Pandemics, Superstition and Science My Italian town, home to the Black Death of 1348, affords a perfect view of humanity’s road to reason. Let’s walk. Frank Viviano, a best-selling author whose global journalism has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize eight times, lives in Barga, Italy and is a staff writer for Barganews. SHARES San Rocco, a saintly figure who died in Europe’s worst plague, is commemorated in Chiesa di San Rocco, just beyond the town walls of Barga, Italy. Photo by Keane. A peculiar marriage of wild celebration and tacit mourning takes place each year on Aug. 15 in Barga, the hilltop Tuscan town where I’ve lived for two decades. Its people dance in the piazzas to the music of accordions and mandolins. Outdoor markets hum with shoppers until well after midnight. Dazzling fireworks explode over its medieval cathedral and ramparts.