We published an article last week called the Sound of Silence (article in full can be seen here) in which we asked people to
slow down just for a minute and listen.
One of the reasons people enjoy coming and visiting this area is that the speed of life here is so much slower than elsewhere in this busy, busy world.
We have all become so used to being constantly connected via the Internet that just to stop and slow down sometimes is actually a very difficult thing to do.
So how about a little test ?
Have you got a minute free just to sit and listen to the world around you?
Turn up the volume of your speakers or headphones and just listen for one minute and 23 seconds of “silence” recorded two weeks ago up in the mountains around Barga.
The first thing you’ll notice is there is no such thing as “silence” – the recording is full of sound.
The sound of insects, the rustling of the wind in the trees and the sound of sheep and goat bells further down in the valley and there is even the sound of a buzzard crying overhead.
Slow down people, slow down.
Well, it would seem that many people wanted to do just that as more than 4000 people downloaded that recording, so how about a couple more of these silences ?
This is two minute of silence recorded up by the Duomo in Barga Vecchia with the microphone pointing towards the mountains behind Barga
This instead another two minutes of “silence” recorded on the same day in Piazza Annunziata with the sound of people walking past in the piazza and if you listen carefully, the sound floating out of the window of somebody playing a badly out of tune piano in the Palazzo Mordini.