It’s Carnival Time in Viareggio!

Posted on January 29, 2018 by Francis

Are you carrying out your New Year’s resolutions and have you decided what to give up for Lent (making New Year’s resolutions?) – those forty days, beginning on Ash Wednesday (February 14^th this year – same day as Saint Valentine’s???) and ending on Holy Saturday which Jesus spent in the wilderness resisting Satan.

Italy celebrates the time before Lenten abstinence by holding carnivals in many towns. The word ‘carnival’ comes from Latin ‘carne vale’ = farewell to meat. That’s why Mardi Gras – marking the last big feast before Lent starts – is the day before Ash Wednesday.

Carnival is a time for letting off steam and reversing traditional roles: subordinates become masters, partners are swapped, rules broken and masked balls take place . A useful Italian word to learn for this time is ‘veglione’ = all-night dance party. The previous way of doing things transforms into chaos and from this disarray a new structure arises, reflecting the burgeoning spring. (It’s no coincidence that ‘Lent’ comes from Anglo-Saxon ‘Lenten’ meaning spring).

Because of the carnival’s R. C. associations there’s been no similar tradition in the UK since the reformation. The North London Notting hill ‘carnival’ takes place in summer and is a misnomer since it’s actually a festival inspired by Caribbean culture. The West Country carnivals are protestant in origin and occur in November, the Guy Fawkes and gunpowder plot month. However, carnivals go back to pre-Christian times: the Roman Saturnalia and the Celtic Samhain.

Italy has its ‘big five’ carnivals which all should try to attend. They are

CARNIVAL LOCATION	FOUNDATION	CHARACTERISTICS
Putignano, Puglia	1394	Papier-Mache allegorical floats and the figure of ‘Farinella’
Venice	Founded 14^th century but suppressed by Napoleon and resuscitated in 1979	Wonderful baroque costumes and masks. A lot of cultural activities: arts exhibitions and music included
Acireale, Sicily	Very, very old.	Lots of fresh flowers decorating the floats
Ivrea, Piedmont	Mediaeval in origin it’s the only Italia carnival with an unbroken tradition.	Teems with folklore and tradition. Battle of the oranges (wear a red cap if you don’t want to get pelted) Particularly rich in Napoleonic costumes. Famous for ‘Mugnaia’. Beautiful floats
Viareggio, Tuscany	Dates from 1873, the time of the town’s expansion as a major seaside resort	World-famous floats designed by some of Italy’s greatest designers. First place to use papier-mâché in 1923. Great political satire. Lots of ‘veglioni’. Absolutely unmissable.

Rome had a carnival once (remember Berlioz’ overture and Goethe’s travel diary?) However, it was abolished in the nineteenth century because spoil-sports thought the horse race down the Corso had become too dangerous. What a shame.

I was at Viareggio’s unmissable carnival last Saturday when the floats made their inaugural parade down the wide seaside promenade. The event was quite stunning and the weather held – important when the floats are made of papier-Mache! There are three categories of floats and each category is separately judged. This gives a big chance for smaller float builders with fewer resources than the gigantic ones built at the ‘Cittadella’, a special site for float construction and exhibitions which opened in 2001.

Viareggio is particularly hot on political satire (even Mrs. Mayhem made an appearance this year), world issues (especially environmental degradation) and social commentary (poor disabled access and smoking are big issues). The first category floats presented the following issues.

Number		Float Title	Issues	Symbols used
CATEGORY ONE
1	In un mondo che prigioniere è (in a world where we are all prisoners)		We are all subject to being punished for freedom of expression	Cell doors, swaddled human figures
2	Fumo negli occhi (smoke in your eyes)		Smoking causes death	Skeleton, cigarette butts
3	Proxima ventura		Towards a better future	Galleon, giraffes, helicopter
4	La pace di cristallo (fragile peace)		Threat of war	Prostrate dove with world figures above it
5	Papaveri rossi (red poppies)		Stop wars	Red poppies, WWI soldiers
6	No tu no (Not you)		Increase disabled access	Pulcinella on wheelchair, barriers
7	Ozio, vizio e vitalizio (Leisure, vice and annuities)		Against political corruption	Cicciolina, Razzi and Berlusconi
8	Aspettando Godot (Waiting for Godot)		We’re all waiting for dreams which never seem to materialize.	Huge tramp and text from Becket’s play
9	E’ come credere alle favole (It’s like believing in fairy tales.)		Fake news	Pied piper and mice

There were five second category floats and nine category three, all equally inventive and dealing with essential issues like plastics waste, political corruption, war-threats etc.

