The Italian town that celebrates fish and chips

Hundreds of portions of fish and chips are being sold in the Tuscan town of Barga once again this summer

Close your eyes and inhale deeply and the smells could transport you to almost any Scottish town centre.

Open them, though, and you will find that your nose has been deceiving you.

The distinctive aroma of fish and chips has been wafting through the Italian town of Barga every summer since the early 1980s.

Now in its 40th edition, the Sagra del Pesce e Patate is back in full swing this year as Covid restrictions ease.

Many Scottish-Italians can trace their roots back to Barga and the surrounding area

Organised by local football team, AS Barga, it takes place at their home ground - the Johnny Moscardini stadium, named after the only Scottish-born male footballer to play for Italy.

The event raises funds for the club and also a number of charities.

At its heart, is a celebration of the long-standing link between this Tuscan town and Scotland which goes back many years.

Many emigrants at the start of the 20th Century and between the two world wars left Barga and the hills around it to start a new life further north.

Benches are put up at the local football stadium in order to stage the festival

It is a connection which sees the town proudly declare itself the most Scottish in Italy.

Benches at the festival are filled over the course of about a fortnight with Italians, Scottish-Italians and other visitors sampling the delights of one of the UK's most popular takeaways.

"The festival - dedicated to the Scottish dish of the fish supper - is a tribute to the history and tradition of emigration from Barga to Scotland," explained one of the organisers, Leonardo Mori.

"This is our 40th edition and thanks to the return of a more normal summer we're hoping for the return of a lot of visitors from Italy and overseas.

"It is undoubtedly one of the events that best represents the link between Barga and Scotland."

Emigrants who had honed their skills in Scotland passed them on to local volunteers

The proceeds from the event help a range of charities

Many Italians who emigrated to Scotland ended up selling either ice cream or fish and chips.

And, while one of those dishes was already well-known around the peninsula, there was more mystery about its deep-fried counterpart.

Mr Mori said the festival began as a way of allowing those who had never left Italy to sample the dish that many of their countrymen and women produced.

It also benefited from the influx of fish fryers from right across Scotland to Barga every summer.

A range of dishes are offered at the festival but fish and chips remain its star attraction

Every effort is made to try to make the dish as true to the Scottish delicacy as possible

"The idea really started in the early 1980s when, during historic mule races, the organisers thought about finding a way to pay tribute to the Scottish-Italians coming back to Barga for their summer holidays," he said.

"In those early years it was the emigrants who passed on their skills in fish frying to the festival's volunteers."

They have taken those lessons on board and honed them over the years and are once again in action until 16 August.

So it looks likely that the streets of Barga will be filled with a very familiar smell to Scottish nostrils for quite some time to come.

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