Codiponte's Medieval Bridge...
Dang if it isn’t done.
Something is up whenever one sees un commitato of mostly men in jeans gesticulating, bounding off suddenly to gain perspective on whatever they have been pointing at or, milling about in chat before adjourning to quickly drive off in their white SUV’s.
Soon afterwards, operai arrived and dealt with substituting the ugly white PVC water tube which ran right across the top of the bridge’s parapet. There is now a long iron conduit… in chic Anthracite, A Signature Colour… running inside and just below the parapet. At night, there is an explosion of light from that type of Chinese plastic tube LED lighting popular at Italian beach cabanas and at mercati di Natale. Railings, two ignored do-not-pass-go stanchions… there is always an idiot who will try crossing what to others would definitely be a no-go or, resist the temptation to park un motorino where it is not wanted… and two early 19th Century looking lamp posts installed, again, all in iron painted in the bridge’s Signature Anthracite. Il pezzo di resistenza are the two some-one-has-escaped-from-prison high-intensity spots aimed at the entire Medieval Bridge plus a goodly portion of the village of Codiponte on the other side. Il Poggiolo a prime victim. More so for the poor Swedish Sister’s house at the head of the bridge… capo del ponte = Codiponte… have no choice but to shut themselves inside against the searing hyper-lighting. The Swedish Sisters cannot come to Italy ‘cause Sweden did not go into Lockdown. Swedes are persona non grata in Italy. The Swedish Sister’s are in for a shock. when they can come to what was once their grandparent’s abode.
I have thought to complain to Our Mayor, Sindaco Riccardo about the lighting choice.
Again, like the two neighbour women, who consulted NO ONE regarding the when, how and with what they sought to clean the ramp leading to il Poggiolo, neither had the sindaco,… il comune manager responsible for Codiponte’s Medieval Bridge’s re-conditioning… and his jean clad cohorts thought to even MINIMALLY consult the recipients… WE, THE PEOPLE OF CODIPONTE… about anything to do with the Medieval Bridge’s restoration and especially, the way more than necessary lighting. There was probably enough of a quorum just with the fellows in jeans, damn-it. A closed group. Thank the Good Catholic Lord, THESE POWERS-THAT-BE DID NOT INSTAL SIRENS, BELLS OR WHISTLES. When You experiences the shenanigan of any Italian asshole, his prompt comment is… Che cornuto!!! He applied the same when he took in the result of the non-consultation of Codiponte’s roller-coaster bridge… be be reminded: hardly anyone crosses it, everyone parks their cars/SUV’s/Panda’ on the dirt track below due to the Medieval Bridge’s now confirmed DANGEROUS and variable stone pavements. And, two village women have fallen. Both broke a wrist. One lost teeth and got a healthy gash on her lovely face. To date, You has not yet had the pleasure to take in the Final Touches. I feel assured he will invoke his… Che cornuto!!! If not, I will.
Not done yet but...
…we are getting close. One half of Codiponte’s piazzetta’s new stone pavement is nearly complete. But look…
Is it not a beautiful expanse of stone, day or night/
P-p-progress...
A bright, brilliantly crip & cold morning in Codiponte last Wednesday. Come on, Dog, let’s hit the road. The Dog might have bashed down the door to la Casetta with his Weimaraner excitement had I not beaten him to such destruction by opening the way… to his Freedom. This semi-deranged canine, one of God’s adored creatures, shot out the open door and down the ramp to il Poggiolo, one of my shoes in his mouth. Have to say, the boy’s fast. Nipped it before I could nip him! Puppy did a dance asking by way of wiggling his Weimaraner butt if, yes, we were really heading to da riva’ and my dirty SUV parked close by. No… Darling Dog, the other way. And up the stone trail he blasted, shoe still gripped in his mouth. I followed with a ready roll of green bio-degradable Emergency Sacks. Unfortunately, the area outside the gate belonging to the neighbor of the ugly-yellow-house, a widening in the trail of stone & weeds leading up to the Borgo of Codiponte and its Castle, seems to have all the necessary ingredients for inspiring donations of bio-waste manufactured by My Dear Dog. I go and retrieve them. A civic duty. And, yes, there’s always more than one pile. Once collected… Scendeee, scendee! And The Croesus-person obeys the order by disappearing down the cut-through to the SUV. Good boy! Done without a leash too.
