Introducing myself: Giampaolo Vitali (Thinking about Michelangelo mountains)

[edie heller <edieh@zzzzzzzzzzzzz>]

hi clive - well, in my opinion it is already a very very sad situation
in pietrasanta today - in fact, most of the established marble
businesses & workers have been forced by law to leave the center of
town, and have been relegated to the outskirts, which are much more
industrial than the charming old center - and i believe the few larger
(& well connected politically) marble businesses still remaining in the
center, have been given a deadline to move, possibly this year, or 2007
- so in the very near future, when one goes to pietrasanta, it will no
longer be the charming center of marble artists from all over the
world, as it once was.  and the irony is that what really made
pietrasanta so charming, imho, was in fact all those diverse artists &
artigianis working together - this is what made the town what it was,
and what it had been for hundreds and hundreds of years.  but in the
past 15 years the wealthy italians from firenze and america ran out of
space in the nearby coastal towns, and they started moving closer to
the mountains, and sad for us they converged on pietrasanta, and
dramatically changed what life had been like there.  in the early 90's,
the most expensive "albergo" in pietrasanta (the palagi) cost about $80
US dollars per night, at the absolute hight of the season - today there
are several $600+ a night hotels there, and often there are no
vacancies!  now surely we know it's not marble sculptors that are
staying in those rooms - and how charming can a town stay when it's
over-run by wealthy italians & americans???  the nearby little towns
also have felt the squeeze, and the artists who once lived in
pietrasanta, and were forced by economics to move a little further out,
are once again having to consider moving yet farther, as prices
continue to sky rocket in all adjoining neighborhoods ...

i'm sure i sound like an old grumbler, but it makes me so very sad to
see what has happened there - and if you speak with the locals, some
are for the change and others long for things the way they used to be -
i guess that's just life - all things change - but in this particular
instance, i sure wish things could have remained the same as they had
been for hundreds and hundreds of years - on the other hand, i feel
very, very fortunate to have known the town the way it used to be, and
will forever remember my times there as some of the absolute best in my
life - sigh!

On Feb 10, 2006, at 1:47 PM, Clive Murray-White wrote: