Currywurst mit ketchup: Drama in Barga

17th October

Set off early for a walk in the hills around Barga, but on the way out of town were stopped by the sound of someone calling for help from one of the houses. When we approached the front door there was an old woman, very distressed, in a wheelchair at the front door, she kept repeating that her son hadn't come out of his room and the door was looked. Luckily a car went past at this juncture and we hailed the driver and he came and after speaking to her ( apparently she kept saying "go to his window and look in" Trouble is in Italy they always have the external shutters down), he called the police ... or so we thought... after 15 minutes a car pulled up and uniformed officer goes to the front door, no she can't enter the house, she is just the civil police. Finally after 40 or so minutes 2 cars of real police came to investigate. In the meantime a woman had come out onto the balcony above (looked like 2 apartments) had a gander and gone back in. Really! you can't tell me she wouldn't have heard the screaming. Also it was rubbish day and the neighbours had their bags on the street, but this house had several bags just out the front door, what, no-one noticed? Anyway when the real police arrived another lady came from down the street and she said that woman's son, about 70, who she lived with, had recently had a heart operation., so who knows what has happened. We abandoned our walk and passed the ambulance on our way back to town.

Change of plans and we drove to Coreglia Antelminelli, yet another hilltop town. 9th century church of S Martino is one of the oldest in the Lucca region.