Visitors to Barga often comment on the beauty of the steep narrow twisting stone streets in Barga Vecchia and then in their next breath more often than not, wonder out loud just how on earth things moved around inside the old city. Small cars can navigate with some careful driving through two of the main streets running through the city but for the rest of the side streets it’s down to moving goods like firewood or furniture with small tractors, the three wheeler Ape or the old-fashioned method of just carrying them on your shoulder.

So how would you go about moving a large extremely heavy (over 200 kgs) expensive antique cupboard ?

Really quite simple – you wait until the sun is almost down and people are relaxing in the bars – find yourself four strong men and an Ape, promise them that the beers are on you, and hey presto a fine 18th-century cupboard is very quickly moved without fuss to its new owners.

An article about the Ape of Barga – The “A” in Barga stands for APE can be found here

More antiques can be found on the Galleria Il Marzocco site here