See if you can distinguish which floats are which in my panoply of photos taken last Saturday:

A lot of the carnival fun is also to do with the float actors and their costumes, the public and especially the children who have a real field day at this event!

Wouldn’t it be great if the Italian carnival tradition were brought to the UK, There could be such opportunities to allegorize ‘swivel-eyed’ Conservative in-fighting (to say nothing of Labour) not to mention the political figures who could be wonderfully sent up. In my mind’s eye I’m already imagining a Brexit float shaped like a double-decker filled with the usual suspects … It would certainly help to relieve public frustrations at the tragi-comic mess that is going on in those islands to the distress of the NHS, crime figures and education.

The Viareggio carnival continues as follows:

Seafront parades on:

Domenica 4 febbraio – Ore 15,00

2° CORSO MASCHERATO

Domenica 11 febbraio – Ore 15,00

3° CORSO MASCHERATO

Martedì 13 febbraio – Ore 17,00

4° CORSO MASCHERATO notturno DEL MARTEDI’ GRASSO

Sabato 17 febbraio – Ore 17,00

5° CORSO MASCHERATO notturno

Al termine la proclamazione dei vincitori

Grande Spettacolo pirotecnico finale (ie great final fireworks display)

Pisa Mover or Pismover

Posted on January 27, 2018 by Francis

Last year, on the 18th March, the Pisa Mover, a cable-rail shuttle service connecting Pisa central station with Pisa airport and replacing the former conventional electric rail service, was inaugurated. It cost almost 72 million euros. Of this amount public finance contributed 21 million.

As with most new transportation systems there have been both praises and complaints regarding the new service.

First the complaints:

It’s expensive! A ticket costs Euros 2.70 to travel just over a mile. To compare prices and distance: a ticket from Bagni di Lucca to Pisa Central station covers a distance of 22 miles and costs Euros 5.60 This means that if the Pisa mover ticket cost were applied to the rail journey from Bagni di Lucca to Pisa central that ticket would cost almost 60 Euros!

Why is the ticket from Pisa central station to the airport so expensive? The answer is obvious: the ticket price has to cover the cost of financing the project. Whether the number of passengers using the Pisa mover will be able to recoup the cost even at this price is a moot point. It’s been estimated that ten million passengers annually must use the system for financial solvency but the current number is rarely above eight million.

Walking distance to and from the interchanges at Pisa central and Pisa airport is longer creating possible difficulties for less able passengers. It’s a far cry from the formerly quick interchange to Florence or Rome trains from Pisa Central station.
The system wasn’t really necessary. There was a previous rail service and when that was removed the temporary shuttle bus cost Euros 1.20 – less than half the present amount – and continued all the way to the famous leaning tower!
Since the new cable-train system is incompatible with conventional rail systems all passengers must change trains and there can be no expansion of the Pisa mover for direct services to Florence and Rome from the airport.
The Pisa mover is actually slower than any of the old systems, taking 8 minutes for the transit. The old conventional train system took 5 minutes and the shuttle bus 6 minutes…
It’s not possible to buy on-line direct tickets to the airport from Bagni di Lucca. One needs to have some convenient cash to purchase an extra ticket at Pisa central station and, again, wages have to be paid for special assistants there to help passengers purchase tickets because of somewhat confusing auto-ticket dispensers.
There are fewer seats on the new trains. Thankfully it’s a short journey.
There was a corruption scandal and criminal investigation into the Pisamover construction company which was subsequently disestablished.

Second, the praises.

The Pisa mover has a frequency of 12 new trains per hour instead of the old trains, which were 2 per hour and the shuttle bus which was 7 journeys per hour. However, one must remember that the old trains had greater passenger carrying capacity.
There is an intermediate stop at Via di Goletta Navicelli for the additional car park.
The Pisa mover is of interest to railway anoraks because of the cable transportation system involved. They can have great fun in taking photos and writing down rolling stock numbers.
Can’t think of any other.

