Barga Vecchia was today full of people, movement, music, flags and banners for the grand opening of the new Museo dell Memoria in Piazza Garibaldi with the first exhibition in Tuscany dedicated to the birth and life of the hero of the Risorgimento, Giuseppe Garibaldi two hundred years ago. The new museum has been built on the site of a palazzo hit by artillery during the last world war and left as a rubble for 60 years. The complete complex comprises museum, gardens and viewing terraces. (Images from inside the museum can be seen here) Garibaldi, Giuseppe (1807-1882) The foremost military figure and popular hero of the age of Italian unification known as the Risorgimento with Cavour and Mazzini he is deemed one of the makers of Modern Italy. Cavour is considered the "brain of unification," Mazzini the "soul," and Garibaldi the "sword." For his battles on behalf of freedom in Latin America, Italy, and later France, he has been dubbed the "Hero of Two Worlds." more on Garibaldi here
The complete speech given by the Mayor of Barga Umberto Sereni in Piazza Garibaldi this afternoon can be heard below