In my dirty SUV, I turned the corner from da’ riva’ to weave my way up & onwards to Freedom, but found Freedom blocked. The work-guys were unloading a TIR of stone pavers, a ditch-digger sat perched on the flat-bed of another truck with nowhere to go and several white vans were parked behind the flat-bed truck to reinforce the halt towards our eventual w-a-l-k. It was about 9:30AM. Construction Rush-hour. Any earlier though and it’s too darn cold for The Croesus-person to stay outside, even with a lined felted coat on or, allowed to run crazily around nude, so to speak, to generate some h-e-a-t. Oddly enough, the Dog was in idle on his fur on the back seat. I needed to let the ol’ SUV rumble a little longer to warm the engine, hoping it would stop screeching its mechanical aches & pains. So, I got out and walked up to see what was what with Codiponte’s ongoing infrastructure renewal project. What a mess.
One of the work-guys, a big burly & friendly fellow, and perhaps the foreman, came over to chat. He has a later model of my dirty SUV. His was a shiny silver one and clean too. Told me of his pride with a big smile. Having garnered his attention, I sought the latest news. First off, he was part of a new crew. The sixth!!! I feel badly for Crew Numero Cinque. Do not know though I do suspect the previous crew were sent elsewhere for their Big Ooops. Hard to fire folk in Italy. I would have fired the puff-jacketed jeans-cladded Culture-police fellows. They do not know how to manage, much less manage a construction project. Probably because it’s not on a computer screen in an office in grim Massa-Carrara, HQ for our Italian province. All they know how to do, and I have seen this first hand… I like to spy from il Poggiolo’s innumerable & elevated views… is to arrive, point a lot, and then leave. Pointing is not management. It’s only fingering.
My new found friend confirmed what I had heard from a neighbour days before about the problem of building a proper slope for water run-off but, and again explained with a smile of pride, the new crew faced the difficulty with the old water & drainage pipes not laid deep enough to allow the new paver’s height to clear the thresholds of the houses and ex-stores on Codiponte’s piazzetta. By the looks of the herd of trucks & vans, and the comings & goings of the other four work-guys, Progress was being made and with new techniques & construction methods. All the old cement dug up, new gravel cushion was spread and iron lattices placed on top to create a new concrete base to be poured followed by the new pavers. Somewhere underneath all that were new drainage & water tubes. Enough Progress to calm the agitated citizens of Codiponte. Yet, what with the nice weather, most are in their orti, vignetti e frutteti occupied with Spring pruning & clearance. Might be a good idea for me to start that assault.
Doesn’t the via Comunale look spiffy? And, yes, does seem to be a cloudy day outside but, the sun had not risen above the hills behind Codiponte at that hour of the morning.
Ooops...
There was a problem. If you know something about drainage, you’ll immediately see the situation in the left-hand photograph.
Ooops!
I thought it was curious to see the five work-guys, the usual but rarely seen three jeans-and-puffed-jackets-clad of the Culture Police and many male residents of Codiponte gathered at a quarter till 8 last Monday morning, hovering over the newly laid pavers of the piazzetta. I was in my smelling-of-Weimaraner SUV with The Croesus-person in attendance on his furry stole on the back seat heading out for Our Morning Constitutional. The Dog was not interested with the goings-on out on the piazzetta. No. He was focused upon eventually running wild with a new stick at any of our preferred spots for such shenanigans, as I paused the car to take a look, mull-over the reason for the crowd before continuing on our way. I was hoping to take some interesting photographs followed by an optimal cappuccino at my favorite bar.
All happened.
The next thing I knew, and on the day after, the crew had brought in a teal painted machine… a HUGE jack-hammer… to break-up the newly laid pavers plus all the cement pavement underneath and that too from the part of the piazzetta not yet covered with new pavers.
Gosh… what’s happened?
I found out later that same day, when I encountered a neighbor walking to his car parked out on the Casciana New Bridge with his small son. He lives just off the piazzetta. I thought he would be a good source for the latest information. He was. Said the citizens had called in the C.P. when they discovered rainwater would run directly into the alimentare shop off the piazzetta AND that the new pavement, as laid, would end up being too high for many of the thresholds to their houses & stores on Codiponte’s piazzetta. The later long since transformed into storage lockers or, to stack firewood.