So there you have it. At least with the Pisa Mover I haven’t yet come across the chaos which ensues when London’s Piccadilly line has to cater for both rush-hour commuters and Heathrow airport passengers.

Viareggio in Winter

Posted on January 12, 2018 by Francis

Viareggio in winter is a different ‘kettle of fish’ (‘kettle’ here doesn’t mean the one for boiling water in tea-making but, instead, a special kind of saucepan for fish).

fish-kettle

Unlike many English seaside resorts, where summer days can often be as cold as warm winter ones, Viareggio has a quite different atmosphere in winter. All the bathing establishments are closed and the beaches and promenades are empty. I love Viareggio in January and this week we decided to pay a visit to this favourite place of ours.

Where to start but at the caffè Margherita, the stile-liberty concoction so beloved by Puccini and his cronies and where plans for three of his operas were laid.

They make an excellent cioccolato con panna here!

And, next to the caffè, the Mondadori bookshop will keep one browsing for ages…

One can then stroll down to the port and meet the statue of Ettore, the cat who, for nineteen years, would greet fishermen returning with their catch.

Ettore was a starving kitten when found in a cardboard box in 1997 but he soon became a mascot for all frequenters of Viareggio’s port.

ettoreJPG-kOqG-U1101789728411jsF-1024x851@LaStampa.it

(Ettore in 2014)

It was truly a sad time, therefore, when Ettore died in 2016. Funds were raised to erect a statue to his memory and this was inaugurated in November last year. (I thought to myself that I could start making a post about Italian cat statues much in the same way as I had done one on London cats – see my post at https://longoio3.com/2017/12/21/i-gatti-di-londra/ )

We bought some fresh fish and very fresh prawns (they were still moving around) from the harbour area.

We also treated ourselves to a delicious fresh fish fry-up served from one of the fishermen’s boats.

A poster reminded me that Viareggio’s fabulous carnival is now with us.

01102018 062x

We then moved on to Lido di Camaiore which Sandra remembers well since she spent her holidays there as a little girl.

I loved the bleak expansiveness of the beach, the changing clouds and the lapping waves.

I really do love to be beside the seaside, even in the middle of winter!

A Christmas Crib in the Trenches

Posted on January 11, 2018 by Francis

Not all ‘presepi’ – Italian Christmas cribs – are pretty, traditional types depicting shepherds and their flocks, picturesque village houses and old crafts. In 2001, for example, I saw the following presepe in Bagni di Lucca:

This most poignant representation was set in Ground Zero and was installed in what is now the Banca di Roma building in the market square.

It must be remembered that just over three months had passed since the greatest peacetime atrocity against civilians had been perpetrated by Muslim extremists. Again, for Christmas 2011, that crib was recreated in the church of the Crucifix in Lucca – a very beautiful church once on the list of buildings at risk, but now thankfully being restored. It was called “Ground Zero ten years ago-ten years after” and was again created by the scene designer, Alessandro Sesti, who dedicated it to the tragedy of the Twin Towers in New York City, an event which truly changed the world.

An incredibly poignant presepe is the one we visited a few days ago in the former chapel of Saint Elizabeth, in the ex-Franciscan monastery of Borgo a Mozzano. It’s titled ‘Un Natale in Trincea’ – a Christmas in the trenches – and relates to one of the greatest tragedies and ineptitudes in the annals of military disasters: the Italian campaign in Russia of 1941-3 in which, out of a quarter of a million troops sent to the front, almost half never returned.

The presepe is strong meat to take emotionally, especially when one looks at the photographs of the abortive campaign which are displayed in a narrow trench-like corridor one has to pass through before reaching the actual crib itself.

First are the triumphalist pictures and propaganda of the ill-prepared Italian brigades setting out, largely on a Mussolini-inspired (Hitler didn’t ask for any Italian troops) one-way ticket, to the Russian front. Just gaze at the farewells between the young men and their sweethearts….

