events and news from in and around Barga (LU) Italy
Since Jan 1st 2000 the award winning photographer O’Connor,
has been clicking away daily amassing a huge database of images about Barga which have now surpassed the one million images mark.
More images from January here
A concert this evening at the Aula Magna in Barga to raise money for the disaster in S.E Asia. Taking part were the male voice choir - Coro Alpi Apuane - L'Edicola con il Coro delle Casalinghe and the Scuola di Musica Barga "Musica Barga Band" directed by Giancarlo Rizzardi More images here
The statue of Garibaldi in Piazza Garibaldi in Barga Vecchia wears a snowy hat and scarf and a stoic look on his face as the winter weather continues its icy grip across the valley.
The Lucca Prefettura advised the Comune of Barga to close all the schools in the area on Monday morning due to the expected heavy snow fall which would have caused chaos for the pupils returning home, and the schools have remained shut ever since.
The Barga children are having a great week but not so the motorist.The snow continues to fall and freezing temperatures at night have made the roads very dangerous despite the constant salting/gritting by the council workmen. More images here
O'Connor, the barganews award winning photographer, was out and about last night as the snow fell on Barga just as the bells of the Duomo struck midnight. The whole town was deserted. The only people on the move were the trucks salting the roads in an attempt to keep traffic moving in the morning. More images here
Tre Sorelle di Anton Cechov - Teatro Curci at the Teatro dei Differenti with Pamela Villoresi, Valeria Ciangottini, Renato Campese, Antonella Attili, directed by Maurizio Panici More images here
Five kilos of tripe, lovingly prepared and cooked during the day and then served up in the evening with another kilo of meat sauce .... laid in front of 15 hungry guests at Aristo's bar ... and just how long did all that food last ? not even 10 minutes is the answer.
Tripe can be a difficult dish to prepare well and just as difficult to stomach for the unprepared but this evenings feast was just that ... a great culinary feast, succulent and believe it or not, a delight to behold.
Mr. Adami has taken the honours ... the regulars at Aristo's bar toasted him last night as the finest tripe cook in Barga. More images here
The Lucca Prefettura advised the Comune of Barga to close all the schools in the area this morning due to an expected heavy snow fall which would have caused chaos for the pupils returning home. More images here
As we already reported in December last year, work has started started on clearing a house next to the Palazzo Balduini in Piazza Garibaldi that has been sitting in ruins since 1944. The house was destroyed by artillery shells on Boxing Day 1944. Accounts differ as to who was responsible for the shelling .. some maintain it was the Americans who were shelling Sommocolonia in an attempt to stop the forward edge of a blitzkreig offensive that was to throw elements of six Axis divisions at U.S. Army detachments in the Serchio Valley.... others maintain that it was the German artillery on the hills behind Barga shelling the town. Who ever was responsible, the house was completely destroyed and the families living there (and who were fortunately at the time sheltering elsewhere) never returned to their shattered house.
The diggers have been in operation most of the winter and excavated tons of earth and rubble and now the area is ready for the first new concrete foundations to be laid.
The project should be completed in the spring and a new split level piazza and grassed area should be made ready to replace the bomb site.
NEWSPAPER and television images of the terrifying Asian tsunami left billions across the world reeling at the horrific loss of life.
Among those watching was leading Scottish artist John Bellany, whose dawning fear that he was becoming hardened to the suffering forced him into the studio.
Once there, the 62-year-old poured his passionate reaction to the events into a series of large and dramatic canvases.
Bellany said: "It had a devastating effect on me as it did on everybody. But I was seeing these horrible images so often on TV that eventually nothing was going in.
"The first two or three times, I was in a terrible state, but after a while I was numbed by them.
"They seemed to lose their power, which is terrible. The only thing I could do was to paint."
For Bellany, the son of a fisherman who was born and brought up in the seaside village of Port Seton, East Lothian, Scotland the images of devastation in the coastal areas had a special resonance.
