New Year's Eve at Il Poggiolo...

Kind of a dreary looking day for New Year's Eve... cloudy, very grey, humid & cold. Here's the rest of how Il Poggiolo appears today... on the last day of 2010...

the Cortile and L'Esseccatoio... or, drying shed... and its perfectly working forno... or, oven. The pre-Christmas cold has killed some plants. Oh, well...

walking up the path from the Cortile to the Upstairs Apartment. The tree... I think it is called a persimmon in English... makes me think of a Christmas tree with gigantic bulbs dangling on its naked branches. Most of the fruit has since fallen to the ground. Newton's Law has squished them into a weird sort of ground-based jam... unfortunately, a very messy finish... 

La Casa Grande, the new retaining wall with its fish swimming pool and some of the 150 lavender I planted so the re-built terraces wouldn't wash away in all the rain that has fallen since September...

more lavender, the Upstairs Apartment and its large square window & the Castle borgo... or, stone village... above us.

I am hoping the New Year will be us some much needed sunshine, drying out the place. And, that I can post some pretty photos with blue skies as a welcomed back-ground. Gads.

Upstairs apartment...

The Upstairs Apartment... the Front Door is under the house's eaves... the two top floor windows are for the Bathroom on the right and the Bedroom on the left... with just a tip of the eventual terrace seen on the far left...

a good winter shot of the Front Door and the persimmon tree. A pergola will be built to the left of the entrance...

another view from the upper most garden terrace...

It all looks so quaint. I never thought. Gads.

Plans...

Ah... the fun of floor plans, materials & colors!!! The Upstairs Apartment's program begins to take form & shape...

That hunk of wood is an example of the walnut planking & finish we want to put down as flooring throughout the apartment. The terrace, however... on the far left of the pencil-drawn floor plan in the photo... will have the same terra-cotta tiles we have used in La Casetta, naturally, weather-proofed to withstand freezing temperatures and tons of rain-water.

You can barely see the four areas which make up the Upstairs Apartment in the Floor Plan... the Terrace on the far left, followed by the Bedroom, the Bathroom is sectioned off by the new-construction walls... the walls are darkened in the drawing... with the rest of the apartment an open space main room of a Kitchen... upper right corner of the large room... Dining & Living Room. The Front Door is on the right in the large main room. The pergola will be outside the future Bathroom's right-hand wall.

The paint color I like... and it will call for a trial panel, or two, before yelling, This is it!... is a medium blue with just a tiny touch of green paint example... 58B-50. I think it goes rather well with the flooring finish. However, I can just hear someone say... Ohhh! Eeets tooo darrrkk!!! Gads.

Plans & Color

Open space...

Open space... yes, the Italians love to say "open space" because they can say it without mangling the English into another dimension of incomprehension. If they were to use our standard word "loft" it would come out as... lauwffffttt! So, here is our open space referred to as the Upstairs Apartment which, will be fitted-out next...

The Front Door to the apartment is on the left. From that ceiling cross-beam nearest that far window... it overlooks the Cortile below... will be a wall to enclose a bathroom. A sleeping lauwffffttt will be above it & reach-out to the cross-beam nearest the Front Door. The niche in the corner on the left will be where an old stone sink will be mounted. The toilette & bidet will be on the wall between the sink and the window. The shower... for lack of space... will be placed in front of the window. Poor window. A sliding door will close off & give some privacy between the bathroom and the bedroom, whose doorway is out of sight in this photo. On the right-hand & opposite the Front Door will be a fireplace with large metal tubes to furnish warm air throughout the apartment. 

Now, the Front Door... barely visible... is on the right in this photo. The new Kitchen will be housed as a built-in bank on the right & close to the niche on the right of that window. It overlooks The Garden. There's an old stone sink in that niche which will go to the Bathroom. The fireplace will be on the left-hand wall right about where there is a little indentation in the wall. The rest of this open space will be unobstructed up to the new ceiling... these photos were taken before the new roof was put on... and used as Kitchen, Dining & Living Rooms. Those far cross-beams will be removed & used for a pergola outside the Front Door covering a lovely area for long summer lunches under the shade.

This is a shot of the Bedroom and the doorway out to the terrace. Its ceiling will be visible, just like in the open space of the living area. There is another window overlooking the Cortile below and the olive strewn hills in the distance. All the walls will be freshly stucco-ed & painted a medium blue. And, imagine hardwood planking flooring through-out the apartment.

The work is to start in January after Epiphany on the 6th. I have to sign another contract. However, before I scribble my "John Hancock", I want resolved The Big Question of how soon the builder thinks he can finish the work what with all the humidity from the rains of late & predicted to last for some time into Spring. Gads.

The difference a year can make...

