in english — giornale di barganews

Progress

Before the age of internet, facebook and twitter, the following article was written almost twenty years ago in Fosciandora, a tiny comune of 720 inhabitants further up in the mountains of Garfagnana. A new hypermarket had just been opened down in the valley and was offering a free bus service to people in Garfagnana if they shopped at the hypermarket. That service to the community did not last for long but then neither did the tiny shops and bars in [...]

Read full story → 0 comments

02/18/2012 12:24 am

M’Illumino… di swing

Anche quest’anno Barga – come molte altre località della valle del Serchio e d’Italia – si è illuminata di meno, aderendo alla campagna di sensibilizzazione lanciata dal programma radiofonico Caterpillar. La ricetta barghigiana è ormai consolidata ed è entrata di diritto nelle manifestazioni...

02/17/2012 3:36 pm

Pascoli’s last trip remembered 100 years later

A commemorative plaque by the sculptor Francesco Lucchese Petroni was erected on a wall at Piezza, Gallicano in September 1912 and today, local politicians, school children and interested parties were there to see a wreath laid at the foot of that plaque as the local community remembered the last trip...

02/14/2012 1:35 am

The Minimalist Santa in the Ice Cave

The intense cold of the past few days will be with us until at least Wednesday according to our resident meteorologist David Sesto. Temperatures dropped down last night to bitterly cold and numbing – 7.4 ° but it looks as though the mercury will be rising again shortly. This gives us an opportunity...

02/08/2012 4:30 pm

Cut off by the snow, but the community responds

Back in December of last year we published an article about Karin Schirmer and her award winning dog breeding company Intisstar’s, entitled, “Breeding puppies is not like living in the Garden of Eden” – Allevare cuccioli non è come vivere nel giardino dell’Eden We wrote then...

02/06/2012 3:58 pm

Scottish Diaspora Tapestry, first panel delivered with a surprise

At 9.45 this morning the first of the panels for the Scottish Diaspora Tapestry, from Barga arrived at The Prestoungrange Gothenburg, on the High St in Prestonpans, Scotland. The press conference to launch this project took place just a few weeks ago (article here) but today the women who have participated...

02/05/2012 1:02 am

Begging in minus three degrees – life as an illegal immigrant

Okpere (not his real name) left his native Nigeria in 2008 passing through Libya before boarding a boat for the incredibly dangerous crossing to the island of Lampedusa. That particular sea passage having already cost the lives of many hundreds, maybe even thousands of illegal immigrants hoping...

01/30/2012 6:35 pm

Double sunset – doppio tramonto

Double sunset across the valley this evening – If the conditions are right and you are in the right place at the right time, it is possible twice a year, 30-31 January and the 11-12 November to see the doppio tramonto – the double sunset from outside the Duomo in Barga Vecchia. This is when the...

01/30/2012 4:18 pm

Walter Togneri sings and pushes back the clock to happier times

Regular readers of barganews will have heard his name mentioned in many articles and a few of you might even have been luckily enough to actually see and heard Silvano Togneri in action during some of the summer festivals in Barga in the recent past. Silvano left this world in 2006 (article here) but...

01/27/2012 11:39 am

Italian Shoah names – Memorial to the Victims of 1943-1945 anti-Jewish Persecution

The memory of the Shoah has become an essential element in the modern concept of citizenship and in European identity; the core of the memory of the Shoah is the painful list of people who were its victims. They must be remembered on a plaque, in a book, or even on the screen of a computer: on their...

01/26/2012 12:32 am

Shostakovich, monografie: visioni, immagini, suggestioni – Massimo Salotti

An ambitious project opened the doors to the public this evening at the Aula Magna “Corrado Carradini”, Liceo Classico Ariosto in collaboration with the Scuola Civica di Musica as Massimo Salotti presented the first of a series of monthly music meetings each with a theme. To start the series...

01/25/2012 8:39 pm

Driving in Lucca – Top Gear – BBC

Top Gear is a British television series about motor vehicles, primarily cars. It began in 1977 as a conventional motoring magazine show. Over time, and especially since a relaunch in 2002, it has developed a quirky, humorous style. The show is currently presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and...

01/25/2012 9:38 am

Earth tremours felt right across the region

The ground shook for a few seconds this morning as an earth tremour made itself felt right across the region. . The earthquake registered a magnitude 4.9 . on the Richter Scale with the epicentre in the Po valley in Reggio Emilia. According to the Institute of Geophysics, the towns closest to the...

01/23/2012 8:39 pm

RAI radio – m’illumino di meno, theme tune results

17th February is the National Saving Energy Day, “M’illumino di meno” which is held each year in Italy when people try out various systems that visibly show that they are attempting to save energy. The campaign was launched by the Italian radio programme Caterpillar in 2005 and seeks to reduce...

01/23/2012 2:09 am

Italians refuse to give up their ice-cream amid the belt-tightening

As Italian ice-cream makers flock to Rimini for a convention sales show that despite the debt crisis few have given up gelato Italians facing up to job losses, rising prices and austerity budgets are cutting back on their traditional long holidays and leisurely lunches. But as the nation’s ice-cream...

01/23/2012 1:28 am

Casa Fontana voted in the top two dozen Italian B+B

The very successful bed and breakfast establishment Casa Fontana run by Ron and Susi Gauld in Barga Vecchia are this evening celebrating a very spectacular coup after their B+B was voted in the top two dozen Bed and Breakfast and Inns in Italy by the website Trip Advisor. TripAdvisor.com is a travel...

01/22/2012 11:12 pm

The American dream has emigrated to Europe

To anyone who grew up in the Cold War, the rhetoric of the Republican Party’s 2012 presidential candidates is strangely familiar. The United States, they warn, is threatened by an alien ideology. What’s startling is that the bogeyman this time around is not resurgent and increasingly hostile Russia,...

01/22/2012 2:52 pm

Blessing the animals in Barga

A bright crisp January morning and the sound of barking dogs filled the air in Barga as once again it was time for the annual celebrations for San Antonio – the annual blessing of the animals organised by the l’Associazione “L’Arca della Valle, la Polisportiva Val di Lago and...

01/19/2012 12:46 am

Home at last

It has been a gloriously sunny day and I have just come back from walking Tufo, Simonetta and Marco’s beautiful and lively white German shepherd. He leaps into the back of the Twingo and we drive further up the mountain road towards Renaio which is normally very quiet, but I had forgotten the significance...

01/18/2012 12:32 am

Music of the Hemispheres – a film by Elisa da Prato

Music is perhaps the most accessible and emotional form of art, while the brain is one of the most complex and fascinating organs in the human body. New York based documentary filmmaker Elisa da Prato (who’s family are from Barga – she is the grand-daughter of the painter Carlo da Prato...