Then, after battles in which the Italians actually received praise for their bravery from the enemy Russians – the Italian cavalry charge of Isbuscenskij still stirs the memory here..a sort of mediterranean equivalent of the ‘Charge of the Light Brigade – the terrible sufferings of the soldiers’ retreat with cardboard-thin boots and uniforms totally unsuited for temperatures which reached below forty centigrade. The photo of the brigade band below is almost absurdly unviewable.

The presepe was prepared by the Misericordia of Borgo – the voluntary ambulance and first aid body without which Italy’s medical services would be ineffective – and is dedicated to Borgo a Mozzano’s eighty victims of the Russian campaign . The idea was to create a dream of an Italian Christmas crib as imagined seventy five years ago by the starving, frostbitten soldiers on the Don River front when thinking of home.

The majority of the soldiers were Alpini, the famed Italian mountain troops, and the crib has the patronage of the National Presidency of the Alpine Association and the Municipality of Borgo a Mozzano. If one asks what alpine troops were doing in the vast Russian steppes the idea was for a quick blitzkrieg victory and then head for the Caucasian mountains and secure the oil fields for the Axis powers. As we know, this never happened and the lightning war degenerated into trench warfare stalemate until the overwhelming Russian victory at Stalingrad.

The display includes what the soldiers had to endure in the endless expanse of white snow and ice on the Russian plains, along the great river Don, during the Christmas of 1942. There are photos of the campaign during the advance and propaganda posters of the time, as well as the dramatic photos of the retreat.

A bit of background: since 1941, Italy, already present on several battle fronts of the Second World War, had been, alongside German, Romanian and Hungarian troops, inadvisedly involved in the attack on the USSR and, in 1941, had sent there a first contingent of 62,000 soldiers, part of the Italian expeditionary force in Russia (CSIR). In July and August 1942 other soldiers were sent to that front and the Italian contingent reached 230,000, formed in ten divisions. These included three Alpine divisions (the Cuneense, the Julia and the Tridentina). The whole was called ARMIR (Italian Army in Russia), also termed the eighth Army.

On Christmas day of 1942 the Russians began a strong and decisive counter-offensive against the invading armies. It was a Christmas which, for Italian soldiers, was the dramatic prelude to the beginning of an immense tragedy. On January 17 (feast of St. Anthony the Abbot) the order of withdrawal of Italian troops and those of the Axis allies was given. And so began the retreat across the endless steppes of the Don. It was a tragedy that concerned, above all, the Alpine Divisions. It is estimated that there were 85,000 Italian soldiers who did not return to their homeland throughout the Russian campaign. About 25,000 died in battle or in summary executions resulting from surrender, 70,000 were captured and, of these, only 10,000 were repatriated in the years following the end of the war. Even as late as 1958 there were still 60,000 men unaccounted for. They probably disappeared in the snowstorms and in the suffering of the prison camps.

Among these were also the eighty men from Borgo a Mozzano, to whom the crib is dedicated. In this crib there’s a flower for all those soldiers who never received anything on their unmarked burial places. ‘Dispersi in Russia’ is a phrase that appears with monotonous regularity on Italian war memorials including the one at our nearby village of San Cassiano.

The heartrending crib is made even more poignant by its sound track of alpine songs. It would be an obvious statement to say that I was close to tears when I emerged from the ‘Presepe Della Trincea’. The pity of war indeed!

Italian Schools and Corporal Punishment

Posted on December 30, 2017 by Francis

Italy abolished corporal punishment in schools in 1928. It took the UK another seventy three years to finally abolish corporal punishment in all its state and private schools.

In the case of capital punishment the time scale is even more dramatic: almost two centuries divide the abolition of capital punishment in the enlightened grand duchy of Tuscany (1786) and the UK, where the last hanging took place in 1964.

There will be those who think that the abolition of both corporal and capital punishment in the UK has led to social degeneration and those who feel that the last traces of ‘legal barbarism’ have since been removed from British society.

I was brought up and was taught in educational establishments where the ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’ attitude was still rife. In my primary school one was assaulted either by a rattan cane or by a belt (could there be a choice?) Areas of bodily impact could either be one’s posterior or one’s palm. I think I may have been hit once by a certain Mr M, for reasons of which I remain ignorant to this day. I just know that I felt both very hurt and very bewildered and that the first thought in my mind was not to let my parents know in case I received another thrashing from them by ‘shaming’ the family.