Here is the state of Il Poggiolo one year ago. Besides all that crap strewn about The Garden... and, I must say, after days of rain before this shot was taken, The Mess does look less menacing. It has all gone to mud... please note the Key Item... No! Not the orange ruspa... or, bulldozer... but, the old roofs right about to collapse, so sodden are they!!! Inside a couple of the larger rooms of La Casa Grande... the lower roof behind the orange ruspa... there was more than a foot of water. No kidding. An indoor swimming pool.

And now, nearly upon this year's New Year's Eve, here is Il Poggiolo a year later. Again, this shot was taken after a long spell of heavy rains. In fact, the locals all tell me they have never seen so much acqua... or, water... in all their lives. Some of them are over 90 years old!!! There was a lull long enough for me to traipse out with my knee-high Wellies to take pictures. Soon afterwards, the wall of water returned. Thank God, Marcello... The Ruspa Jockey Par Excellence... and his mighty work of rebuilding the garden still holds against the watery onslaught.

What's up? Well, I have PAID everyone off, so to speak. The second contract of rebuilding the roofs & consolidating the structures of La Casa Grande & l'Esseccatoio... or, drying shed... is finished. We are in discussion with our builder & geometra about how to properly fit-out the Upstairs Apartment. It is the part of the house in the left of the photo... we love the large window above the new-built reinforced concrete & stone wall of the ramp down to the grassy Spianata... or, "scenic" overlook... on the right in the photo. This apartment was the living quarters of the family who had rented Il Poggiolo for more than four generations. The last generation abandoned the Upstairs Apartment and its lack of conveniences... like an inside toilette!!!... for the modern renovations of La Casetta back in the 70's. Then, there is the ongoing adventure of The Garden. But that is not until February... or, whenever The Rains stop. Gads.

Starting to look like a House AND Garden...

The Garden raked, seeded & watered...

Codiponte Beach...

Every summer, someone with a bulldozer comes along and bulldozers a dam to create a kind of swimming pool in the Aullela River.

La Macoranata...

The local tradition in Codiponte when a roof is rebuilt is to invite everyone involved... builder, geometra, work-guys & neighbors... to raise a flag & serve-up a big pasta meal... La Macaronata!!! And, that is exactly what I did yesterday, Wednesday, the 28th of July, the day the last of the five roofs was topped-off.
The photos in descending order are...
The Italian flag...
Me & two neighbors, Sarah & Davide, serving a pasta I made with pin-wheel pasta & a sauce of pork, carrots & tomatoes...
My Construction Team of... Ennio, Our Builder; Tarcisio, The Renegade Flag Bearer; Marcello, The Magnificent with a bull-dozer: Tino, Il Bello & Our Plumber; Jonathan, il Jolly, who knows more TV tunes than any other person on the Planet; and, Our Geometra, Marco. All great guys!!! Oh! And, The Dog being served too.
And, my neighbors eating up 3 chilos of pasta!!! Gads.

In the groove...

The Medieval campanile of Codiponte... 

its charming set of bells ring in the hour & the half-hour... 24/7. Suddenly, I find myself counting off on my fingers the clangs... or, the clangs & a cling... to know the time. This is a godsend, since I crushed my cellphone... which functioned more as a watch than a telephone... while working in the garden a couple of weeks ago. I was trying to wrestle free one of my ancient boxwoods from the clutches of 30 year old & very rusty chicken wire. I won the game, when the metal finally gave way but, I lost the match, when I landed... PLOP!!!... on my out-size Scottish rear-end, pulverizing the NOKIA into a fragmented Time/Space Continuum. Naturally, I had put the phone in one of my jean's back pockets. No great loss though. I always had to have my glasses handy to read the microscopic time in the tippity-top right hand corner. Hard to do when juggling a shovel, a hoe & swatting at flies, etc. Fingers & Bells are easier. 

And, the bells also chime the 10 minute alert for Mass. It's a little ditty, somewhat akin, yet, slightly more sober than those tunes game shows use to cover the time it takes Barbara-Ann Kraminski from Battle Creek, MI to Come on down! and test her skills on The Price is Right. Boy! Am I showing my age.

But, what's all the noise about at 7AM & 9PM? The Hour/Half-hour's donging & the Mass's little melody are substituted by a grand concerto of clinging & clanging & clonging for nearly five minutes. What a racket. Is it to sound out to the Codiponte Community the important Masses at 7 & 9? My grandfather, a rosary twisting faithful to the One True Faith, went to Mass every day at 7 but, never at night. He usually was on his 3rd gin & tonic by 9PM & aiming for his bed. On a visit to see Domenico... my Heavy-gardening Saviour... & his wonderful wife, Anna, they asked how I was getting along in Codiponte in between sips on a late afternoon caffe'. I complained that The Dog & I were having a hard time with the 7AM wake-up call. They chuckled. I said I always notice them from my bathroom window working in their garden-patch along the river around 7AM. It is a great convenience that my bathroom has a panoramic view of Codiponte. I can detect the latest Comings & Goings while otherwise occupied. They chuckled some more. Anna then said the  campanile's pealings were to get us out of our beds & out into the fields. Make hay while the sun shines, I suppose. And, it's best to hit the turf early when the thermometer reads 95+ by 10AM. The 9PM one is to get us back in our beds so won't miss the next morning's reveille. 