By the way, folk here have returned enthusiastically to burning wood in their fireplaces & stoves rather than not or, using pellets. Costs less, creates a good heat and smells better.
My neighbor went on to say that the work-guys should have originally dugged up all the cement on the the one store, and instead, direct it to the stream… ex-open sewer… running along the piazzetta.
And so, the five work-guys and their enormous teal jack-hammer machine have set to work. Thought you might enjoy knowing the travails. Yet, another chapter to Our Continuing Infrastructure Renewal Projects Story. Fascinating, no?
P.S. I have this fantasy… since the Culture Police blew it do badly with the citizenry of Codiponte over the reconstruction of the Medieval Bridge, turning it into an un-fun roller-coaster, the jeans-and-puffed-jacketed C.P. fellows hopped on immediately to resolve the botched piazzetta with the order to tear up all the cement and get the drainage slope right before laying again the stone pavers, thus, avoiding making a brutta figura, the Italian bureaucrat’s pre-occupation Numero Uno!
Pavement progress...
The march of Progress runs unabated here in Codiponte. We’re on a proverbial roll for civic improvements. No sooner had Epiphany… La Befana to Italians… come & gone, putting a close to the tortuously long Italian Holiday Season, the latest work-crew… there have been five separate squads of work-guys from the start of our infrastructure renewal program begun with the Medieval Bridge last May of 2019… embarked upon the task to pull up the cement as prep for our village’s piazzetta and its brand new stone pavement. Will wonders never cease? Certainly not! Promptly at 8:00AM, five work-guys arrive, jackhammers at the ready, for their daily eight-hour stint, and they consistently do so from Monday until Friday, to render Codiponte’s as charming as possible for generations to come with brand new stone pavers.
Imagine… in the short span of a few Wintery weeks, your journey to Codiponte may begin by crossing the completely reconstructed Medieval Bridge, today revealed to be a roller-coaster of stone arches bouncing over the Torrente Aulella. The Medieval Bridge’s span ends adjacent to the once-upon-a-time Pay-the-toll window. A Gothic cornice is all which remains at the former Guard House, today, a complex of three apartments belonging to three sisters from Sweden. Their parents immigrated North where there was available work after WWII. At this point, via Comunale, sporting its new stone pavement… and with a nifty center-line of mini-pavers… curves underneath loggias and tunnels on its way to Codiponte’s piazzetta, the old hub of the village. The wide expanse of what will be a newly refurbished piazzetta will encompass the space from the low wall of the stream racing water to the Torrente Aulella… a former open sewer… the four sycamore trees, the quiet sentinels of the Monument to the Fallen in WWI and the eternal…. we hope… fontanella still trickling water despite numersous modifications done to the piazzetta’s plumbing & drainage. The marble tub is a convenient location to wash one’s hands after having pried a disgusting bone from the clamped jaws of a rather persistent & single-minded Weimaraner puppy. Plans will also include new benches and lighting. Hey! That’s Progress.
The piazzetta has notoriously served as a parking lot for a few fortunate citizens of Codiponte. A tacit arrangement for the privilege of convenience. I am not a member of the illustrious club though You & I are the owners of the largest property of houses & gardens in Codiponte. Ought to count for something, don’t you think? Nope. It is frowned upon when, on the rare occasion, I park my SUV on the piazzetta. To holler that there was a space available holds no weight. And, it is a hard topic to broach with any of my fellow citizens about NOT returning the piazzetta to its previous life as a micro-comunal parking lot. What with the new stone pavement, the weight of even a FIAT Panda might shatter or, break the newly laid stone pavers. My uncounted Vote is to enjoy the piazzetta as a civic space for all, and not spaces for the few. I can adapt and go elsewhere to park.