How different from today! If a child tells his or her parents that a teacher has ‘legally’ assaulted them the consequences could be rather different.

These thoughts came to mind when I consider what happened to me at the hands of a certain Mr A at my secondary school. Suddenly this person, so like a character straight out of Dotheboys Hall, came to mind. I googled his name only to find that he’d expired in late summer this year and that a well-attended memorial service had subsequently been held. I investigated further and found that not everyone lamented his passing. True, there were comments like ‘firm but fair’ and eulogies to what A had achieved to raise standards in another south London school where he’d become Head after apparently having been asked to leave mine for bullying. There were also, however, comments referring to a less than admirable side of his character and suggestions that he would have been prosecuted in today’s social and educational climate.

It was the first year in my secondary, or ‘public’ school. I’d managed to get into the place thanks to an educational authority bursary (wonderfully generous days then) as a result of having done well in the eleven plus exam. The majority of my teachers, who still wore their university gowns (but not their mortarboard caps), were likeable but A was an utter terror. A particular incident sticks in the mind when being taught English by him. A hauled me to his desk in front of the class for some misdemeanour and then began to give me a third degree belittling and, indeed, threatening me to such an extent that members of my class of 11 to 12 year-old boys said out loudly to him “stop it sir. That’s enough, we feel.”

Extraordinary that children at an age and in a school like mine should have responded with such conscientious attitudes to such a frightening situation….

My school also allowed corporal punishment to be meted out by the boys themselves in the guise of their role as prefects. Indeed, some of these prefects were feared more than many teachers and their punishment was worse. For example, ‘early report’ for teachers meant having to turn up at school a quarter of an hour before morning assembly. For prefects it meant having to turn up half an hour before!

A teacher, respected and valued by us to this day, did note recently that boys had rather more responsibility at the school than they have now. He mentioned that among these greater responsibilities was that they could administer the cane. I wonder if prefects had to ask the headmaster’s permission before they whacked some victim or whether the decision was left up to them. By the time I became of an age to be a prefect the practise had lapsed anyway.

Later in life I took up part-time work at a private primary school where corporal punishment was still practised. One of my conditions of employment was that I would not disagree with it. Actually, the pupils I taught were generally so well-behaved that the thought of having any of them assaulted never entered into my mind. I do remember, however, being praised by the Head for the good exam results of my classes. I, to this day, cannot believe that caning led directly to good results: the declaration of some pupils that they were ‘saved’ from their errant ways by some beak thrashing them remains ever difficult for me to fully comprehend. It never hurt me more than it hurt them.

It’s easier to understand how so many other countries still adhere to the belief that whacking a pupil improves their mental and social abilities. There may well be a clear correlation between school corporal punishment and the country’s political system. Just look at these maps:

(Green: corporal punishment illegal at school and at home.

Blue: corporal punishment illegal at school.

Red: corporal punishment allowed at school and at home.)

To return to A. As it’s not considered a good thing to speak badly of the dead, I should add that I met A many years later at a school reunion. He actually apologized to me: ‘let bygones be bygones’, he uttered and we had a spot of lunch together.

I admit this meeting removed much of the trauma I’d suffered from his hand at school where he selected his favoured few from the class and mistreated the rest.

Ironically, since A taught me English, a major theme in the literature of the UK is the horror of school education. Who cannot read Orwell’s ‘Such such were the joys’ or Dickens’ ‘Nicholas Nickleby’ or Charlotte Bronte’s ‘Jane Eyre’ without revulsion at the passages dealing with school experiences. Can we really say that some teachers were bastards but that, at least, they were fair bastards? I wonder – as I wonder whether I would have had a happier time in a corporal punishment-less school in Italy.

Cascio’s Chestnut Festival

Posted on October 12, 2017 by Francis

The castagnata is an essential autumn festa in Tuscany (or indeed any other region of Italy where chestnut trees grow). There was a time when the chestnut (castagno) supported this area’s population through the flour it produced when ground by special millstones. The ‘bread of the poor’ was considered a little shameful during the years of the Italian miracle of the sixties and seventies when a largely rural economy transformed itself into a largely industrial one. Yet it was the humble chestnut that saw villagers in the apennine areas overcome famine in difficult times like the second world war. (Read Eric Newby’s book ‘Love and war in the Apeninnes’ to know more).

