The award winning barganews photographer O’Connor has (at least) two faces. The summer face as he rushes around Barga with his trusty Canon camera slung across his shoulder and the more hairy version when he habitually grows a beard from Halloween through the winter to the following Easter. The residents of Barga have over the years got used to seeing the bewhiskered version during the cold weather followed by the clean shaven O’ Connor once the warm weather arrives.
The tradition that has gradually evolved is that by Easter the beard comes off. The only variance comes of course in the fact that Easter is a movable feast – coming the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox, so that it can be anywhere between March 22nd to April 25th.
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What for many of us living in Barga would be just a normal occurrence, for Jesse Henry going and getting his hair cut this morning was an event filled with great significance. Jesse who carries an Irish and Canadian passport but these days, hails from Maine, USA walked into Chiappa the barbershop in Barga Giardino sat down in a chair and waited his turn to get his locks sheared. He came well prepared, exceedingly well prepared, as he knew all about Antonio Chiappa’s salon where the decor of the place has changed very little since 1926, his magic scissors and of course, his “particular” way of cutting hair as this is his third annual visit.
Antonio Chiappa
The story starts with Ubaldo Corsi in the early 1900’s who opened the first hairdressers on the existing premises. Interestingly enough, he also cut women’s hair. People have been sitting chatting, discussing politics, football, funghi and the weather …. oh, and also being shaved and having their hair cut ever since, (with the exception of short periods when it was shut during the two world wars). Corsi closed shop and went off to fight during the First World War, and upon returning reopened the business and kept it open for many years. After the Second World War the premises were taken over by Giuliano Chiappa and in 1990 he was joined by his son Antonio, who continues the profession of barber and hairdresser to this very day. Very little has changed in the decor of the place since 1926. In fact, Antonio still has the receipt from 1928, from the supplier in Florence – Fratelli Morandi, who supplied the barber chairs for the princely sum of Lire 475. complete article about Antonio here
Jesse and his partner Heidi Burden are enjoying a well earned holiday here in Barga away from their hectic lifestyle running a series of hotels and restaurants in Maine, USA (site here)
Each time they come to Barga one of the places that they have to call into is Antonio’s salon. The full immersion into Barga Society would not be complete until Antonio had also shaped his hair. -- complete article here
Video and most of the images on this article by Jesse Henry, a hotelier in Maine, USA and sharp eyed photographer
What was that song that Chiappa was humming?????