There are those who have what it takes and there are those who have what it takes.
I'm talking about the inhabitants of Vico Pancellorum, just over a hundred resilient people who populate a small village in Lucca, more precisely in the Lima Valley.
I defined them as "resilient" because they hold up despite the fact that the town is more than 15km from what we consider indispensable aspects of a fairly urbanized society (negozi, services, offices, leisure points, ecc.). For good measure they are forced to travel along treacherous and uncomfortable roads, overcoming a height difference of 450m, a journey in which there is no shortage of hairpin bends and overhangs, plus crossing paths with some crazy people (and they are not few) which proceeds at “sports” speed.
I probably wouldn't have known anything about this remote village if it hadn't been for my photographer's proverbial tendency to chat / sherpa / driver / webmaster / ecc. , who met the right person by chance. The fact is that we were in Benabbio, near Bagni di Lucca, for the awards ceremony for the finalists of a literary competition dedicated to the train, and the one who always accompanies me on my travels was among those with one of his poems, and if you want to read it you can find it qui.
Having some time available (you will have already understood that we love to take it easy), they were in our forecasts of short-range movements in the surrounding area, but the technological situation in loco it was despairing, nel senso che internet it was completely absent (and sometimes even the simple telephone signal), therefore there was no way to search online to find useful information on possible interesting places to visit, and then there's no sign of guides and tourist offices.
From what we understand, There are children and stepchildren, both at a regional and provincial level, e, except for the usual most famous locations (and crowded), the indications for smaller towns are somewhat incomplete, leaving the burden of discovery to the traveller's curiosity.
So you're probably wondering what the hell my companion's uncontainable talkativeness has to do with anything. It's easy to say. Continua a leggere →