Now, a little like oysters which in Dickensian times were considered equally a dish of the poor, the chestnut has made a big comeback and indeed it’s quite fashionable to eat necci (pancakes made from their flour) or delight in just munching roasted chestnuts. (I’m glad there are still chestnut roasters in the streets of London, too). To twist around Dr Johnson’s notorious definition of oats as applied to Scots, the chestnut which once supported the population is now a fashionable and, sometimes, pricey fare.

We’ve been to several castagnate over the years. Our first one (and still one of the largest in Tuscany) was at Marradi but there are many others throughout the region. Just check this link to find out about others in the region:

http://www.frammentiditoscana.it/castagna-ottobre-sagre-feste-toscana/

In our Lucchesia area there are many smaller ones but all are delightful. I’d put Lupinaia, Trassilico, Careggine (this October 15^th) and Pontecosi (on the 29^th of October) among our favourites. This year we returned to Cascio which has the added advantage of combining both necci and crisciolette, a dish peculiar to this village. (Do look up my post at https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/08/01/whats-a-criscioletta/ to find out what these delicious things are and how to make them).

The Cascio castagnata was very well attended though we did have to spend a little time queuing. But it was all worth it. After all these feste are social occasions and a queue here is always a good occasion to mix and chat and is certainly not to be treated like the typical supermarket queue rush.

In Cascio’s sweet church we were treated to a great concert by the Coro delle Alpi Apuane. Italy is famous for its male-voice mountain choirs whose sound is somewhat reminiscent of Welsh valley choirs and even Russian ones.

There was a pleasant woodland walk to a local metato (chestnut drying hut) for a drink.

The stalls had some delightful local handicraft for sale.

This little fellow seemed to sum up the general feeling of camaraderie in the place. Don’t you think he is beautifully autumnal in his colours?

With four days of wall-to-wall sunshine promised to us which castagnata shall we choose for next week-end I wonder?

It’s Mushroom and Chestnut time again.

Posted on October 10, 2017 by Francis

In our part of the world Keats’ ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ also means chestnuts and mushrooms. This is the time for wonderful walks through chestnut forests and foraging for that ever elusive porcino mushroom. It’s also a great time for joining in the Castagnate or chestnut festivals throughout the Garfagnana.

Locals are obviously very secretive about where to find the best mushrooms and so are we! Suffice it to say that one should always have one’s mushrooms checked carefully by a real expert or mycologist. The consequences of eating the wrong mushroom can lead to death, life on dialysis or, at best, a considerable bout of hallucinations.

It can also lead to getting lost in the wildest of forests. Recently an 82 year old woman had to spend the night among the trees when she got lost searching for mushrooms. There was a big local debate about whether she should pay for the rescue party costs which can be very considerable and impinge on our taxes! There are also several cases annually of people falling down ravines with consequent results.

Anyway, the whole point about mushroom gathering is to take a nice stroll through some heavenly landscapes and enjoy nature at its ripest and most wonderful. This should take precedence over any attempt to capture the most and largest porcini, in my view…

A Day in the Pizzorne

Posted on August 13, 2017 by Francis

There are remedies close at hand in the Lucchesia if one has become overheated during the recent weeks of ‘Lucifer’ or the ‘African bubble’: a heat wave that has afflicted most of Italy until recently. The seaside and the banks of our Lima River are great ways of cooling down. My favourite , however, is to head for the mountains and plateaux which surround us.

The Pizzorne is one such altipiano – plateau – on our way back to Longoio from Lucca. Since Lucca is just 16 feet above sea level and the Pizzorne reach a height of 3,500 feet that makes a difference of 3,484 feet. As temperatures drop 5.4 degrees centigrade per 1000 feet it’s easy to see that, on average, it’s going to be at least 15 degree colder on the Pizzorne – and that’s not including the wind factor and the forest shade.