So now, The Dog & I are in the Codiponte groove. Gads.

My hiatus...

Yes, I have been too long absent from this blog. I do apologize. I am back now. However, I do have A Very Good Excuse. Please accept it.  I've been really busy with Il Poggiolo! 

And, rather than Bitching & Complaining & Pining-away about the travails of my stone farm-house in the Lunigiana from my air-conditioned roost in Genoa, I now have the luxury... perhaps, The Privilege... to do The BCP right on site.
La Casetta is finished. Well, almost. It is missing two radiators & some paint touch-ups. Che sara' sara'! The house is quite comfy, a cool refuge from our 100+ degree heat. 

So, let me start to bring you up to date...

Watering, watering & more watering. It takes over two hours of tugging on a 160 foot long garden-hose over the crap the work-guys insist on littering... it will take all my strength not to mention the quantity of cigarette butts & plastic water bottles presently decorating the grounds of My Property... to sustain the 150+ plants, bushes & flowers I have sunk into the local Mother Earth from our globally warmed weather.  This is the Evening Shift. The Morning is blessedly shorter. The poor plants-in-pots cannot make it to 7PM what with The Heat & Humidity blowing.

My new rock walls... I reached the point when I could no longer tackle the jungle of roving vines, idiotic nocciola bushes... just another weed, in my mind... and other verdant paraphernalia running above the sentiero... or, pathway... up to the Castle in the borgo above Il Poggiolo. I was thoroughly disgusted too in confronting several varieties of wire fencing AND odd lots of tractor parts, mattress frames, etc. used to create a barrier... lo' those many years ago... and mightily hidden in the greenery. I decided to call in the Local Calvary of Luigi & Domenico, two local septuagenarians of Herculean Strength & Ability in the Garden Clearing Department. By the way, it is NEVER Domenico & Luigi. No reason. It's just the way it is. The two men were quite willing to clear away what disturbed me in the matter of two mornings, always from 7 to Noon. 

What remained was a glaring need for new rock walls. This required the stone mason bravura of a cute & gentle young man by the name of Denis. Yes, not a very Italian name, is it? It has been the fashion for the last 30 years to give English names which work with the Italian Sound System of Vowel & Consonant, such as Denis, Cristian (please, note the lack of an "h") or Jonathan (why one name with an "h" and not the other is a mistero). Denis was quite willing to do me two walls without the benefit of cement or mortar. Yep. Fatte al naturale!!! He too knocked them out in the space of two mornings. However, he did have HELP. I played Assistant by transporting the stones in my new fangled heavy-duty plastic wheel-barrow. May I say? I will NEVER do that again in My Life!!! I was so worn out at the end of my day, I could barely get a glass of chilly white wine to my mouth, much less sip it. But, are they not beautiful rock walls? By the way, that fig tree in the background is ladden with ripe fruit just asking to be paired with a delicate & sweat prosciuto crudo di Parma. Aren't I lucky?

I have had many other adventures, but they are for future blogs.
In the meantime, feast your eyes on the work-guys attempting to move out of their way one of the massive tree-trunk beams before proceeding with rebuilding the last of the roofs of La Casa Grande. It took six guys and a complex arrangements of scaffolding to move the darn thing to its temporary home.  For this maneuvering, I just watched, thank you. Gads.

A rose

Well, at least there's furniture...

Yes, the furniture. 

Naturally, Mr. He-who-wants-to-be-anonymous would like to switch a couple of pieces... nearly the heaviest of the lot too... from one room to another. It's easy for him to dictate. He wasn't the one who worked with the two mover-guys to get the pieces to their current homes in the first place.

Here is our first item... a 16th Century Piedmontese "stirpa" armoire... beautifully situated in the Downstairs Bedroom of Mr. H-w-w-t-b-a... but, which now needs to go up stairs into My Bedroom.

Mr. H-w-w-t-b-a can FORGET even thinking to move this 9-foot-long & definitely one-piece Chesterfield sofa. Besides being extremely long, it is also abominally heavy too. I know. I had to help lift it up the narrow stairs.

Ditto for this Piemontese 18th Century cherry armoire. I made sure that the dimensions of this disimpegno would allow it to fit perfectly. My word to Mr. H-w-w-t-b-a is... DON'T DICKER!!!

But, that 19th Century walnut desk... admittedly, way too big for where it is... now must go to the Downstairs Bedroom. Fine. So be it.

