ROME (AP) - Which is nicer to have echoing through a small
Italian village - the chiming of bells or the banging of pots?
The church bells in Mezzema, a village near La Spezia, northern
Italy, were silenced earlier this month by the local parish priest.
A tourist, it seems, had complained about the early morning
gonging.
Some residents, though, were not happy. A dozen of them
protested by banging pots and lids in the street.
Anna Daneri, who led the protest, said that early Wednesday
morning, after a few pot-banging protest sessions, the church bells
started chiming again. They ring every morning at 7 a.m. and a few
more times throughout the day.
Daneri said the sound of the bells "keeps the elderly
company," and is a tradition of the centuries-old village.