities for their three year old grandchild’s forthcoming visit.

Of course, the big event in our area for children of all ages is the ‘paese dei balocchi’, running on the week-end from 22 to 23 of this month, in which Bagni di Lucca gets transformed into a giant toytown for children of all ages, with treasure hunts, the fairy’s parlour, face painting, street bands and theatre, the invisible man and so forth.

Unfortunately, the little one was unable to attend Toyland, and so I settled on the standard list of Collodi’s Pinocchio Park, Pistoia zoo, the playground at Villa and, generally, just enjoying the special natural ambience of our area.

One place was mentioned and the other day I checked out the suitability of taking a three year old across one of the world’s longest pedestrian suspension bridges. (The longest, incidentally, is the 494 metre Charles Kuonen bridge opened in Switzerland in 2017).

The ‘ponte sospeso delle ferriere’ (suspension bridge of the iron foundries) is a pedestrian walkway that connects the two sides of the Lima torrent between Mammiano Basso and Popiglio in the municipality of San Marcello Piteglio.

It rests on four steel cables and measures 227 metres in length, 36 meters maximum height above the river bed and and is 80 cm wide. In 1990 it was included in the Guinness Book of Records as “the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in the world”. That is, until the Swiss got in on the act…

Inaugurated in June 1923, the bridge was built following the design of Vincenzo Douglas Scotti, Count of San Giorgio della Scala, and director of the Mammiano Basso steel mill. It allowed worker from Popiglio, on the other side of the Lima valley, to get the factories without having to walk a further five miles to reach the workplace.

Count Vincenzo Douglas Scotti (of Scottish ancestry) commissioned Filiberto Ducceschi, who was responsible for the construction of the cables, while the masonry and support work were entrusted to Cesare Vannucci.

Work began in 1920 with the help of some thirty workers, who anchored the cables. At this point it was possible to create a pedestrian walkway, consisting of planks and metal nets hinged to the supporting structure, which connected the two opposite banks of the Lima river without any intermediate support.

However, after the mills closed down the bridge took on a new function as a thrilling tourist attraction. It has undergone important maintenance and consolidation over the years, the latest being in 2004, which have made the bridge more stable and resistant through the complete replacement of cables, side bolts, walkways and protections, with stronger and lighter material.

Spectacular LED Bridge lighting was inaugurated in 2014.

My approach to the bridge was enhanced by an elegantly laid garden path:

The bridge did sway a bit but I think this was due more to a group of excited young children than any climatological condition!

As for the bridge’s suitability for three year olds: no problem. The youngest traverser of the bridge we met was just two and a half years old!

The Sea-Bathing Season Opens at Viareggio

Posted on May 22, 2018 by Francis

The majority of Italian beaches at seaside resorts are leased out to bathing establishment companies for the summer season and entry is only by payment. There are, of course, free beaches but at places like Viareggio and Lido di Camaiore they are abysmally narrow.

On Saturday 19^th May the bathing season opened at Viareggio and the Versilia coastline. We visited the seaside the preceding day when the leasers of one particular resort were busy laying out deckchairs, sunbeds, parasols and all the other paraphernalia of holidays by the sea. Lines were pegged out to assure perfect geometric alignment of the beach furniture. The operatives were also cleaning the sands by carefully sifting out any rubbish.

They still left plenty of seashells, however, to the joy of collectors.

As the season was opening the following day we had the whole beach to ourselves including the deckchairs and all for free. Luckily the bar next door was open so we were able to treat ourselves to ice-cream.

Although the seawater felt warmer than that at most British seaside resorts at the height of summer there was only a mere handful of swimmers.

Behind us the Apuan Alps (which we see from the other side from where we are in Longoio) protected the area from any strong Easterly wind. Recognize the Procinto, that panettone-shaped mountain?

The flag colours indicate the following:

Red: dangerous to swim because of bad weather or absence of lifeguard.

Yellow: Reduced lifeguard in operation between 1.30 pm and 3.30 pm.

Red and yellow: No lifeguard in operation.

No flags. Safe to swim and lifeguard service in operation.

Do note, however, that this flag system is particular to Italy. In Australia, for example, red and yellow together means that that there is a lifeguard operating while no flags at all mean that there is no lifeguard to save one. Most confusing!

Perhaps the most important flag is the blue flag, meaning that the sea and adjoining beach have passed stringent environmental standards as monitored by the partnership between the FEE (Foundation for Environmental Education) and the EU.

(This is, incidentally, another issue which the Brexit idiocy has failed to address – will blue flag beaches in the UK still have the same standards if Brexit goes ahead? The residents in UKIP voting Clacton-on-Sea are very proud of their clean beaches. But would Clactonians have still voted to quit the EU if they knew the clean beaches and sea are thanks to EU membership?)