So, NO PARKING. But does anyone read here? A sign has been posted at an appropriate spot. Typically, people once in the habit of racing to their parking space on the piazzetta now run screeching into a temporary fence, baring their entry onto the present work-site. They were WARNED! Means they have to manoeuvre their vehicles back to the New Bridge only 100 meters down the same lane they just tore down. Or, as an Option B… which is not often offered in Italy… they can make the turn onto the ramp leading down to the river to park their FIATS next to the grotty trash recycling area. I’d take the exceptional occurrence of an Option C continue to the right and along the dirt track following the torrente There’s ample parking below the Swede’s houses and with cut-throughs to the via Comunale and home! Many have already taken over this track to park since, the Medieval Bridge became a Luna Park.
Paving towards the piazzetta...
As mentioned in a previous blog post, the threat of continuing with new public works projects in Codiponte proceeds apace with a new stone pavement running from the recently renovated Medieval Bridge… the natives are still quite restless about the stone roller-caster still and perhaps more so since the Culture Police AND City Hall, ie il Comune, rejected the citizen’s petition… to the village’s cement crappy piazzetta. It has not been easy. On everyone…
basically, it has rained nearly non-stop and, when not, the concomitant cloud cover keeps everything pretty darn wet & slippery and all this since my hip op of the 22nd of October. Today’s date is the 17th of December! Someone can do the Math. Keeps the work-guys off the job until, on the rare occasion, there’s NO RAIN. About two days for every five days of deluges. Undaunted, progress has been noted. From the newly renovated Medieval Bridge to the dark archway before Codiponte’s piazzetta, the village’s epicentre, now courses a new ardesia stone pavement. Alternating sized stone pavers span between the confines of the once-upon-a-time single thorough-faire in Codiponte. There is even a center stone strip to relieve the boredom of the spiffy pavement. Or, it might just be a necessary visual guide, so folk won’t tend to go askew. Old people mostly. Oh, and one lone American with a crutch.
None of this was I aware of until I gladly returned home to il Poggiolo and the upstairs, one level, Appartamento Azzurro, to recuperate from the rigours of my hip replacement surgery and, most especially, from the bureaucratic Rules & Regulations of two weeks in the hospital and Don Gnocchi rehab center…
I hate socks. Never use them. And, at home, I go barefoot. Nor am I keen on those Nike slippers with a single strap across the foot. Grotesque fashion with white orthopedic socks on. Smacks of those folk in distant Eastern European countries or, wanna-be European countries. Not my style. I just continued in rehab what I am always used to doing and got verbally smacked by a nasty, greasy haired, leaning on the wall, little bureaucratic doctor in the wee-hours, caught going to the bathroom slipper and sockless…
The local construction noise and confusion roared up to y my quarters and is worse than the above indignities or, if I may add? Much worse than being poked & pried for blood at 5:30AM and by other health care atrocities. Jack-hammers, mini-bull-dozers, other heavy equipment & machinery and lots of men… MEN… screaming commands at each other in dialect starting at 7:30AM. How could anyone sleep, think, enjoy a quiet morning moment with a caffe’? Peace & Tranquility reigns for barely an hour at Noon for the whole din to begin again until Quittin’ Time at sunset. I later heard a few residents of Codiponte had fled to their children’s abodes in sister towns & cities to avoid the racket and mess.
Then, the work-guys started playing with the utilities. Logically so. Rip up what’s underneath and for sure, it is time to install new water mains and sewers. NO WATER for 8 hours. And, with new pavement comes new street lighting. Huge mock-19th Century lanterns dangling off cast iron arms. So, of course, the electrical lines above were re-strung & reinforced to handle the extra current. NO ELECTRICITY for 8 hours… twice! With each and everyone of these shut-downs, il Poggiolo rebelled. Water heater in la Casetta when on the Fritz. NO WATER. NO ELECTRICITY. Took 10 days to have a service representative restore it to health. Other parts of our complex suddenly would loose the juice too. Several times where the Dogs & I are staying. Can freak you out to have NO ELECTRiCITY when Nature calls… at 2:12AM. And You in TOTAL DARKNESS the night afterwards down in his Kingdom. We will ride it out.
I would say that in two week’s time, the via Comunale will be completed. Leaves the piazzetta to be refurbished with the same new covering of ardesia stone. Should hopefully bring some much needed Dignity to the WWI Monument to the Fallen tucked underneath the three sycamores along the banks of the villages stream… the village’s once-upon-a-time sewer. Glad I missed that.
