All eyes in Barga are pointed towards the sky as feverish preparations are underway for the two festa coming up at the end of this weekend. Tomorrow is the Traditional Cherry Festa (now in its second year*) and the following day is a national holiday in Italy – Festa della Repubblica.

The recent damp weather has meant that all the preparations are these festas are running late. At midday tomorrow there will be the official opening of the new gardens which have been constructed overlooking the Fosso just outside Barga Vecchia.
As you can see from the images with just 24 hours to go half of the gardens are still waterlogged bare earth with workers from the co-operative working frantically against the clock laying new turf and erecting street lights around the area.

If the good weather holds they were confident the gardens would be ready in time for the grand opening in the morning.

* working on the theory that tradition we make ourselves