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Tuscan books

Australian author Lisa Clifford’s Death in the Mountains is a true story about the murder of a peasant farmer in the mountains of Casentino in north eastern Tuscany. The murder took place in the winter of 1907, it happened to the great-grandfather of Lisa’s Italian husband and it was never solved – until now.
Detailing the crime, Death in the Mountains also looks at what life was like a hundred years ago. The story paints a very real picture of the struggles, the poverty and the mezzadria farming system that engulfed seventy percent of the Tuscan farming community. Back then, families had to give half of everything they produced to the land’s owners.

The other half was barely enough food for survival. Only one or two generations ago, peasants lived in grinding poverty.
Clifford describes the stark living conditions, snow blowing through roof tiles into bedrooms, the backbreaking nature of the daily work, the lottery of good or bad weather for crop and ultimately family survival. Only one or two generations ago, peasants lived in grinding poverty.
Clifford describes the stark living conditions, snow blowing through roof tiles into bedrooms, the back breaking nature of the daily work, the lottery of good or bad weather for crop and ultimately family survival. The reader feels the cold, the damp and grimness of everyday existence, but also the determination and spirit of that generation.
The quest to solve this murder opens Lisa’s eyes and ultimately our eyes to how people thought back then. A murder was something to be ashmed of not for the murder but for the family of the person murdered. There is much insight into the culture, superstitions, religion and taboos of the times.

After three years of research Lisa solves the murder. She discovers a cousin who holds the key to the mistery and reveals the killer and why it happened. he gives his permission to write the book on the proviso that all the names be changed.
About writing the book, Clifford says, “In an emotional sense, writing Death in the Mountains gave more than I had bargained for. The killing of Grandpa Artemio was a big event in the family village… When I talked to the old people, cousins, and the ederly farmer folk who still live nearby, they recalled with great clarity what their past relatives had said about the famous murder of Artemio Bruni.
In 1907, almost everyone who worked the land was illiterate, so there was a lot of gossip, but no letters or journals to refer to. It was only by talking with people that I could figure out what happened in the onths leading up the murder”.

Death in the Mountains (2009) is published by Pan Macmillin Australia.
It’s available in Florence at the Paperback Exchange for 15,00 euro – www.papex.it, on www.amazon.com

Tuscany music

Anfiteatro Square

Lucca: European Feast of Music
Open air musical performances held throughout all European cities on the weekend 19,20 and 21 June.
In Lucca, the Compagnia delle Arti will organise music in Piazza dell’Anfiteatro. Film score choral music, 19 June.
Marco Cattani Group play music inspired by the Invisible Cities of Italo Calvino, 20 June.
Internos Jazz Quartet play original music, 21 June.

S. Cristoforo Church Via Fillungo

Nuove tendenze organise exhibitions and music. Giuseppe Palumbo opera pittorica 1996-2010. 10.30-13.00 and 15.30-21.00 weekends 19, 20, 26 and 27 June, weekdays 15.30-21.00 till 27 June.

Opera in Salotto Belcanto italiano in concert format. Ensemble Suoni Arti, 20.00 on 18 June.

Classic guitar music with Edoardo Pieri, 19.00 and 21.00 on 19 June.

Duo di Tango Argentino 21.00 on 20 June.

Jazz Freaks Trio 21.00 on on 25 June.

Ensemble Nuova Cappella di Palazzo directed by Jonathan Brandani 21.00 on 26 June.

Tribute to Fabrizio De Andrè by the Group Entelchia 21.00 on 27 June.

Tuscany events

State of Mind

Minimal Art & Paradigms

Disarmare, Irritare, Impaurire, Mettersi in gioco.
Four significant verbs which assault the mind when visiting the Minimal Art exhibition at the Lu.C.C.A. Center of contemprary Art.
Of the eight artists exhibiting, six came to Lucca to supervise the installation of their opere and entering the first sala you immediately see why. The immense white walls, the huge empty spaces and the sometimes warm sometimes cold lighting are just as much a part of the exhibition as the works on show. And so is the spectator or, better definition, utente (user). Because you don’t look, you experience.
Disarmed? Irritated? Afraid? Rethinking your fixed values? Well that’s the point.
Monochrome paanels in unique handmade acid shades, smooth or bevelled, opaque or translucent, beckon you in through a perspex outer shell or by dint of mere size and position force you to check your own vantage point.
Recycled wooden boxes, dandelion sculpture, two sided mirrored drawings. There is no one homogeneous theme in the show except your own reactions.
Although Minimal Art dates back to the 50s these works belong to the last two decades. So does that mean art is stuck in a rut and the only way out is provocation for its own sake? Where does creativity go now?
The show running parallel in the gallery’s Underground points a way. If scientific research and science fiction talk up to nine dimensions and technology leaps in ten-year bounds surely our two of three dimensional perceptions put a limit to creative experience. Maria Cristina Finucci’s mobile installation and adjacent video pulls you beyond your known sensorial self, plunging you into a frightening but fascinating unexplored area of your mind, tripping you into an Odyssey in time and space.