The Lucchesi, like so many other inhabitants of Italian cities surrounded by hills and mountains are lucky in a way that those living in flatter countries, like the UK, are not. Every Italian city has its hill station easily reachable within a short drive. There is no excuse for sweltering in the summer heat of a city when there are so many delectably cooler places in the surrounding hills.

Yesterday we decided to return home from Lucca via the Matraia road which leads off from Marlia. The views from this road are stratospheric.

At one point we could closely see the whole of old Lucca surrounded by its tree-lined walls and its grass moat. You’ll spot Lucca in this photo below.

We quickly reached the Pizzorne plateau on our classic 4 X 4 Panda. Here, there’s a scattering of houses and a little centre with a sweet chapel.

Further afield is the ancient abbey of San Bartolomeo surrounded by an ample lawn – a popular picnic spot. Although the building was closed we managed to sneak this view through part of the window.

Nearby is the Aldebaran bar and restaurant which doubles as a mountain refuge in the winter. Here one can either order a take-away meal or eat in the restaurant. Incidentally, Aldebaran is the brightest star in the constellation of Taurus and the 14^th brightest star in the heavens. It certainly is a bright spot among the Pizzorne.

After a noisy night of thunderstorms, yesterday was actually a little chilly so we decided to eat in the restaurant which is delightfully kitsch as these photos show.

We started off with farfalle pasta with venison and nuts, which was absolutely heavenly: the combination of all-dente pasta, hazelnuts and deer was, indeed, very special.

We did, however feel a little guilty about a cervo (deer) looking at us just round the corner.

This dish was followed by chunks of venison with sautéed bietola (chard) and chips.

We skipped the dessert as we were already pretty full but decided on a coffee.

Our journey from le Pizzorne descended down through Pariana which seemed to us to be largely untouched by holiday homes and still very much a working community. Without anything of special interest in itself Pariana must be an excellent centre for walking and mountain biking. The road linking it to the Pizzorne was only completed relatively recently.

We then reached Botticino and the valley of the ‘cartiere’ or paper mills. There is a particular beauty about the old industrial buildings which the more modern extensions clearly lack.

Thence it was a climb via Boveglio over the Trebbio pass to Benabbio with its wonderful views of the Apuan Alps. We’ll be back to this town today for there’s going to be a grigliata festa in the ground of the castle of the Lupari, which has been the subject of fascinating archaeological digs.

So in one day we found a more equable climate, superb views, uncontaminated nature, food to die for and a fair smattering of historical interest. Such are the delights in our part of the world!

Peace Organ festival at Sant’Anna di Stazzema

Posted on July 12, 2017 by Francis

The ‘Organo Della Pace’ (Peace Organ) Festival at Sant’Anna di Stazzema reaches its eleventh year and, thanks to the collaboration between Italy and Germany, this year hosts international musicians. There are seven concerts, every Sunday from 16 July to 27 August and a conference. The festival, which is now one of the top quality musical events in Versilia, is a concrete expression of the capacity of music to foster dialogue, knowledge and collaboration between people.

During the festival there will be fundraising for the extension of the organ with a pedal sub bass register, which will be inaugurated in 2018.

At Sant’Anna di Stazzema, during the Nazi massacre that, on August 12, 1944, cost the lives of 560 people the church organ was destroyed by SS machine-gun fire. Between 2002 and 2007, the “An Organ for Sant’Anna” initiative, founded in Essen with the patronage of the Presidents of the Italian and German Republics, collected through 67 concerts funds for the reconstruction of the organ. The instrument was inaugurated in 2007 and since then, through the Italian-German Association “Friends of the Peace organ”, on summer Sundays, the small but charming church of Sant’Anna lives again thanks to the presence of internationally renowned musicians.

