Shrinking sunlight in the piazzas of Barga Vecchia
As we move into the second fortnight in October the seasons changes start to become steadily more apparent in and around Barga. On the mountainside around the city the trees are gradually moving through the scales of colours from green through to red (check out Daily Images from last week) In the city itself the sun filled piazzas of the summer are now gradually shrinking in size as the sun rises much lower in the sky and the shadows grow longer. Piazza Angelio will manage to keep an area sunlight right through the winter but for Piazza Salvo Salvi, the main square outside Palazzo Pancrazi, the sunlit area is now just a small area of heat and light where people now crowd into to enjoy the autumn sun during the mornings. Somebody this morning remembered Archimedes and the siege of Syracuse and came up with the idea of using mirrors to bounce some of that light across the piazza and into Aristo's bar to warm up the chilly air.
When Marcellus withdrew them [his ships] a bow-shot, the old man [Archimedes] constructed a kind of hexagonal mirror, and at an interval proportionate to the size of the mirror he set similar small mirrors with four edges, moved by links and by a form of hinge, and made it the centre of the sun's beams–its noon-tide beam, whether in summer or in mid-winter. Afterwards, when the beams were reflected in the mirror, a fearful kindling of fire was raised in the ships, and at the distance of a bow-shot he turned them into ashes. In this way did the old man prevail over Marcellus with his weapons. source
(could this be the first description of weapons of mast destruction? *)
An upright dressing mirror from Graziella's clothes shop was brought out into the sun and the beam directed at the opposite side of the piazza. It was decided that the mirror was too small and so a larger one was brought out from Keane's studio. The effect was bright .. in fact so bright that dark glasses were need to protect against the glare but in the end the experiment was declared a failure …back to the drawing board. The winning idea would seem to be an open fire in the piazza … maybe its time to roast chestnuts again ?
* I apologise for this terrible line
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- Info : Please, resolve the addition below before post any new comment...
- everyone : you will be sorely missed.
- W. Shakespeare : Lear? Not at all! Those words are lifted from Macbeth's soliloquy:"....L ife's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing."
- Quentin Compson : Yes, Ma'am. It would be King Lear I believe, an allusion to the fool (and to Lear himself). But there is a more recent connection between Yokapatawpha and the Coldfields with a Biblical reference -- Absalom -- rather than the Shakespearean one to which you allude.
- poetry : Miss Coldfield, considered poetess laureate of Yoknapatawpha County, may simply be quoting Shakespeare, I do believe.
- Quentin Compson : Rosa: Stay in your own novel, please. You have no business in The Sound and the Fury, although I appear in both.
- Quentin Compson : Doggy, May I refer you to three sources on the Action-Theory dialectic? Albert Camus: "To do is to be." Jean-Paul Sartre: "To be is to do." Francis Albert Sinatra; "Do be do be doo." That should answer your question.
- Rosa Coldfield : ... it is a tale Told by and idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
- doggybag : Quentin - your constant focus on ideas over deeds makes you a highly unreliable commentator- quite often it is difficult to tell which of the actions you are suggesting are mere figments of your imagination and which you really do think should be acted upon.
- Quentin Compson : Hey, you two ought to get together sometime.
- Rosa Coldfield : Why of course : )
- Thomas Sutpen : Miss Rosa knows very well who will merely endure, and who will ultimately prevail
- Rosa Coldfield : It is not entirely clear, however, who has been sorest lately or with whom ; )
- Lord Beaconsfield : Welcom back, Barganews, you were sorely missed
- doggybag : fingers and legs crossed
- Santi : Thank you for answering my question.
- Cartier-Bresson : What a wonderful image of the equally wonderful Maestra Paola -- that could be no one else's elegantly gloved hand...
- Guest_4784 : the girl behind the bar is in the ALTANA rest. just inside the old city
- message for Santi : Altana
- Santi : O.K. Which bar is it?
- doggybag : Hello Santi - no - not the Alpino
- Santi : Is the daily image of the girl behind the bar is of Alpino?
- Casey Jones : Summer bus schedule to real station: see Forum Aug 5.
- aquilotta : Hi Doggybag! sorry haven't been in touch for so long. Love your daily images as always.
- Guest_3522 : And here I thought there were roadents eating my main board.
- doggybag : you are welcome Guest_689 ... now if I could just fix the sound streaming system with is doing a serious chipmonk impression on some computers
- Guest_689 : Dear Mr Braganews Thank you for fixing the webcam
- Guest_3522 : Scottish emigration to Malaysia ? - see «link»
- Guest_878 : the most scottish town with the most scottish idiots
- Guest_3522 : Re: Daily Images 26 July: Let us fervently hope that being "Italy's most Scottish town" doesn't bring more of this UK-style tagging and yobbish hooliganism to Barga. The vandals in question were two young men from Scotland. «link»
- doggybag : sorry Guest_4772 - the hordes of barganews technicians are working on it day and night -- expect some results shortly
- Guest_4772 : Please can the web cam with view of sommocolonia be fixed as it makes my day
- Guest_878 : è più bella alla volta dei Menchi, c'è un barista molto attraente.
What a wonderful photo of the sunlight in your article re: diminishing sunlight in Barga Vecchia. But then your photos are one of the finest features of this website. We visited first this last June, and will return next. Thank you.