Final touches...
Archive post September 19, 2019…
They aren’t done yet. Darn it. You know, rumour had it back at the beginning of July that the bridge renovation project had to be completed by August 10th. Terms of the contract, one informed person had told me. I can attest the re-construction work did proceed apace despite the OFF & ON soaring temps past 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the Summer months. Many of our community thought it would certainly be finished before Codiponte’s oldest sagra of all the sagras, La Sagra dei Pomi, for the first weekend in September. Come & gone. And the metal barriers are still in place and work guys show up at 8:30 to continue their labors. They are a noisy group. I cannot enjoy the terrorism of Codiponte’s church’s campanile ringing in the hours and half-hours from 7AM onwards. Darn it.
So, here we are, middle of the 09, and what is going on? Work-guys about to lay down more ripply stone pavement on top of the yet-to-be sunk gas & water pipes. And at an important AND historical juncture. Crossroads, so to speak, of the via Comunale lacing its way from the Medieval bridge to Codiponte’s piazzetta and the ramp leading past our il Poggiolo up to the sentiero to reach the Borgo Castello above.
By the way, the stone arch on the right in the left hand photo is the cornice to the now defunct sportello to pay the toll to cross the Medieval bridge. I’ve mentioned this before but, it warrants it again… Codiponte is dialect for al capo del ponte… or, at the head of the bridge… a traveller’s advisory of a toll to pay to cross the Medieval bridge.
I don’t fool with this ongoing construction site. And few do too. Occasionally, I look out the window of our salotto and see n’er a car parked at the start of the Medieval Bridge. There’s a kind of scenic overlook at that end. As predicted, and though the bridge is passable… barely… the folk choose to park on the dirt road which passes below the bridge. Ahhh, Concevience with a capital C.
I find it funny to watch the rare pedestrian risking neck & limb while crossing the bridge. A head runs just above the stone wall, and then, sinks slowly into disappearing as the person descends one of the arches, only to rise and fall again from view with the second arch of the bridge. A fun-house vision. Slightly nauseating too.
Meanwhile, no action to be seen over at the village’s piazzetta. There was a meeting of the minds between the officials of the Comune… or, City Hall… and the Culture Police on the day I departed Codiponte for Genoa and USA. Perhaps the people’s petition against the Medieval Bridge’s over-ambitious reconstruction has caused a re-think? I seriously doubt it. But, if I have learned anything about living in Italy, Hope & Patience are Virtues to hold dear and until further notice. Stay tuned.
The short arm of the Culture Police...
Archive post August 1, 2019…
I have said this many times and I must say it again…
The Most Important Person in an Italian village is the mechanic!
In my mind, no other competes. Not the priest, not the barman, not even the butcher or, the green-grocer. Our Mechanic in Codiponte is a Savior. Besides the occasional and unexpected mechanical glitches or, the periodically annoying inspections for You’s AUDI and my Galloper SUV…. both old, old, old vehicles… Our Mechanic has repeatedly and unfailingly… come… to… the… rescue!
My most recent automotive adventure was I had locked the keys to my galloping Blue SUV in the ignition, with the motor running, and all the windows shut tight. Thanks to the Good Lord, I had not left The Dogs inside! The day was saved by Our Mechanic. He cleverly pried open the driver’s door frame and propped it open with a metal bar from his shop, leaving enough space to slide a metal clothes hanger bent and with a loop at the end and, ever so carefully lifted the door lock from its down and locked position. Then, asked for nothing in return. Probably, to be left in Peace. It was nap time when I sought his h-e-l-p. I had noticed he was snapping his pants closed as he came out the front door. I gave him bottles of wine. Told me the day after he had enjoyed the offering. Good for you, oh God.
Another important call to Our Mechanic for his h-e-l-p came from You to lug two cement statues bought at auction on the Internet to il Poggiolo and place them in appropriate spots in our garden. Dr. Bacchus and Mr. Hercules. Took You, Our Mechanic and a hired man from the village all afternoon to do it.