State of Mind – The Panza Collection of Minimal Art.
Lawrence Carroll, christiane Lohr, Emil lukas, Lies Kraal, timothy Litzmann, Jonathan Seliger, Sean Shanahan, Roy Thurston.
Paradigms by Maria Cristina Finucci.
Installation in the Underground, Design and works in metal on the ground floor. Both exhibitions run till 27 June.

Open tuesday till Saturday 10,00 – 19.00 and Sunday 11.00 – 20.00
Closed Mondays.

Lu.C.C.A. Center for Contemporary Art.
Via della Fratta 36

WEB SITE: www.luccamuseum.com

Tuscan bread

Tuscan bread

The bread of Altopascio and the collective marque of “Pane di Altopascio”.
Altopascio has a particular historical and artistic importance linked to the welcoming of pilgrims who even today pass through. In fact at that point of the Via Francigena (a pilgrimage route from Canterbury to Rome), particulary awkward because of the two swampy areas of Bientina and Fucecchio, the “Domus Hospitalis Sanctis Jacobi de Altopassu” sprang up erected in the second half of the 11th century.

The historic centre of Altopascio, ringed by walls of which parts including theree gates still survive, corresponds to what should have been the nediaeval hospital which appeared as a real fortress.
The current three piazzas were the three inner courtyards where the various buildings were located which were used by the friars to care for pilgrims, offering them food and lodgings, and baking the famous bread. Even today Altopascio is known as the baker’s town, where they produce a bread famous throughout Italy.

The bread of Altopascio has a rectangular (bozza) or long (filone) shape, a soft consistency inside, and a light gold crust. It is made withoput salt and the weights vary from 500 g. to 2 kg.
It is produced all year round. The bread of Altopascio owes its tradition to the dexterity and axpertise to people who have gained specific experience over time, the original taste as well as the use of water from the local area.
The Lucca Chamber of Commerce owns the Collective Brand “Pane di Altopascio Tradizionale” (traditional bread of Altopascio) a pilot project for the enhancement and safeguarding of typical local products, a means of promoting the development of the local economy.

The registration of Collective Brand was obtained after a long process, to which the municipality of Altopascio first “city of bread” to be recognised in Italy, and the province of Lucca both contributed.
The Collective Brand “Pane di Altopascio” is an opportunity for bread makers and a resource for consumers , the former if they possess the necessary prerequisites, can safeguard their own production against possible imitations, and profit from any promotional campaigns by the owner of the brand. Consumers can buy a bread with a guaranteed quality of ingredients and production process overall a higher quality than similar products.

Italian language culture

At first glance, Speak the Culture: Italy doesn’t leap out at you from the bookshelves. It appears rather nondescript and un-inspirational. However, as they rightly say, don’t judge a book by its cover. Speak the Culture: Italy is a gem.
Even if you’ve never been to Italy, you will probably want to read this book. It’s a rich compilation of facts about Italy, a learning experience about the country and makes it tick. Jammed full of information, the book looks at Italian history and living culture, food wine and song, fashion, art and architecture. It differs from the usual books aboout Italy, choosing to be part history book, part modern commentary and part cultural guide. It’s the kind of book you can dip into rather than have to sit down and read it from cover to cover although you may still want to do that as it is captivating reading.

With sharp, crisp writing, it’s easy to read. The sidebars on almost every page provide bite-sized morsels of information about italy that have – I din’t know that appeal. Bet you didn’t know that Da Vinci caried the Monna Lisa around with him for years whenever he travelled to Rome and France. In Italy the painting is known as la Gioconda because the sitter was married to Francesco del Giocondo. Or ever wondered where Italy makes its money?
According to the book, 2% from agriculture, 27% from industry and 71% from services. And 99% of companies in Italy employ fewer than 250 people.
With the contents printed in only two colours green and black the publishers may have erred too much on the side of thriftiness, yes the amount of information and insight into modern Italy more than makes up for the lack of full colour.
Speak the Culture: Italy is part of five book series that drills down into other countries and cultures including France, Spain, Germany and Britain.
The book has also lots of quotes from famous people. Pope John XXIII apparently was overheard to say that “Italians come to ruin most generally in three ways: women, gambing and farming”.
Food for thought. Or Lucca’s own Giacomo Puccini “I am a mighty hunter of wild fowl, operatic librettos and attractive women”. According to the book, when Puccini died, he was worth, by today’s a lot of high notes.

The book spends some ink on how Italians think and why their culture is so desiderable to the rest of the world.
As Reg in Monty Python’s Life of Brian famously said: “apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public, order, irrigation roads, the fresh water system and public health”, the Roman Empire’s arguably most enduring legacy has been the Catholic Church. It ensured the survival of Latin and maintained Rome’s place as a worldwide cultural centre.
If you are only going to read one book on Italy this year (and according to the Italian Publishers’ Association 50% of Italians don’t read even one book a year) Speak the Culture: Italy by Andrew Whittaker is published by London-based Thorogood Publishing, 10-12 Rivington St. London EC2A 3DU, and see www.speaktheculture.net.

The book retails for around euro 20,00. Available also throught Amazon.co.uk