A surprise for anybody entering Palazzo Pancrazi, the Town Hall in Barga Vecchia this week, a scaled model of a chalet is now gracing the entrance hall.
It is the result of many months work by Giampiero Guidi who has been perfecting his woodworking skills over the years making wooden cycles and vespas and now moving on to larger more complex objects.
A chalet is typical of the Alpine region in Europe. It is made of wood, with a heavy, gently sloping roof and wide, well-supported eaves set at right angles to the front of the house.
The term chalet stems from Arpitan speaking part of Switzerland and French Savoy and originally referred to the hut of a herder.
Many chalets in the European Alps were originally used as seasonal farms for dairy cattle which would be brought up from the lowland pastures during the summer months. The herders would live in the chalet and make butter and cheese in order to preserve the milk produced.
These products would then be taken, with the cattle, back to the low valleys before the onset of the alpine winter.