We passed a lovely afternoon at the still empty bathing establishments of Viareggio knowing full well that the following day hordes of holiday-makers would start to come to one of Italy’s most pleasant beaches and knowing that for yet another year it has won a blue flag award.

A Thousand Roman Miles Towards Sarzana

Posted on May 20, 2018 by Francis

Italy’s ‘Mille Miglia’ retains its reputation as one of the world’s great car rallies. It is, of course, not a thousand UK miles but a thousand Roman miles, which equal about one thousand six hundred kilometres, starting from Brescia in Northern Italy and going to Rome and back in a figure-of-eight-course over four days.

It is also not the original race, which was founded in 1927 by Count Aymo Maggi and Franco Mazzotti and ran until 1957, with an interruption due to WWII between 1941 and 1946.

The original Mille Miglia was an endurance race open to all drivers and cars, the slower ones starting rather earlier than the faster ones (as still happens today). The Mille Miglia was also the race which introduced Ferrari to the world (its first win in 1948) and was largely won by Italians, except for 1931 (Mercedes-Benz) and 1940 (BMW) by Germany and, most famously, in 1955 by the great Stirling Moss and Navigator Denis Jenkinson driving a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR (“Sport Leicht Rennen”) with an average speed of 157.65 km/h (97.96 mph) over 1,600 kilometres (990 miles).

I first witnessed this stirring motor cavalcade in 2014 when the Mille Miglia entrants did a lap of honour on Lucca’s tree-lined walls. To see pictures of this event click on my post at https://longoio.wordpress.com/2014/05/18/a-thousand-miles/

The 2015 Mille Miglia was particularly exciting as the then mayor Betti had it routed through Bagni di Lucca. Again there’s my post on it at https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2015/05/17/a-thousand-miles-to-bagni-di-lucca/ . We managed to take part in it, unofficially of course, as we then had our much loved Cinquina which, alas, is no more after our near-fatal car accident a little over one year ago.

We drove our much-missed cutey up Bagni di Lucca’s high street and received our share of the applause too. That was compensation enough for having missed George Cluny on his Silver Bugatti!

Here is the view of our car taken by another well-known Bagni di Lucca blogger:

As the driver (Sandra) commented ‘it was truly sensational me driving the Cinquina, such fun was amazed at the reception we got and we were just off homewards!’

This year we saw the Mille Miglia on its way from Massa Rosa to Sarzana and delighted in the spectacle from a bar just outside Pietrasanta. (PS If your vintage and classic car spotting is a little rusty click on

Click to access 2018_05_11_ordine.pdf

to get the car details from its rally number. For example number 93 is a Fiat 508 S Balilla Sports Coppa oro dating from 1934.

We then followed the Mille Miglia route taken from Lucca. Although it was exciting to see the amazing vintage and classic cars spin past us we had a near miss at one stage when a white Ferrari in a crazy overtake almost crashed into us. Thankfully, Sandra’s quick reflexes enabled her to pull aside into an almost non-existent lay-by and the car behind us to skid to a halt. I reflected that the Mille Miglia is still a very dangerous race and that the crazy mix-up of vintage, classic, latest sports, vans, sponsor vehicles and other traffic is wrong. The route should be closed specially for the Mille Miglia and alternatives provided for the couple of hours that the rally requires to pass by.

There is an excellent web site run by the organisers of the Mille Miglia at http://www.1000miglia.it/

I was particularly interested in the list of entries which you can find at http://www.1000miglia.it/attach/Content/Interna/2503/o/2018_05_11_ordine.pdf

And the route map which you can find at

http://www.1000miglia.it/Edizione-2018/Il-Percorso-3D/

In my family the greatest car enthusiasts were my father, who started driving an Austin seven, graduated to an Austin A70, followed by an Austin Cambridge before tackling Dagenham steel with various Ford Consuls. He then went for Volvos before finishing up with a Chelsea tractor (alias Range Rover). My younger brother was a particularly keen rally co-driver. Indeed, he followed his passion up to the last moment since the funeral hearse was an E-type Jaguar from his own collection of classic cars.

One Reason not to Cut the Grass

Posted on May 10, 2018 by Francis

April showers in May and temperatures changing by over ten degrees from one morning to the next. The seasons seem to be all over the place in our part of the world and it’s not difficult to see why. At least, there’s cold comfort in knowing that if the North and South Poles are beginning a melt-down we’ll be, at our height of around 1,500 feet, well above the threatened flood levels (if we’re still around that is).

