The combination of a clear night, heavy snowfall on the mountains around the city and a full moon found the award-winning photographer O’Connor out and about as he tried to capture images of Barga in the moonlight. Towards midnight he found himself at the Duomo photographing the view across Barga Vecchia. It was then that the first noticed what appeared to be a light on top of one of the mountains towards the north.

He set up his tripod and camera and pointed it towards the top of the mountain range known as l’omo and sure enough just as the bells of the Duomo behind him rang out at midnight he managed to get three images of the lights, just visible with the naked eye but quite clear through his lens.

[Click here for slideshow]

This morning all became much clearer still as other images arrived in barganews office showing just who was responsible for the mysterious lights on the mountain.

Two of Barga’s more adventurous skiers, Giorgio Cella (article here)  and Riccardo Neri decided that they too would take advantage of the full moon and trekked up to the top of L’omo – just under 2000 metres and while they were up to there they lit fireworks and took a couple of photographs to celebrate the event before skiing back down again to the world of us lesser mortals.

Click on the link below to hear a short interview with Riccardo Neri recorded outside his l’osteria in Piazza Angelio (site here)  this morning (in Italiano)

Click on the link below to hear this interview (in Italiano)

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