There are other stories of rescue but…
other persons carry n’er a modicum of respect or, consideration of Our Mechanic’s standing in the community-at-large. They likely live in cities. These persons-in-question are the lovely folk over at the Culture Police or, in Italian bureaucratic jargon, gli uomini del Sopraintendenza dei Beni Culturali. CP, for short. And they are. Read on…
They’ve been active around Codiponte since, the work on the Medieval bridge began. Sadly, Our Mechanic did not do his Math or, at least, look up from dallying under the hood of a FIAT. Concomitantly to the work on the Medieval Bridge and the presence of CP’s, he engaged the local Builder Boy-Toy… BBT… to resurrect a rock shack on the site of his shop. Why is anyone’s guess. Our Mechanic likes to spend money? BBT ably dismantled the remnants of the shack’s stone, built a new full height dwelling out of earthquake resistant bricks, and then, carefully faced the entire structure with the remnants and trucked-in stone. We have our suspicions about the trucked-in stone. Laws may have been broken.
But, all has seemed up-to-date in Kansas City. And has been for a while. Our Mechanic spiffed-up his shop with new windows & doors and a striking Blue & Gold & White exterior paint-job, added a park with a lush XXL carpet of green grass… I HATE him for this since, my grass is beyond brown, scorched from months of our recent excessive Euro-Heat and rare access to w-a-t-e-r… and planted a few tall cypresses and a lone tree, placed terracotta urns with dangling flowers and, dug a well to water said park. Had to have cost him a minimum of Euro 10,000 for the efforts of the machinery alone. I may not have mentioned this… Our Mechanic is also the richest man in Codiponte. Well, he may be out more Euro-bucks when the Culture Police gets through with him.
They shut his infrastructure project down.
Local Mechanic’s expansion project in a probable permanent stasis, thanks to the Culture Police.
Ooops.
The local and fairly reliable gossip from those-in-the-know in Codiponte said the CP’s informed Our Mechanic that he was supposed to first ask their august permission to touch such a hallowed stone structure. Naturally, providing drawn details of the envisioned project. He did have the proper Building Permits from City Hall. But, in Italy, it is very rare that the left hand knows what the right is doing. Further, the CP’s might have granted their approval to restore the building NOT with new anti-seismic structure but… BUT… BIG BUT…build the new shack straight up from the remaining stones and utilising other just-as-old stones for continuity concerns. Had to look pretty old. How lovely. Other Laws to break for the just-as-old stones.
Did these paper-shufflers not get the word on Our Earthquake back in 2014? These CP’s have their heads so far up their bureaucratic wazoos… well, as we know, they are renowned for tendencies of short-sightedness, prioritizing Rules & Regulations over plain & practical Good Sense and, bullying the small fry. Here’s a guy… and yes, he is Exalted-on-High in Our Estimation and in many others… wanting to make improvements to his property. He offered employment to the BBT and to his associate BT’s. Created a mini-economy-boon for the suppliers of the building materials to do his project. And thus, and also at the end of the accounting day, the project would have put a lot of 22% IVA into the coffers of the Italian Tax Authority. CP’s can’t do their math either. Kind of burns me up a bit. More so than the Heat. Oh, and the community would have a pristine stone shack to admire on their travels to & fro Codiponte. None noticing the anti-seismic bricks hidden by a well-done stone facade. Imagine I am now doing that gesture with my arms.
All work is stopped. Bureaucratic paper has been written. Our Mechanic will have to pay a fine. Best Case will be to negotiate a compromise with the CP. Good Luck. The Worse Case is Our Mechanic will have to demolish what has been built AND restore the remnant of stones as they were uselessly before. Our Mechanic will be out more Euros’ than he had ever thought to pull out of his portofolio. Tomorrow is a new day.
A Lesson for all concerned of our little construction scenario is… and I am sure it will need to be repeated…
Any encounter with Italian authority is a ALWAYS catastrophic.
The trick is not to have any encounters. Something Our Mechanic ought to take as a sound Lesson… the next time he gets an idea for improvements.
Unforeseen changes in Codiponte...
Archive post July 21, 2019…
The work guys are working away on re-building Codiponte’s Medieval bridge. All day and in its heat and under a searing sun, sporting no hats, using hot gas-powered equipment, the dust, dirt and grime. Heavy labors, indeed.
