There has been a scar that spoils Barga, ruining that picture postcard that has made it so famous in the world, a deep gash in the arches of the Ripa
The arches dating back to the ’30s were built in order to contain the possible landslides of that ridge, on the top of which there is the Cathedral, which had shown its instability during the earthquake of 1920 due to it being built on heavy clay soil.
Four years ago in January 2014 during heavy rainstorms, three of those arches were brought down.
Back in April of this year, further erosion and yet more of the Ripa has dropped down making the plans for renovations costing a million euro which were presented in the Comune in January and which should have started work last month even more difficult.
In fact it was another four months wait before finally this morning a helicopter was working delivering materials for the start of the work.
Social media around Barga is now full of images of the helicopter in action.