Monk's Wood School Choir in the Duomo

The Monk's Wood School Choir from England performed in the Duomo this evening in front of a small but appreciative audience. The school choir and chamber choir with their conductor Chloe McDougall sang varied pieces from Handel, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Mozart.

Special mention must be made of the stunning solo performance from Alison Seal who sang an Ave Marie which sent shivers up the spine as her clear voice rang out inside the Duomo. More images and download a small MP3 of the choir in action PLUS Alison's voice here

Roasted chestnuts at Pegnana

Roasted chestnuts under the chestnut tress at Pegnana this afternoon

A well attended annual event organised by the local CAI group this afternoon had one of two surprises. One was the wonderful sunny warm weather and incredible autumn light that happens every now and again at this time of year.. remembering that this is the last week on October! The other was a surprise find of a monster porcini mushroom by one of the people attending the event ... she would not reveal exactly where she found the huge mushroom, estimated to be around 3 kilos, but was prepared to have it photographed to show the rest of the world her find. (Prices in the shops for porcini mushroom start at Euro25 a kilo and then go up depending on condition, size and time of the year.) More images here

80 images of the vendemmia 2004

The award winning barganews photographer O'Connor has been out and about this month capturing images of the vendemmia in the vineyards around Barga. He photographed the whole process from start to finish but with one thing slightly different .... let's hear what he had to say about the project:

"I wanted to show a traditional vendemmia with treading grapes in wooden barrels and all that kind of stuff but with one difference.... keeping the plastic in the frame.

The bigonci, the wooden containers that were used to carry the grapes in from the terraces, have long since been discarded for the lighter plastic ones. (they are far easier on the shoulders)

These have now become part of the "traditional" tools for making wine on a small scale up on the side of the hills. I wanted to see if I could make interesting images where the plastic did not jar with the surroundings.

You can see how he got on here

Poetry, food and music at Casa Pascoli

Open day at the Giovanni Pascoli Museum. The house of the poet was open to visitors this afternoon free of charge. Many people came up the hill to Castelvecchio Pascoli to enjoy the late autumn sunshine and listen to some of his poetry being read aloud in the grounds of his house.

The Barga Band were there in force to lend a musical note to the whole proceedings which all in all, had a distinctive "last century" feel to it with people in period costume roasting chestnuts and toasting barley to make coffee in the narrow stone streets.

More images and two MP3 files of the poetry and music can be found here

Rosticceria da Tanica opens in Barga Vecchia

It has been a long time coming but finally Tanica and his wife opened up the Rosticceria da Tanica this morning in Barga Vecchia. A crowd of well wishers filled the place as they sampled some of the food on offer and watched a tearful Tanica wiping his eyes as the tape for the opening was cut.

Its now official... the place is open for business!

Well done Tanica ! All the staff at barganews wish you and your wife all the best in your new venture.

More images here

Red Night at the Altana

The women at the Altana have once again animated a corner of Barga Vecchia with their unlimited energy. Red night at the Altana. A menu all in red, the guests all in red and a few red eyes this morning as the dancing went on till 2 am. Music supplied by Geoff, Jack Nannini and Keane (who for some unknown reason was dressed all in green? ) More images here

The Best Toilet in Barga 2004 announced

The long running "Vote for the Best Toilet in Barga" competition is back again after a three year break. Following a letter to the visitors book in March 2000, from a French tourist visiting Barga for the first time and complaining about the condition of the public toilets, barganews decided to do a survey of all the toilets available to the growing number of tourists arriving in Barga.

The idea was if the images were published on the internet and then voted on* then maybe the people responsible for the condition of the toilets might take a bit more care and maybe, just maybe, the standards would rise.

This in fact precisely what did happen. If you check out the images of the toilets from four years ago and compare them to the images now you can see a great leap in the right direction with many being completely rebuilt and disabled access becoming the norm. It was mainly the toilets in Barga Vecchia who showed the way with the 1999 and 2000 Osteria Angelio and Capretz followed by the surprise win in 2001 of the Xray dept. at the Hospital but this year the prize has moved down the hill to the Barga Giardino area: more images and complete article here

Barga Jazz Club reopens for the winter season

The door to Barga Jazz Club was flung wide open this weekend after the long summer break.
Live Jazz is once more on the menu.
The Marco Bartalini Quartet started the winter season at the club with a stirring set from the "Chet Baker of Tuscany".

Looks like its going to be a great jazz season once again with an impressive line up musicians waiting to entertain the good folk of Barga during those long dark winter evenings. More images and a small MP3 file from the trumpet of Marco here

Porcini and Polenta at Franco's

This time of year in Barga is probably the best time of year for those people who have discerning taste buds. This year has been a wonderful autumn with the bright sunny clear days, cool nights and just the right amount of rain to bring a bumper crop of the finest porcini mushrooms anywhere in europe. Add to that some fine home ground polenta from Ceserana and you have the perfect dish; polenta and porcini.

