Things not working, wildlife and people

Juliet writes: Week 7

Cara amici,

Please excuse the slight delay in posting the latest blog. As we feared - internet up a mountain is rather sporadic to say the least. We have just got back online after two days of inexplicable silence. And it was nothing to do with our neighbour this time.

Other things that have ceased to function (not including our livers and brains) are P’s strimmer. Two days of cutting grass which is now taller than him proved just too much for the little fella who now resides in the emergency ward of the strimmer hospital. Still not heard from Big Mo about cutting the rest of our ‘estate’ to a manageable level. Hopefully we will visit the house this weekend and find him wandering somewhere nearby, probably with our wheelbarrow wheel (in the meantime, P has rather ingeniously used a wheelie bin to put all the dead things on a bonfire)

In addition, my Ipod packed in so I had to go cold turkey from Puccini until it decided, inexplicably again, to work. (However, we have just booked a long weekend in Verona for P’s birthday/our 7th anniversary next month and to see Puccini’s Tosca performed at the ancient open-air Arena (think small version of the Coliseum at Rome), so one really mustn’t complain! And I will get to see ‘Juliet’s balcony’ too. We cannot wait – it’s been a shared dream of ours for years. And while we love this rural life, it will be nice to visit a city again. If our budgets can cope, we will also visit nearby Lake Garda. Sorry mum, George Clooney is at ‘the other one’ ie Como.)

Of course, many other things about Italy are also less than organised. For example, the trains, planes and buses all chose to strike on the same day last week. But it worked to our favour as my dear friend Natalie was at the Genova boat show and had to be transferred to Pisa in order to return home. This involved a four hour delay, during which we were able to pick up her and a colleague and take them out for lovely, long and liquid dinner in Pisa. A super impromptu evening.

Regarding wildlife, there is much here to amaze even the pickiest naturephile. We have managed to establish that our garden contains (please excuse any dodgy spelling) agapanthus, wisteria, calla lillies, irises, forsythia, roses, holm oak trees (Lecci - our house namesake), standard oaks, pines, fruit trees aplenty (so far apricot, plum, pear, peach, apple, fig, persimon) and of course the 25-ish olive trees and the 150 vines. I think I may just spend the rest of my life pruning and making jam! Can think of worse occupations though :o)

As to more lively nature, we have a pair of eagles, several bats, a family of owls, hundreds of little lizards and one scorpion (very small, so don’t panic!). Last night, I even shared my bath with the cutest, tiniest mouse. Weed, in her infinite wisdom and generosity, had brought it in for me and P then spent 10 minutes rescuing the terrified little thing from behind the toiletries cupboard while I, soaking wet, kept Weed from further feline activity. How restful.

Much to our delight, earlier this week at Lecci we discovered a tiny nest on the window ledge of one of the upstairs rooms. A day later, even more delighted, we discovered that four of the five eggs had hatched into the smallest baby birds (see photo, left, and tell me if it’s not utterly cute). Of course this now means that the builders will have to work around them quietly until they are fully fledged and flown away. Lucky builders :o) We spotted the mum – she is almost as tiny and has big eyes, a beautiful apricot breast and a blue/black tail. I trawled the internet to establish her identity but to no avail. So if there are any twitchers out there who can enlighten me…

And finally, the people. Of course no-one matches up to our friends back home but there are some lovely (and slightly strange) characters here. The owners of Lecci continue to amaze. Please see photo on left for just some of the stuff they have cleared out of the loft (90+ years of junk). It may take months! But they are so nice, we will probably let them get away with it. Next door in our rental place we have Debora and Antonio, slightly reminiscent of an Italian version of Wayne and Waynetta but very friendly. Debora came round at 7am this morning in her pyjamas to inform us that our upstairs toilet (not one we use) had decided to follow suit with our strimmer, internet, Ipod etc and cease to function normally with no explanation. From what we could translate, it had been flushing all night and kept her awake. Mortificato! She didn’t seem to mind too much, but I hope it doesn’t do it again. In addition to neighbourly concern, we have friends coming next weekend and I am sure they would be less than delighted!

Umberto looks like he stepped directly out of the film Under the Tuscan Sun. He is a very kindly man in his 80s and goes for a fast stroll twice a day past our rental place and up into the steep hills beyond. He always stops for a chat in Italian and is very patient with our lack of language skills. We call him ‘Vostra Meteorologo’ (Our Weatherman) as he is far more reliable than the Beeb or any weather station we know of.

Yesterday, we met our only English-speaking neighbours (we have delayed the meeting in fear of becoming stereotypical expats). They are John and Donna from California and they own the one beautiful liberty villa in Carregia. They were very hospitable and invited us in for a coffee and imparted their valuable knowledge about restoring large old piles in Tuscany (John has, almost single-handedly done the work himself). No doubt we will share a future limoncello or two when speaking constant Italian becomes a little exhausting. Oh, and their house is for sale if anyone is interested!