We went down to one of our fields in the company of our calico cat, Carlotta, yesterday afternoon between one thunderclap and the other, one brisk shower after another. The object of the exercise was to cut the grass but (apart from the lawnmower refusing to start) I didn’t cut it.

The reason is easy to see. The meadows were a rainbow of colours filled with wild-flowers that in England would be National Trust protected. So I left well-alone and gazed in admiration at nature’s gorgeous spectacle.

Urban Exploration at Pieve Fosciana

Posted on February 11, 2018 by Francis

Outside Pieve Fosciana, near Castelnuovo Garfagnana, there’s a small thermal area where one can bathe in hot waters which are considered excellent for alleviating rheumatism and other physical ailments.

The thermal lake of Pra di Lama is where a few ducks nest and swim. It is fed by several springs, which emerge from volcanic strata, rather like those of Bagni di Lucca.

Nearby, horses graze in beautiful meadows:

The origin of Lake Pra di Lama is quite recent. In 1826 in place of the lake there was a meadow, in the centre of which, over an abundant thermal spring, a hut was built where people bathed for therapeutic purposes. Within a few months, the hut was swallowed into the earth leaving only a small pool of water.

At 11 am on August 15, 1828 a loud explosion startled the local inhabitants, and at the base of the hill there arose a great amount of muddy water blasted into the air along with a pestilential miasma that caused a serious epidemic striking at least two-thirds of the population for years and causing a marked increase in mortality. On that occasion a pond forty feet wide and eleven feet deep was formed but in 1842 it had almost completely disappeared.

Between February and March of the following year a new soil movement and the birth of ten other thermal sources expanded the lake again, and the Serchio was stained by mud for twenty kilometres up to Borgo a Mozzano. Again, in Pieve Fosciana and the surrounding areas deaths dramatically increased from diseases caused by the inhalation of the lake’s poisonous vapours.

A century later, at the end of World War Two, the lake was reduced to a small pond which locals attempted to reclaim by filling it with rubble and waste. However, new eruptions occurred, enlarging the lake again.

In the following years facilities for bathing with changing rooms and baths were built. Those using the facilities increased.

This situation lasted until the early nineteen seventies when the lake sprang to life again, swallowing trees up to a height of ten metres so that only the tops were visible and bringing down most of the buildings constructed for the thermal baths.

In March of 1996 the lake again erupted, before suddenly dropping down about two metres. (Fortunately it’s over a hundred years since one last heard of epidemics and mysterious deaths around the lake, otherwise we may not have been here to write this).

Meanwhile, chemists have established the excellent therapeutic qualities of the sulphurous lake water which is also radioactive. They include sulphate, sodium chloride with a fixed residue of 5.45 grams /per litre. The water’s temperature is 37 degrees C.

During our visit the thermal springs were being used by this gentleman.

We tested the waters and found that, although they smelt of bad eggs, they were deliciously warm and relaxing.

There are two ‘urban exploration sites near the lake. The first consists of a weird brick-built structure which I am quite unable to make out. Within it are galleries and several chambers.

What was it used for? Does it have anything to do with industry or agriculture? Is it connected in some way to the thermal establishment?

Another example worthy of urban exploration (at one’s own risk) is the following:

It’s the rapidly ruining white elephant of the thermal establishment of Pieve Fosciana. This building, dating from the early 1980’s was meant to place Pieve Fosciana in the same league as other spas, like Montecatini, but financial mismanagement caused the project to flounder miserably. We thought of exploring the concrete monstrosity but were deterred by the danger of falling masonry.

(The cupola in the first photograph above is the original cupola of a nearby church, which has since been replaced.)

What a pity! Although geologists have apparently secured the safety of the lake by controlling its noxious vapours and avoiding the asphyxiation of visitors in search of its therapeutic qualities, the presence of the decaying concrete monster leads to a feeling of dejection around the place, typical of so many pie-in-the-sky projects in Italy which have never been finished and are left for the contemplation of the frustrated public. The irony is that the poor inhabitants of Pieve Fosciana will still be paying the mortgage on this non-structure until 2030!

There is a very amusing video of the floundered establishment by Chiara Squarci of ‘Il striscione’.

http://www.striscialanotizia.mediaset.it/video/terme-di-pieve-fosciana-lucca-_27725.shtml

If you are interested in urban exploration do follow the fascinating blog at

https://foscasensi.wordpress.com/

Here you will come across sleeping-beauty-like decaying palaces, underground temples of arcane sects, failed casinos, crumbling lunatic asylums haunted by ghosts of electroshocked patients, prisons where atrocious tortures were inflicted and much else of interest.

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

Category Archives: Tuscany