In search of peace and quiet, the artist retreated to his house near Barga where he spent an intense fortnight painting four canvases, each an imposing 11ft by 7ft.
Bellany, brought up in a strict Calvinist family, and whose work remains deeply influenced by religion, said: "The pictures from the TV got into my system, into my soul, and it was like these paintings brewed in me, and then I put them out."
He added: "I painted the pieces very quickly. The intensity carried me through."
Bellany is reluctant to provide an exact commentary on the painting, preferring that the images be allowed to speak directly for themselves.
But the impact and the destruction that the tsunami caused is clear. Survivors stare out of the canvas, while in the very centre a woman dressed in white holds a tiny baby in her arms, the body limp as though asleep.
In the background, fishing boats lie on their sides, thrown by the force of the wave inland on to the beach, while the human cost is seen in a body wrapped in cloth and tied tight with a clothes line. In the distance, a blue streak of sea acts as a constant reminder of nature’s destructive power.
The artist said: "Although the tsunami was utterly horrific, one of the greatest tragedies the world has ever known, there was a poetry in what happened. The way those people dealt with it, the dignity of those who survived it, the grace with which they held their children, I was tremendously impressed by all of that.
"After over-dosing on the horror of the tsunami, I was trying through these paintings to reclaim them for my dreams."
His tsunami paintings will be shown in Scotland as part of a retrospective at Glasgow’s Mitchell Library in May.
Other paintings by John Bellany can be seen at the Marzocco Gallery in Piazza Angelio Barga Vecchia. Among his most ardent buyers can be listed David Bowie who now has a total of 12 Bellany paintings in his house. - article taken from this site
End of an era for the Pierottis after a century serving Paisley
DURING the past century the Pierotti family has become as much a part of Paisley Scotland as the town hall clock.
For decades thousands of Buddies queued up to enjoy their fish and chips – there was nothing to beat them, just ask anyone who savoured the taste.
And in recent years they’ve brought the news to thousands of families from their shop in Rowan Street.
Owned by popular brothers Louis, Albert and Michael, the newsagent’s was always more than just a place to buy papers or a pint of milk.
Cheery smiles and quirky banter are the trademarks of the Pierottis.
It also became a haven where Buddies could escape the rigours of daily life and enjoy a chat or a bit of a laugh.
As one customer said: “I went in with the weight of the world on my shoulders and I came out laughing and joking.”
And that’s exactly how it was for everyone.
For nearly 20 years, Louis, Albert and Michael provided shoulders to cry on, witty one-liners to make their customers laugh – and, of course, service with a smile.
And that’s how they’ll be remembered as they finally bow out of business after two decades in the popular store.
It’s the sad end of an era not just for the brothers, but for the family as a whole.
For the past century there has always been at least one member of the clan running their own business in the town. But not any more.
When Louis, 70, Albert, 66, and Michael, 60, cashed up for the last time, they said goodbye, not just to their newsagents shop, but also to a little piece of family history.
And it was a moment fraught with emotion for them all.
Michael said: “There were tears in our eyes, especially because of how our customers were affected. They were so sorry to see us go, and we got 90 cards wishing us all the best as well as bottles of whisky and wine.
“Our friends were our customers and our customers were also our friends.
“It’s hard to say goodbye to all of that, but at our age we feel it’s the right time to bow out.”
THE Pierotti empire can be traced back to humble beginnings at the start of the 20th century.
In 1903, Louis, Albert and Michael’s grand- uncle John Doninni set up a cafe in Smithhills Street, and so the amazing story of the family’s long and successful business partnership with Paisley began.
Several years later, in 1916, the brothers’ dad, Guiseppe, stopped off in the town to make some money as he headed to visit family in America.
He began working for John Doninni in his cafe – and became a familiar sight cycling around the streets selling ice cream from the basket of his three-wheeler bike.
