The geocaching phenomenon continues to grow with more and more people arriving looking for the elusive geocache boxes hidden around the city.
Over the past 3 or 4 years, Geocaching as a “tourism resource” is definitely making itself felt in this area but this morning unfortunately that came to a full stop as one of the original cultural geocaches in Barga Vecchia was removed by vandals.
Literally hundreds of visitors to Barga since 2013 have arrived in the city thanks to these geocaches.
Below are just some of the 170 comments left in the log book of the cultural geocache up until this morning.
Wonderful holidays in the Toskana and the STF in this cache here. Thanks for showing us the beautiful town of Barga. Without your cache we wouldn’t have seen it. We enjoyed the old houses and the ice cream in the centre of the city. TFTC or better: Mille Grazie per la cache si dice brisen60 – Germany/Hannover
We found him during our visit of the lovely medieval City of Barga. We thank Barganews for the nice GC and for all the information in English ! TFTC.
Fine settimana a Barga per sfuggire dal caldo di città. Il borgo è molto carino e vale decisamente una visita, chi si aspettava di trovarci così tante cache? Grazie a barganews per questa serie dedicata!
Greetings from Australia! We found this cache whilst on our serven week Austria, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, and Finland tour. Thanks to the owner for the cache, and the opportunity to see more of another country
Gefunden mit der Familie, Gemütlicher Ausflug zum fast mittäglichem Frühstück…
a nice Place to visit. Thank you for showing TFTC
Not only a great visit to Barga but an awesome find to take in the local culture. Well done!! TFTC
Thank you greetings from slovakia
Another really nice one Grazie mille for the cache and greetings from Norimberga, Germany.
Grazie a questa serie di cache abbiamo conosciuto Barga e i suoi dintorni. TFTC Alessia e Stefano by Il boss team
Grazie alla cache abbiamo scoperto questo bel paese!
One of my favourite finds so far in geocaching. Liked the different items in the cache such as art pieces. It was different and was a nice way to show the Tuscan culture. Would reccommend a visit to Barga – a nice little medieval town in the heart of Tuscany.
Greeting from Finland. TFTC
Abbiamo colto l’occasione di questa bella cache per farci un giretto a Barga (strano ma vero non c’eravamo mai stati) che ci è piaciuta molto. TFTC, un modo per unire cultura e geocaching, bella iniziativa.
During the search of this cache we have discovered Barga, a nice and interesting place to visit.
TFTC, good idea to put togethere culture and geocaching.
So just what is inside the geocache boxes?
GEOCACHING is an outdoor recreational activity, in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called “geocaches” or “caches”, anywhere in the world.
A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook where the geocacher enters the date they found it and signs it with their established code name. After signing into the log, the cache must be placed back exactly where the person found it. Larger containers such as plastic storage containers (Tupperware or similar) or ammunition boxes can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value.
The geocaches of Barga are somewhat different as they in fact do contain objects of value.
There are 20 geocaches hidden in and around the medieval walled city of Barga (LU) in Tuscany.
The caches contain signed original artworks, drawings, charcoal drawings, prints and etchings by 40 artists working in this area.
There are also mini poems and short stories in Italian and Latin
Professional musicians have prepared a series of cards containing QR codes which when scanned by smart phones will play music specially written for the project. The music includes classic, jazz, piano, tango, rock and folk.
The project is an attempt to “raise the bar” on the level of objects which can be found and exchanged in geocaches.
We hope that the people who find these objects will enjoy them as much as we have in preparing them. (the map can be found here)
All of the articles we have published over the past 12 months about the cultural geocaching project can be seen here
Nicola Salotti talking about his participation in the geocaching project
Marco Poma talking about his participation in the geocaching project
Andrea Guzzoletti talking about his participation in the geocaching project
Nick Kraczyna talking about his participation in the geocaching project
Rory Wilmer talking about his participation in the geocaching project