The current task for the work guys is in rebuilding the stone pavement of the bridge. The two roller-coaster arches paved and mortared with river stones. So uneven and wobbly is the new footway, Life in Codiponte will never be the same again. Few will be able to walk across. The elderly & infirm. Many more will not want to. Families with baby-strollers, anyone with groceries, and one American with a bad back, a bum left hip, and two Weimaraners on leashes. There may be others refusing the challenge of a bridge crossing.
I wonder if the Young Woman in City Hall, who pitched the bridge project to the EU and to ask for funds to do it, and those folk over at the Italian Culture Police had extrapolated the Math to foresee what the changes might be living with a renovated Medieval Bridge. I don’t think so. No, not at all. I’m not a fan of bureaucracies, in general, and the Italian ones, in particular. A thankless, stupid lot of rule imposing ignoramuses.
The Codipontesi no longer park their cars at the head of the bridge or, below it either. They can’t. Those two areas have mountains of gritty sand, stones, a beached bulldozer, stacks of scaffolding, a pre-fab office and a port-a-potty. Some park on the ramp A) leading to the river and where the trash containers are kept, in all their filth & icky glory. Let’s hope it doesn’t flood any time soon. A more popular location is along B) the dirt track which twists and climbs up to the Borgo Castello, the Option C) for a parking lot. No light at night though. The D) is the lucky option, if there is space available, on Codiponte’s piazzetta cum war memorial. Three squat poplars provide shade. And there’s even a spicket for water at the WWI War Memorial. Appears the seven car spaces are inherited and those so anointed frown upon anyone usurping one. I believe this new parking arrangement will be FOREVER! In the meantime, we can see what happens on the re-built bridge when it rains. Have seen no attempts at proper drainage. Brava your woman, bravo the Culture Police.
Codiponte updates...
Archive post June 25, 2019…
Lordy, it’s hot! Boiling. Un forno. I sweat profusely just sitting on the Loggia at il Poggiolo sipping an iced-coffee and minding my own business. Many showers and costume changes of T-shirts. The Italian Civil Protection Folk predicted EXTREME HEAT last week for the middle of this week and boy, it has hit! All of Mid- to Southern Europe is affected. When I came home from lunch at 2:00PM this afternoon, it was 105F degrees in my courtyard. That’s 40.5C. Imported African heat.
The Dogs were bizerk crazed to go out. I said no. Neither has thought to alter the Fall/Winter W-a-l-k Schedule to adapt to the Summer Heat. Creatures of habit. What happens is… I take them out so they will have the sensation of the hot wind brushing across their Weimaraner hides, i.e. Total Liberation!!!… and the smoke from their paw-brakes is clearly visible, when they realize the HEAT on the Medieval Bridge is way beyond a tad too much. They rigorously keep to a shady spot. Hugging the walls of the old bridge. Waiting rescue. I give them the Good Word… Casa!!!… and they gallup back to the relative COOL of la Casa Grande’s salotto. Deed done. Not that they demonstrate much patience to wait-it-out until the COOL of 7PM or, later. Dogs.
Photos left to right: Nina looking back to insure I will, yes, cross over the last part of the Medieval Bridge. Safety in numbers, I believe. Where she is standing has been filled to render the dip more gentile; a fond view back towards il Poggiolo on the other side of this public works project; Me and The Croesus-person admiring the view from the bridges now altered ramparts in the early evening sun. Please note whose tongue is flapping in the heat. Dog.
Work on the Medieval Bridge has resumed. Apparently, the Culture Police deliberated and found consensus on a Plan. Three workmen started Monday at 7AM and were gone by 2PM. If they had remained longer their brains would’ve fried. Why they don’t wear caps is only your guess. Ditto for today’s schedule and imagine the same for tomorrow and on until this Heat Wave subsides or, moves elsewhere. To Russia. Or, by a miracle, the guys finish the work ASAP. Learned from a neighbor that the work on the bridge and any associate structure must be finished by August 10th or, thereabouts. The C.P. risk an Arrivederci for the funding of this exercise in public restoration. Certainly, all needs to be spiffy for the Sagra dei Pome in September. Surveying the work done, the decision of a Plan involves lessening the roller-coaster effect of the dips from the two arches of the bridge. It will still be very hard for anyone relegated to walking with a cane to managed the up, up, up, and the down, down down, twice in a row, and survive the trip, in my mind.
