There have recently been published on youtube a whole series of short videos showing slideshows of towns and villages in this area and further north up into Garfagnana.
The videos have all been uploaded by a channel known as “The Etruscan Warrior”.
Digging a bit deeper we find that the channel and most of the images on the site are the work of a father and son team from La Spezia -- Mario and Varelio Gherardi -- their site is here
In fact they have documented 16 comunes in Garfagnana, 32 in La Spezia and and further14 comunes in nearby Lunigiana.
There is of course, a video showing Barga but also hidden amongst the channel is a video entitled: Garfagnana:The Ireland of Italy in which they claim:
“Garfagnana is a wonderful land in the north of Tuscany (Italy).
It is a green land cross by the river Serchio, this beautiful region is a little paradise hidden in the centre of Italy, very similar to Ireland. -- source “
Which presumably means that it rains a lot ? Actually they are perfectly correct in this area is probably one of the greenest and wettest areas in Italy.
Wet winds which come across the Mediterranean rise up once they hit the mountain chain between here and sea and then deposit the rain directly on this area.[dw-post-more level=”1″]
Barga
Cardoso
Fosciandora
Garfagnana:The Ireland of Italy
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