For many people one of the joys of living in Barga Vecchia is the absence of traffic as the streets are just too narrow and steep in most places. To drive in Barga Vecchia you need to be able to handle your car expertly and be able to judge distances down to the centimetre. There are a few cars inside the city walls, most are small and all carry marks on their bumpers and paintwork which clearly define those moments where those estimations of available centimetres was obviously a few millimetres off.
The absence of traffic noise and congestion is on the positive side but on the negative, moving large things inside the city becomes difficult or just impossible.
The main road through the city was blocked for most of today as a large crane was brought into the city to allow work to finally take place on one of the buildings which was damaged during the earth tremor on the 31st January 2013.
For most of the onlookers to todays event, the crane was just too long to even think about getting it into position in Piazza Sargentone. There were a couple of sharp bends in the road that could never be passed – what was needed according to most of the informed opinion was a helicopter or a miracle.
As neither were available the men who’s job it was to install the crane used a different method – that of never give up but try, try again.
“Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.” – Bruce Lee
One tractor and trailer dragged the crane into Barga Vecchia past Porta Macchiaia but was proved useless as the extreme weight meant that even after filling the trailer with sand to put extra weight on the axle the tires lost their traction and slipped on the steep surface.
A second tractor was tried and this too failed miserably.
After a length pause a large JCB digger was brought in and was used to remove the large concrete weights on the crane making it 13000 kg’s lighter but not before the JCB and driver risked turning over on its side under the weight.
A tractor was once more hitched up and this time with the aid of 10 strong men the crane was dragged and manhandled through the narrow bends with just a few millimetres to spare and was pushed into position in Piazza Sargentone .
A piece of street theatre which had lasted more than 5 hours but brought a well deserved round of applause as against all odds and all “informed opinion to the contrary” they actually did piece by piece, step by step, get the job done.