Soon he fell in love with Paisley, so much so he cancelled his plans to travel to the States and made the town his home.
Guiseppe – who was affectionately known as Wee Joe – only gave up his ice-cream seller’s job when he had to return to Italy to fight in the first world war, but his love of Paisley brought him ‘home’ just a few short years later.
Said Louis: “He returned in 1921 with his young brother, Adolfo, and together they set up in business.
“We’re not too sure exactly where they started off, but we do know that my father worked all over the town with fish and chip shops in Mill Street, Bank Street, Orchard Street, Broomlands Street and Gauze Street.”
In the years that followed, Guiseppe would spend six months ploughing all his efforts into establishing a new shop, before selling up and returning to Italy for several weeks to see his family in Barga.
On his return to Paisley, he would set up business elsewhere in town, and soon became a familiar and well-loved local figure.
In the early 1930s, Guiseppe returned to Italy on one of his regular holidays and fell head over heels in love with a local lady called Olimpia.
The couple tied the knot and returned to Paisley as man and wife, where their first baby daughter, Diana, came into the world.
Soon after, the family upped sticks and moved to Barrhead to set up another successful fish and chip shop. There, Louis, Albert and Eva were born.
But they didn’t settle in the town and in 1938 they moved back to their beloved Paisley – the place they now called home.
The Pierottis were soon back on their feet with the opening of a fish and chip shop at the corner of Moncrieff Street and Back Sneddon Street, where the Royal Bank of Scotland now stands.
But it wasn’t all plain sailing as they struggled to bring in a wage and stay together as a family.
Said Louis: “My father was interned during the war, even though he had never returned to Italy because of the fascist regime.
“He had a bad experience with the local party leader who had threatened him because of his non-support of Fascism.
“In 1942, he was released and was the first internee to be allowed back into Paisley, which was a protected area because of the Fleming & Ferguson shipbuilding firm.
“But in the meantime, my mother was ordered out of Paisley – which was rather unfair. She had no business, four small children and nowhere to go.”
Luckily, Guiseppe had a cousin in Barrhead who took Olimpia and her family in. She earned her keep by working in his fish and chip shop.
Said Louis: “We lived in an outhouse which was subject to dampness.
“As a result, my sister Diana caught rheumatic fever, leaving her with a heart defect which still bothers her today.”
Around 1950 Guiseppe fell ill and Louis left school to help run the shop in Paisley.
But he was called up for national service and left town three years later.
He joined the Royal Signals, and Albert followed in his footsteps with a Forces career as a radar operator.
When Louis returned in 1955 he threw himself back into the family business, before taking the decision to embark on a business venture of his own.
He explained: “In 1962 the chance of a shop in Old Sneddon Street came up, so I wrote to Albert who was still in the Army to ask if he’d be interested in going into business. He said yes.
“The whole family actually worked together for a while, then mum and dad decided to retire in 1969 and that’s when Michael joined the business.
“We’ve all worked together ever since.”
It wasn’t long before the trend for Indian and Chinese cuisine began to hit the fish and chip shop in the pocket.
The brothers also found themselves crippled by immense bills – with rates rocketing from £200 a year to £400 a week in the 1970s.
It soon became clear the business was sinking – and, just in the nick of time, eagle-eyed Michael came up with the solution to all their problems.
He explained: “I spotted a shop in Erskine and we moved in over there.
“We had a fish and chip shop in Bargarran for 21 years, and we loved every minute of it.”
Continued Louis: “In 1985 we took the plunge and bought a plot of land next to the newsagents in Rowan Street in Paisley and we set up another fish and chip shop there.
“Michael is an architectural draughtsman to trade and he designed the shop, which we built from scratch.
“Then, a year later, we rented it out and bought over the newsagent’s instead.
“We ran our wee newsagent and our Erskine shop together for many years, but eventually we sold the fish and chip shop in Bargarran in 2000 and concentrated on the newsagent’s in Paisley instead.”
