The streets of Barga Giardino were alive this morning with the sound of tractors – many tractors – in fact they were in a long line stretching right through Giardino, past the cinema and down to the road as far as you could see.
The annual agricultural machinery parade was progress and it brought out the crowds in impressionable numbers to view what was once the machinery that could be found in most fields surrounding the city but now gradually becoming museum pieces.
The Committee at San Pietro in Campo have outdone themselves once again this year with the Festa della Trebbiatura 2013.
What started out as a small festa in the village to celebrate using the old machinery and tractors to thresh the grain and prepare bales of straw has in the space of just seven years blossomed into a full blown festival of the old traditions once used in this area with everything from bread making, grain preparing and even to roasting grain to make “coffee”.
They have also organised inside this event an art happening with Sandra Rigali for young artists to paint for the day but the real crowd puller was once again the magnificent tractors and agricultural machinery that were on display.
Not only the Landini vintage tractor that usually powers the threshing machine but also the star of the show again this year – an early 1900 steam engine.