But, may I say? The person who originally commanded that said "stirpa" armoire & said walnut desk be where they currently are is The Very Same Person who now wants them moved. Gads. 

Local religion...

I find these expressions of Catholicism quite charming. So too does The Dog. However, he is PROHIBITED from showing his reverence. Why can't Weimaraners just kneel over lifting a leg? Neither one of us cares for that BLUE of The Cross. The Dog, not expecting such a vision, barked at it until I told him to cool-it. Good Grief. 

The Dog & I went to the local religious grotto of Codiponte during a lull with the torrential rains a week ago to pray for a let-up. We need to get the last roofs finished. And, you know? It worked!!! We have had sunny & warm weather ever since AND we are destined for more of the same through till the end of the the Very Merry Month of May!!!... maybe beyond.

Amazing the Power of Prayer. The Virgin at work. The work-guys arrive next Monday. Gads.

Our many legged friends...

Yes, our many legged friends who have come to greet us & participate in our recent occupation of La Casetta.

Oh, I can handle this fellow. He is pretty benign & stays perched on the transom of a window. Doing what, I have no idea. Perhaps, biding his Time for Better Days outside... torrential rains were di rigore until a few days ago... grooving on the vibes of new painted wood, in the meantime, I suppose. 

And, I have no problem with odd cloud of microscopic air-borne creatures... hovering pin-dots... in the corner of My Bedroom above a floor lamp. There they cavort until lights out. Where they go afterwards I care not to know. And yet, no sooner do I flick the switch to the corner light than they punctually appear for another go.

Neither am I much bothered by small Volkswagen-like bugs slowly trudging from one upper wall to another... like mini-robots surveying the upper premises. Thank God, they don't leave a trail of ook like snails do!!! There's something with their altimeter that the one or two of these bugs... I have never spied more than that... which keeps them up towards the ceiling. More to eat? Licking the new paint is better up there? Chissa?

However, there is one of God's ambulatory visitors which I have An Extreme Displeasure in ever encountering. How about a furry, more-than-multi-long-legged, shitty-brown, scurrying insect... with long waving antlers!!!... and of not less than 2 & 3/4s inches in length? Totally outsized, in my mind, to crawl out of crack.  May I say? I DO NOT NEED TO SEE one of these creatures at 3:27 AM on my way to the Bathroom!!!  You may add the screeching violin music from Psycho Bathroom Scene to capture My Shock & Horror. Well, I just have to grab whatever... never the latest copy of the Italian ELLE Decor however... to KILL! KILL!! KILL!!! It then takes me several minutes of deep-breathing to gather-up the courage to scoop the smushed invader up with several layers of toilette paper to FLUSH HIM DOWN THE TOILETTE!!! This is follow by a stiff drink... I never seem to have the right sorts of drugs for crisis such as these... and a terrible night's sleep, fearing the worse... another will come out AND crawl all over me for KILLING his baby-brother!!! Gads.    

What's behind Codiponte...

This is the view of the Apuane Mountains behind Codiponte. Gads.

A fine day in May...

Codiponte, nestled in the valley of the Aullela River & the Apuane Mountains behind...

Il Poggiolo, the houses & garden dominating the lower borgo of the village...

Good Grief! It sure is big and there is still much work to be done!!! Gads. 

Our front door...

Yes... the new front door to La Casetta. Behind it are all our furniture & belongings. Two separate days of movers arriving and both done under a constant & torrential rain. I had to do The Dance of the 7 Plastic Sheets. Artfully accomplished, I must say, even with the strong west-wind blowing, to aide the movers with protecting our fine antiques, our luscious objets d'art & our stuff in general, etc.
I am proud to say, one, a 9 foot long black leather Chesterfield sofa, was successfully shoved up past the narrow staircase & into the Salotto above with both mover guys & myself to push & grunt & heave it up there. Ditto for the atrociouly heavy & unwieldy blanket chest. It required an extra exclamation to our collective physical effort of an ... Oh! Madonna!!! At one point, pinned underneath the chest, I felt the irresistible need to blurt out a... Porca troia!!!... but, the decisive choice was to yell an obscenity or shove harder. I chose the later. Some one else let out the... Oh! Madonna!!!

Mr. Anonymous requested that I leave the placement of what-all for him to busy with last Sunday. He puttered for most of the day. This left me to lug away to the local dump the detritus of a recent attack on the hedges above the stone wall running around the garden. Now, i vigilli... guys in uniforms, who write out tickets for infractions against the public weal. They never get my name correctly either. So, I have to print it for them on their 12 copy forms. Talk about pressing down hard!!!... will have nothing to Bitch & Complain about. The little path around our property is clear of debris. When the word GO! has been given by Mr. A, I will skip into La Casetta & take some new After Photos. Very exciting, no?

In the meantime... and may I say?... it is a Godsend to sleep in a bed over camping-out on a matterass dumped on a cold floor. Gads.