It was a whole new experience for the brothers, who were experts at running a busy chippie – but suddenly found they had bigger fish to fry.
Michael explained: “Running the newsagent’s was a revelation.
“In the past we’d had to get up early in the morning to go and get the fish, and we’d be working right through until 11pm.
“We hardly ever saw our families, and we often found ourselves putting in more than 70 hours a week.
“The newsagent’s was very, very different – but equally hard work.
“Two of us would always be working together, and we usually ended up putting in about 69 hours a week there too.”
AS the years passed, the brothers built up a stronger bond than ever before as they worked together day-in, day-out.
Said Louis: “Thankfully we’ve always got on really well, and the great thing about being in business together is we know we can trust one another.
“We have also met so many lovely people over the years – I’d say the folk in the Lochfield and Thrushcraigs areas are among the nicest in Paisley. Soon we had loads of really loyal customers at the Rowan Street shop.
“They became – and still are – friends as well as customers, they really are the salt of the earth.
“There was more banter and corny jokes fired over the counter than you can imagine.
“Now that we have retired, we will always hold those friends close to our hearts. They gave us such a good life we did not mind the long hours.”
Things turned sour in February 2002, when two armed raiders burst into Pierotti’s newsagent’s and threatened Albert and Michael with a gun and a knife.
Said Albert: “I was at the customer side of the counter when this guy came in with a hood up, pulled my hair back and put a bread knife to my throat. He threatened to cut it if I didn’t empty the till. Meanwhile the other guy had a gun to Michael’s head. The pair of us just went into shock.”
The brothers handed over the money and the yobs made their escape.
But not before they had let their identity slip.
Said Michael: “We recognised the chap with the gun. He had put a scarf over his face but it had slipped and we saw who he was.
“Not long after, a scarf was found outside the shop and I was called in to the police station to ID it. It turned out it belonged to Louis – he’d lost his scarf outside! It caused a bit of drama but we were able to have a laugh about it afterwards.”
The armed thugs – George Sweeney and Jamie Haggerty – were later locked up for a total of 21 years for a string of shop and post office hold-ups.
Just 10 days after the terrifying knife and gun raid in their shop, another sick thug targeted Pierotti’s newsagents in what the brothers describe as a ‘copycat’ attack.
Said Michael: “It was quarter past five in the morning and I was sorting out the papers when a chap ran in and threatened me with a screwdriver.
“I reckon he was an opportunist who thought he’d try his luck after what had happened to us before, but I managed to chase him off with a stick and he got nothing.”
In spite of the two frightening ordeals, the brothers say they never lost faith in the community they served.
“The people were just too nice for that,” Michael explained.
“These two attacks were the only trouble we really had in all our years in business.
“We didn’t let it shake our faith at all.”
The brothers carried on in business for another couple of years, before deciding the time had come to cash up once and for all.
Said Albert: “Basically we’re at the age where we feel it’s time to retire.”
Louis, who is a keen writer, is spending his spare time penning a children’s novel based on his teenage escapades with his brothers in Italy.
Albert – who has survived two heart attacks and a triple bypass – is now taking it easy and devoting more time to his family.
And Michael is about to start a part-time job in B&Q.
He said: “We’re lucky because we’ve always had good health.
“What’s important now is making the most of the time we have and our new lives.”
And Louis laughed: “We will miss all the customers who came into the shop to see us.
“But we need to work on getting out of the habit of waking up at the crack of dawn.
“That’s what happens when you’ve run a newsagent’s for 20 years.”
He added: “It’s the first time there’s not been a fish and chip shop, a cafe or a newsagent in Paisley run by the Pierottis for about a century.
“It is the end of an era – but our name will live on through my sons, John Paul and Michael, who have set up a hairdressing business in the town.”
