Church bells are an integral part of the cultural and religious heritage of the Apennines and in many ways their "calling card". Nevertheless recently in Italy, bell ringing has increasingly become a source of irritation and discontent on the part of the public.

A real "bell war" was unleashed four years ago by residents of the Florentine quarter of Coverciano with the local priest Leonardo Guerri, threatening him with criminal liability for disturbing public order, as well as for a categorical refusal to reduce the number of strikes and the noise level of the bells. Together, more than 500 families bombarded the local curia and the municipality with complaints that the priest was too carried away with the use of bells, which strike relentlessly for 200 strokes daily, from 8 am to 21 pm.

According to them, Don Leonardo ignored the 2014 decree of the Metropolitan of Florence, Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, which spelled out in black and white the need to limit the ringing of bells throughout the diocese, "so as not to subject the sense of Christian piety to a severe test." It was possible to put an end to this dispute with the help of experts who installed equipment to measure the sound level. After that, the priest was ordered to pay the residents a fine and reduce the noise level. It was also decided that henceforth the bells would ring only a few times a day. If such a trend develops, the day is not far off when instead of the booming ringing of bells in the cities of Italy, oppressive silence, unusual for them, will reign, similar as two drops of water to the one that covered the Apennines during the total lockdown.

bbabo.Net