This morning 6 members of the Barga Band sat down to eat with a dozen close friends a superbly prepared dish of the afore mentioned delicacies.

The table was prepared at Bar Sport by the ever hospitable Franco (with some sterling help in the kitchens from his mother, and a certain trumpet player well known the area for other activities to do with enjoyment at the table.

What better way to spend a Saturday lunchtime as the season draws to a close but with good friends and great food.

What was once the food of the poor has become the food of the fortunate.
Anyone who was seated at the table this morning should count themselves as very, very lucky to partake in such a simple, honest and tasty meal.

Well done Franco and all those concerned. More images here

Fashion Show at Apecarica Club

Fashion at Apecarica

The Apecarica Club last night changed appearance and instead of being the prime music club in this area became a catwalk with local models showing the next seasons fashions to an appreciative and attentive audience.

Even though he had worked 21 hours that day, award winning barganews photographer O'Connor was there by the catwalk and behind scenes in the dressing rooms and amazingly showing no signs of tiredness or bad humour. Funny old world isn't it ?

More images can be seen here ...(click on LATEST IMAGES > 08/10/2004_Fashion_Show top left hand corner)

Old religious graffiti found in the Barga prison cells

An interesting find has come to light in the prison cells below the Barga Civic Museum Graffiti scribbled on the plaster walls dating from the last time that the cells were used, around the start of the 1920's, has been carefully scraped away in places to reveal a far earlier set of images. This time of a more religious nature ... images of the Madonna and St. Christopher, the Patron Saint of Barga.

More images here

Bomb site cleared 60 years later

This morning work started on clearing a house that has been sitting in ruins since 1944. The house next to the Palazzo Balduini in Piazza Garibaldi was destroyed by artillery shells on Boxing Day 1944. Accounts differ as to who was responsible for the shelling .. some maintain it was the Americans who were shelling Sommocolonia in an attempt to stop the forward edge of a blitzkreig offensive that was to throw elements of six Axis divisions at U.S. Army detachments in the Serchio Valley.... others maintain that it was the German artillery on the hills behind Barga shelling the town. Who ever was responsible, the house was completely destroyed and the families living there (and who were fortunately at the time sheltering elsewhere) never returned to their shattered house.

Alberto Tognarelli (known to all as Albertone) was a young boy at the time but remembers clearly the day the house was destroyed and also wistfully recalls that his father hid most of their possessions in one of the cantinas just before the house collapsed and covered the hiding place with tons of rubble. That rubble has now been sitting there for 60 years. He awaits with interest to see what will finally come to light this month as the workman start to clear the ruins.

The project should be completed shortly and a new split level piazza and grassed area should be made ready to replace the bomb site. More images here

Wild porcini mushrooms at Vetricia

What better way to spend an afternoon in October than by a trip up the mountainside to the Alpino Refugio "Giovanni Santi" which sits in amongst the beech trees at over 1300 metres above sea level. We were there to sample the delicacy of the season, freshly picked porcini mushrooms specially prepared by the host and chef of the refugio, Bino.

Sliced, dusted with cornflour, a pinch of salt and lightly fried with a crisp outside yet keeping the inside succulent, moist and fragrant ... there is nothing else in this world that comes close to Porcini mushrooms from this area.

More images and full story here

Part7 of Moving Mountains by Adam J. Shardlow

September has been a tempestuous month. The weather has slowly cooled and while on most days it is still warm and sunny, in the evening there is a stiff breeze that helps to drop the temperature. When the sun is not shining it means it is raining. Dark clouds come in from the coast and congregate over the mountains like sullen teenagers skulking around a park bench. Slowly they edge towards us, encouraging each other onwards, taunting the town until Barga is engulfed. The rain is heavy, large droplets splash onto the terracotta tiles playing out a staccato drum beat. What begins as a slow waltz soon develops into a battle of the bands as a deluge is released from the sky.

The rest of this Adam's well read series on barganews is here

Vendemmia 2004 starts in Barga

On a chilly and damp September morning on the hillsides of Buvicchia just outside Barga, the vendemmia 2004 started in earnest.

Luckily the threatening rainclouds moved on, the sun came out and a perfect day for picking grapes was revealed for all.

A technical hitch with the machine which normally separates and crushes the grapes. meant that the pickers had to fall back on the more traditional method and crushed the grapes with their bare feet.

Luckily the award winning photographer O'Connor was on hand to record the wet and messy scenes as two well known characters in Barga, Benjy and Jack Nannini (half of the STRABACCO duo) went to work with gusto. His images are here