DANIELE BOCCACCIO CONCERT

Sunday, July 16 (6 pm – free admission)

Recital by Daniele Boccaccio (Lucca), organ

Organ Professor at the Conservatory of Alexandria

VICTOR CONTRERAS CONCERT

Sunday, July 23 (6 pm – free admission)

Recital by Victor Contreras (Mexico City), organ

President of the Accademia Organistas de México

“AD LIBITUM” DUO CONCERT

Sunday, July 30 (6 pm – free admission)

Recital by the “Ad libitum” duo (Pinerolo, Turin)

Elena Saccomandi, viola – Walter Gatti, organ

ENRICO VICCARDI CONCERT

Sunday, August 6 (6 pm – free admission)

Recital by Enrico Viccardi (Lodi), organ

Professor at the Conservatory of Como

TOMASZ ADAM NOWAK CONCERT

Sunday, August 13 (6 pm – free admission)

Recital by Tomasz Adam Nowak (Münster, Germany), organ

Professor at the Conservatory of Detmold (Germany)

FRANCESCO DI LERNIA CONCERT

Sunday 20 August (6 pm – free admission)

Recital by Francesco Di Lernia (Foggia), organ

Professor of Organ and Director of the Conservatory of Foggia

ELISABETH ZAWADKE CONCERT

Sunday, August 27 (6 pm – free admission)

Recital by Elisabeth Zawadke (Munich, Germany), organ

Professor at the Conservatory of Lucerne (Switzerland)

CELEBRATING THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PEACE ORGAN

Sunday 16 July – 5 pm

Celebratory ceremony of the ten years of the Peace Corps

LUTHER AND THE REFORMATION’S FIVE HUNDRED YEARS

Sunday 30 July – 4 pm

Conference “Luther and 500 Years of Reformation”

Speakers: prof. Nino Campagna and Prof.ssa Concetta Giuffrè (Pescia)

Tibetan Festival in Tuscany

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Francis

Deep in the countryside south of Pisa at Pomaia is a little piece of Tibet. The Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa is a monastery, place of meditation, teaching institute, ritual centre – in short, somewhere to find oneself again and recover the original point of why we’re here. There’s an excellent web site in English at https://www.iltk.org/en/chi-siamo/

We’d been aware of the Tibetan centre for some time but it was only thanks to an invitation from a friend that we decided to join in the three-day festival celebrating the Dalai Lama’s birthday (he’s 82 this year).

Last Sunday we shared the atmosphere of peace and good-will which permeates the monastery.

There is a characteristic gateway leading to four stupas commemorating lamas who have taught or influenced the monastery.

There were stalls and massage using the famous singing bowls:

There was a photographic exhibition including pictures by famous Italian explorer and lover of Tibet, Fosco Maraini, (who, incidentally, is buried by his own choice at Alpe Sant’Antonio in the comune of Molazzana near us.)

There was the blessing of the animals. Among those who had their animals blessed we met family friend Piero Nissim and his daughters, great creators of music, poetry and theatre. Some brought their cats in a basket. My cat, Napoleon’s photo, however, was suitably blessed!

We made up for all the prayers we’d forgotten to recite after our miraculous escape from our car accident in May by turning round the prayer-wheels of peace:

The climax was the destruction of the great sand mandala which had been painstakingly built up in the previous weeks. The mandala is a mind liberating celestial city with four gates. Its eventual obliteration represents the transience of life on this planet and the fact that the celestial city is truly beyond the comprehension of anyone. The organiser of the extempore arts celebration (and international women’s day) gave a memorable course on making mandalas which I have described at

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2017/03/08/cosmic-road-maps-at-the-casino/

Before we left the last day of the Tibetan celebrations we saw a harrowing film of how Tibetan culture was almost destroyed last century. We visited Tibet last year (see https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/12/01/heated-debates-at-sera-monastery-tibet/ etc.) and were glad to note that the Tibetan spirit can never be broken. The one positive thing about the Tibetan tragedy is that so many of this highest (in all sense of the word) of cultures has had to disperse into all parts of the world to preserve itself, and so many more people have become aware of its great truths.

We did miss the tenth anniversary of the extempore art event at Bagni di Lucca’s Villa Fiori. But Sandra has taken part in seven times and, indeed, we have produced a combined effort of her art and my poetry in the book available at https://www.unilibro.it/libro/pettitt-francis/septet/9788869700521

There is, however, an excellent report by my friend, Domenico Bertucelli a gifted writer, raconteur of local stories and photographer for you to view at

http://www.luccaindiretta.it/mediavalle-e-garfagnana/item/97848-bagni-di-lucca-i-vincitori-del-concorso-di-pittura-estemporanea-foto.html

And also at