On another front…
no abatement to the Watering Battle with la Signora Accanta. I am watering sections of the garden at il Poggiolo all the night through. The plants & grass are bearing up as can be expected with this elongated but less effective nocturnal program and also, despite the adversity of our EXTREME HEAT.
More on these and other topics later.
Manna . from the EU...
Archive post May 12, 2019…
Mentioned a few times before…
Codiponte is the local dialect for… At the head of the bridge… notifying travelers, pilgrims & merchants in the post-Fall-of-the-Roman-Empire of a toll to pay at the village’s singular & important bridge. It was the only one around allowing folk to continue to the Garfagnana, Lucca and on to Rome.
There have been several Codiponte bridges over the last millenium and a half. The last was built in 1978 and is referred to as The New Bridge. Or, at least, that is how You & I call it. Others say, The Casciana Bridge. Casciana is the town with a scenic overlook of Codiponte way down below. The New Bridge is a typical ode to 70’s heavy concrete and enormous I-beams spanning the Aulella River. Saves people from driving or walking over the next-to-last bridge erected sometime in the 17th Century to reach the villages above Codiponte, i.e. Casciana. It is the very one You & I and Our Neighbors use to get to the proverbial other side or, the parking lot. There is the vestige of a yet another bridge, the Before-the-next-to-last one, today acting as a terrace to a neighbor’s stone batiment of a house. They rarely use the it.
Today’s Next-to-last-bridge has two lovely stone arches, a Madonnina in the middle to commemorate one span swept away in the devastating floods of 1967. The 1966 flood which swirled Florence to Nightly News destruction hit Codiponte too, but town & bridge resisted. Not so the year after. The bridge is a sure-shot to car or house. Old ladies with canes, three-wheeled Ape’s, FIAT Panda’s and tractor’s often cross over it to fast-track into or out of the village. From afar, it is a pleasing monument in weathered stone and lichens. Walking across it is a reminder of how ugly asphalt can be. Well, no more…
A Young Citizen of Codiponte, a recent graduated from Parma University in the management & safe-guarding of historic monuments & stuff, found gainful employment to do just that at our City Hall, in Casola in Lunigiana, Our Mother Capital. One fine day, tending to her duties, a letter passed across her counter from the ministry of the European Community concerned about the continent’s vast array of historical & cultural monuments, small or large. The gist of its communication was, the ministry was disposed to launching a whole bunch of Euro funds in anyone’s way, if they/it could demonstrate a worthy cause, small or large. Our Young Citizen got fast to work. One of her proposals was our Next-to-last bridge in Codiponte. And, it was accepted.
You & I knew nothing of this until one day last summer, a Committee of Suits was seen gathered at the Next-to-last bridge, along with Our Young Citizen and others not in suits but, jeans & giubbotto’s from hailing from City Hall.
Then, last week, we could not leave our cars at the parking lot before the bridge. Its space consumed by large equipment, a portable latrine, scaffolding, an aluminum sided-shack, other. Some things were later moved. Quickly following though was a sun-glasses clad hunk manipulating a ditch-digger. Here is what they dug up…
A Medieval stone roller-coaster.
Our First Reaction was… Oh! Che bello!!! Second Reaction was… How in the Hell is Terasina going to cross the bridge even with her cane? Third was… How in the f**k are we going to cross with our groceries? The Dogs love it. New earthy smells. The best avenue was to move onto hypothesis of the bridge’s history according to Our Esteemed Local and historian…
Originally, the bridge was shorter and with only one arch, the one nearer the houses along the banks and below il Poggiolo. The Aulella River was not as wide as it is today. Problem with rivers and flooding is the flood waters often alternatingly ricochet off its banks. Someone got fed up with how the river was managing flood waters at Codiponte and changed the river’s flow. And, a second arch was added. It got washed away in 1967. A Madonnina was built in the arch’s reconstruction to commemorate the event but, you had to step up to leave flowers or a lighted candle.
Forgot a Reaction… They can’t leave this roller-coaster pavement, can they? We will know soon. Met another Esteemed Local, who told me a meeting of Suits and City Hall senza is scheduled for tomorrow to find out what next. Another bridge?