Then there is the lovely Guiseppe who works the land around our house in Fivizzano – he insists on calling us Signor Peeeter and Signora Guiletta. I think he may become a wonderful friend and a great source of garden expertise when our Italian is good enough.

Perhaps the most unusual character we have come across is Frank. He is a gregarious painter from Fivizzano and speaks a little English. We found him in a café at 10am, already the worse for wear, and singing in the corner. He is quite tragic really, as he is nice looking and obviously talented, but in his own world which we are occasionally invited into.

There are so many interesting personalities that I don’t have the time or space to include them all (and I doubt you have the patience to read anymore!)

So I will dash – and with good timing as P has just returned from an evening walk with an enormous piece of pampas grass in an attempt to prevent Weed from playing with less savoury toys…

Ciao per ora.

XXX

Settling in

Juls writes: Where have the last five weeks gone?! I appreciate that some have been used up in queues and some in an alcoholic haze, but as to the other week...

Well, P has definitely gone native. He bought a strimmer and has also managed to negotiate with the previous owners an antique chainsaw and a strange electric thing that we think might cut wood.

We have spent a lot of time at our house tackling the garden, as the grass is taller than me in places. P has taken great delight in using his new purchase... yesterday, after hacking back all the grass around the house with a slightly perturbing crazed look in his eye, he asked me what else he could strim. I now worry that he may amputate something when he moves onto the chainsaw.

Still, at least we have met Maurizio. Or 'Big Mo', as we now call him. This wonderful big gentle bear was born and brought up in Cerignano (our local borgo) and knows the land intimately. In fact, we were most impressed when he pointed out exactly where our boundaries, terraces, streams and pathways are, despite being currently completely obscured by grass and weeds. We were even more impressed when he lifted a wheelbarrow with his little finger and hoisted it down the lane to his car (in order to mend the punctured wheel). He is going to cut the rest of the grass for us (there is, alas, far too much for P and his strimmer alone), and take down the leylandii that block the spectacular view. No doubt while closing his eyes and using his other hand to knit a new jumper.

We met Big Mo through our new neighbours - Giovanni and Giovanna (we learn that the wife takes on the feminine version of her hubby upon marriage... does that make me Peterina? I hope not!) This gorgeous couple are in their late 30s - he an engineer, she an architect. Eight years ago they bought the 400 year old Carmine monastery around the corner from us, complete with murals, internal quad and many vaulted ceilings. It has taken them this long to restore just a small part of it (and it is utterly beautiful). They now hold weddings every Saturday in the summer... so we are invited to our first Italian wedding very soon. I can't wait - it's been a dream of mine to attend one for years! I have offered to do their brochure and marketing in English for free, as I fear that they may be far more useful to us than we are to them and it's the least I can do.

As to the rest of the week, we have met (which means hugged and shared the wine from our vines with (quite quaffable)) even more owners of Ca' dei Lecci, and their children, and grandchildren, and cousins. They are a good looking couple who seemed in their early 60s but were actually edging towards 80. Eternal youth seems quite typical here - wish you could bottle it.

The fabulous Fabrizio (our internet guru - see photo, left) made another star appearance this evening as everything online has been AWOL for five days. He came to our rental place straight from his family holiday to spend another two hours up a ladder - poor man! Turns out one of our new neighbours - who shall remain nameless, purely because we don't know who the culprit is - spotted our tiny dish on his aerial pole (which is attached to our house I must point out) and decided that the best course of action would be to unbolt it and lay it face down on the roof. Mad Italian! Anyway, all is now well and hopefully we can blog again 'til our hearts' content.

We also had an interested diversion last Friday when we set out to source some floor tiles on a national holiday and ended up getting caught in a solemn Virgin Mary parade. Don't ask!

We have enjoyed our first local fair, which seemed to be a hotchpotch of polyester clothes, cheap shoes (usually the one item in Italy that is more expensive than back home), strange sweets stalls and delicious regional foods. We walked away, slighty bewildered, carrying a pair of nice leather shoes for P, a hat and some gardening trousers for me and a jar of raspberry jam.

Tomorrow, we meet with Christian, our geometra, and a couple of builders at the house to discuss our renovation needs in detail. Well, in as much detail as our shamefully faultering Italian can muster.

There is so much more I could bore you with - daily life here holds many fascinations - but I really don't want to bore you so I will save it for the book and sign off.

We still miss you all terribly, but at least we feel closer as we are now able to Skype phone (and video those obedient souls who followed our request to register). So here's to a week of catching up with you, more gardening, more sunshine and less queues.

Please, please send us your news and start planning your flights to Toscana!

Lots of love and big kisses to you all.

J and P xxx
PS Hoorah for Boza as Mayor! (Sorry Sam :o) )