On the second of December last year there was a public meeting in the Palazzo Pancrazi to mark the start of a long-term project here in Barga. The meeting was billed as "incontro di lavoro" for an "emergenza ambientale" and was chaired by the sottosegretario di Stato ai Beni e Attività Culturali, the Hon. Andrea Marcucci.
Present at the meeting were also Marco Bonnini, President of Communità Montana, Stefano Baccelli , President of the Provincia di Lucca and members of Regional Government. It was announced that there was a real danger of large-scale structural damage due to landslides in the area just below Barga Vecchia known as Fontanamaggio and Val di Lago. A plan was put forward involving shoring up the areas at risk and filling in the bottom of the valley to stop the sides from falling inwards.
More than €1 million has already been earmarked for this project with joint funds coming from the Region, Communità Montana, Provincia and the Comune of Barga but the final cost will probably be in the region of 13 million euro with more money flowing in from the state to resolve this problem. Work has already started below the main road which snakes around Barga Vecchia reinforcing the supporting wall.
Creative accounting:
1. Various legislative bodies (State, Region, Province, Comune, Comunità Montana, etc…), often chaired by the very same afore mentioned luminaries, endow funds to private contractors to undertake work for a car park which (at huge cost) decidedly fails to resolve Barga’s parking problems whilst wreaking havoc with a complex underground morass, leading to the current geological unrest.
2. Various legislative bodies (State, Region, Province, Comune, Comunità Montana, etc…), chaired by the afore mentioned luminaries, endow funds to private contractors to undertake work to repair (at huge cost) the damage caused by a previous allocation of public funds (see 1. above).
3. Given that the parking problem in Barga in any case persists, said Legislative bodies are now debating the allocation of funding for an excavation of Pharaonic proportions of the ‘Fosso’ in order to create an underground car-park (which will not, however, be adequate for the real needs of Barga Vecchia and the ever increasing yearly influx of tourists) – more or less ’round the corner from where their previous attempt took place (again, see 1. above).
Pretty neat, huh?
Not to mention, caro Jack, that an underground parking structure at Fosso is almost certain to:
1. Destabilize the foundations of a good many buildings in the centro storico
2. Block access to the centro storico from its principal porta for years on end (you will recall how long the other, far less ambitious parking work took)
It seems as though a more central location would be much wiser. Somewhere around Giardino perhaps. What’s a little walk up into town if it preserves the integrity of the structures. In addition, I would be seriously surprised if there were not unearthed artifacts in the process which would put the kabosh on the whole project. Has anyone ever noticed the print in the Museo Civico which shows the fosso as what seems to be moat and bridge…
One of my more fanciful ideas was to fill the Parco Kenneddy with a muti-storey car park, bringing the level more or less up-to that of the road on the “Silvano Togneri/Fabio Gonnella” side and then slope it down by way of wide terraces to the level of the “acquedotto” on the other. The top of this structure could be paved and landscaped to blend-in with the surroundings, whilst underneath enough cars could be stacked to resolve the parking problems of Barga Vecchia and Barga Giardino – both a very short walk away.
Apart from monumental cost savings, the practical advantages would be numerous – principally:
1. No real (expensive) digging would be required as the structure would simply fill an already existing space.
2. The underground drainage system would be largely unaffected.
3. The bastions of Barga Vecchia and the sidings of Barga Giardino would be shored-up, resolving some worrying erosion problems.
4. A large sunny pubblic space framed by Barga Vecchia, the Acquedotto and the distant Apennines would be created in place of the current dark, damp and dank crevice. One could envision fountains, shrubs and childrens play things a stones throw from the historical town centre.
5. One less jumping-off point for those so inclined.
5.
Here’s an even simpler solution: Why not build a multi-storey against the cliffside above the present new and amazingly poorly-conceived parking lot? It would be relatively inexpensive, nearly invisible, with no detrimental impact on the appearance of Barga (I’m not wil about Jack’s idea to run a multi-storey up to the acquedotto), and provide lots of parking in the same area Jack proposes — adjacent to both the Centro Storico and Giardino. What’s more, it would counter the most idiotic flaw in the camper parking lot — the long climb up to town, which at the moment doesn’t even have an adequate walkway. What a farce! A multi-storey addition would at least have a staircase.