May 14th - Barga special

This is about two special finds: the annual Barga festival to commemorate their independence from (but continued alliance with) Florence, and our discovery of the Devil's Bridge.

We lucked into the Barga festival, it was happening today and we decided to wander up into the old town. Check out the costume details, they are fantastic. Much research and work has gone into the costumes, materials and methods of manufacture. The people are rightfully proud of their efforts.

The girl with the digital camera, leader of the drum band, was special. So was the old guy in charge of it all talking on the cell phone (not in these photos).



Barga time is a lot like New Brunswick rural time - scheduled to start at 9:30 am, the parade through the old town got underway around 11 am after much milling around.

But even the milling around was interesting. People were aware that pictures were being taken, but they seemed able to ignore it.

The parade went on in waves throughout the afternoon so there were periods of down time between the marching to the drums. We could hear the drums as we walked though the fields and forest some 6 klicks away.

This is where they ended up, at the old church at the top of the hill, before they headed all the way back down.



The whole group went up and down the town two or three times and there were displays of herbs and medicines, chain mail and other items from the period complete with write-ups and people to explain the significance of the displays (all in Italian).

Some of the side shots were wonderful - like the kid in perfect costume with the Game Boy.







Then we get to the Devil's Bridge. This gorgeous stone bridge was built in the late 1200's, has withstood floods and bombings and is still in use as a foot bridge. In its prime, it was used by people with small carts drawn by donkeys and such.



The "devil" part comes from the design and the legend that it was only completed with the help of the Devil. There are about 7 such bridges and legends through Italy. Now there's a good project!