Article taken from the icRenfrewshire.co.uk site
3.30 this afternoon and the corks fly to celebrate the demise of "Il Mostro" - "the Monster" the line of columns outside the Teatro dei Differenti in Barga Vecchia which has been the subject of heated debate over the past few years.
They are down, they are gone and few people are in mourning today.
More images here
The Palazzo pancrazi was full to bursting this afternoon for the prize giving ceremony for those who participated in the annual presepes
Not one but three tables were needed to support all the cups that were presented.
Il premi viene assegnato a tutti i presepi, realizzati nelle scorse festività natalizie, di carattere "pubblico". E cioè non quelli realizzati nelle case, ma quelli esterni (nelle strade, nelle piazze, nei negozi, sui terrazzi, nei giardini e così via), in quanto proprio questi contribuiscono ulteriormente a valorizzare e promuovere la tradizione, oltre che ad arricchire l'atmosfera natalizia dei paese, in modo tradizionale. More images here
Ospite del BargaJazzClub il batterista Gazzosa, vecchia conoscenza barghigiana...
Si affiancherà al collaudato trio composto da Alessandro Rizzardi al sax, Luca Giovacchini alla chitarra e Leonardo Gnesi al contrabbasso.
Guest musician this week, an old friend of the Barga Jazz Club ... the drummer Gazzosa.
Lining up with him, the solid trio of Alessandro Rizzardi on sax, Luca Giovacchini on guitar and Leonardo Gnesi in double bass ......
....also lurking in the foreground and blowing his thing, Silvano Togneri on the mouth organ More images here
An artist who normally can be found each day painting in his studio in Barga Vecchia has spent most of the winter working each night in Castelnuovo on another project far larger than his normal 70x50cm canvases ... using the traditional methods of clay models and paper machè he has been building a float for the carnival parade.
Giorgio Cella and his group in the Rione Maddona swept the board in Castelnuovo this week with their huge creation. They proudly walked away with the prize for the best allegorical float for Carnival 2005 More images here
Work started this week on the long awaited demolition of the columns that have stood in the piazza outside the Teatro dei Differenti and have been the centre of fierce polemic over the years as to their use and esthetic value. Funding has finally been found with help from the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca to clear the piazza and start again. More images here
The 8th Trofeo Goshin-Do - City of Barga - specializing in Kata was held this afternoon in Barga in the sports centre This well attended event was once again organised by the Goshin-do Karate Club of Barga.
More images can be seen here
Pure theatre this evening at the Teatro dei Differenti with a stunning production of Giorgio Gaber's "Il Grigio". Fausto Russo Alesi took the stage and made it his for the whole two hours with an impressive display of tension building, movement and elegant prose with sparks of real humour shining through at just the right moments.
Read that name again - Fausto Russo Alesi - you will be hearing it a lot in the future. Alesi has already won the Ubo 2002 prize as the best actor under 30 and this evening he showed us some of the stage craft that he is capable of.
Thank you Fausto, a great evening 
Assiduo frequentatore degli ambienti jazzistici barghigiani, si presenta questo venerdì al Barga Jazz Club il cantante / batterista Giangi Zucchini.
Si presenta questo venerdì con un trio d’eccezione, accompagnato da Luca Franchini
( contrabbasso ) e Alessandro Bugliani ( pianoforte ) per riportarci ai tempi d’oro del Jazz sulle tracce di Frank Sinatra.
The evergreen crooner Giangi Zucchini and his trio played the Barga Jazz Club this evening .... the "Voice" was in good form
More images and a small MP3 of the music tonight can be downloaded here
As we reported earlier this week following a fall at his home this week Barga Vecchia has just lost one of its characters; Rino Nanani was buried this afternoon. Known to all in the city by his nickname "Lombo" and by the readers of barganews as "Jack Nannini", 85 year old Rino is no longer with us. In a changing world where nothing is the same for very long, he was a constant presence in the streets of Barga Vecchia. He and his humour will be missed.
A moving article about the life of Rino Nanini can be seen here
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