The last days of August...

I want Lockdown back. I think. Surely for the part of no vehicles… cars, trucks, vans, pick-ups, apes, motorcycles or, bicycles… and, for those airborne… no helicopters or, passenger planes. Only Peace & Quiet. OK… a few tweeting birds, clouds floating by. The later sometimes rumble…

I spent a full hour yesterday stopped in a massive traffic jam, and with a semi-crazed Weimaraner jumping from the passenger seat to the larger back bench behind. Said adored creature wanted to get a better angle by shoving his snout out the double picture sliding glass windows opened primarily for air. Not for entertainment or, sport. There was something aromatic outside. A sensitive nose. Trash along the road? Wafting of an imminent pranzo? Certainly not the saturated smell of fresh asphalt being laid on the highway ahead. I heard the teams of men and machinery to arrive at that conclusion. Too many cars, trucks, vans, pick-ups, apes, motorcycles, and bicycles between me and them for a view. The same story looking behind. Endless line of vehicles. As the clock on the SUV’s dashboard ticked the last minutes of that full hour, a gentleman in a bright white and new Peugeot SUV passing us in the opposite direction and seeing me and the Dog hanging out windows with nothing possible to do but hang, slowed and WARNED… Turn around. It’ll be another hour before you get to Aulla. A mere kilometre away. I did. And, it took a comparable hour driving over a series of twisting & winding back roads of the Lunigiana to breach the town’s limits. Better to move than to be stuck, I always say. I can run the AC, if the car is moving.

You know there is an active and oblivious authority operating when, at the worst possible moment… Like hey! At the height of the August Vacations you have to do this? With everyone racing around in their vehicles?… they march in men & heavy equipment to make some stretch of infrastructure safe or, efficient per il popolo italiano. Typically it is the autostrade. Now, they are going for the secondary arteries. As we are told, God rests in His Heaven above but, above the Italian government rests the European Union. An EU flush with funds coupled to a rabid bureaucracy eager to launch new edicts to make A Better European Community. A wonky bugle blow would be appropriate here. The EU feels its mission is Good Works. They throw money at them, ie the reconstituted Medieval Ponte of Codi-bridge. The latest, lo’ & behold, is the wizardry of our times entrusting upon us of a new form of asphalt, one which absorbs rain water. Fancy that? Somehow it does the trick and eliminates the risk of hydro-planning or, sliding into a slowed-down FIAT Panda during a cloud-burst while an elderly couple inside can genuflect passing the cemetery at Rometa. What a novelty! Not the cemetery. The asphalt. A blessing? Maybe. I’ll let you know towards November. We are loved and protected. By the EU. Someone has to do it. A Big Brother? Maybe, and when all the highways & byways of Italy are beautifully re-made & safe according to the terms of the EU bureau-edict. Black, smooth asphalt and bright white road markings. The beauty lays in the contrast, you know? The EU edict-ed that too. And, it shall remain ever so. Bureaucracies don’t change.

The Dog & I made it to Aulla. It was Our Wednesday Morning Mission. I must say it was a productive visit despite the hindrances and time constraints. Managed to picked up the prepared marble pieces for il Poggiolo’s home improvements before the place closed for pausa pranzo. And, more importantly, I got in some necessary shopping. It’s great to be a guy! New underwear! Certi modelli in 100% cotone e altri in 100% micro-fibre… the fabrics caress. Could be dangerous. Or, noticeable. And the colours? Black with bright green, grey with orange, white with Navy blue, and solid bright blue, petroleum, and asphalt. No kidding. I’d post a photo but I am too shy. Oh! And, new tight round collar T-shirts to go with the new slip-boxers. Checked out the nice lady at the local designer shoe store and waltzed happily out with new pair of Premiata trainers ON SALE in black, yellow & grey. Very cool. Very comfortable. Very well built. All the better for one with two hip ops walking the Dog. New drafting ink pens and a box full of black BIC pens purchased at the cartoleria, and then, off the Dog & I travelled home and as we had come. The Long Way.

But what an August it’s been. KA-KA-BOOM!!! Ferragosto. Work suspended ‘cause operai fled on a week’s vacation. Heat & humidity clamped onto to the Codiponte forecast like there was no tomorrow and there may not be with the Coronavirus spikes here, weirdly dressed families resembling cartoon characters in tell-tale bright colours escorting obese children clutching their mamma or, large groups of teenagers trooping up & down behind il Poggiolo to do what? Take a walk? In this heat? Check out il Borgo Castello? At 3PM in the afternoon? Anything to get away from i genitori? Admire themselves in the rear-view mirrors of cars parked in the Borgo’s Parking Lot exhibiting the current and most hideous feminine fayeshion to date of micro-boxing shorts and A-shirts? I sent the Dog to bark at them at our back gate. He did so willingly. I love his enthusiasm. A threateningly basso profondo. Good Dog. Squeals were heard as a consequence. He was awarded with A Mighty Reward. of a wurstel. Cars practically double parked below the Codi-bridge and Borgo Parking Lot. The list goes on and on, but I will refrain.

And yet, after nightfall, the world of Codi-bridge in August becomes softer, easy, cooler. Voices of folk outside on their terraces for dinner and after. Often well after Midnight. The muffled talks floats above the town’s rooftops. Many beautifully seen from the perch of our Loggia at il Poggiolo. From the heights of L’Appartamento Azzurro’s terrace, I can spy a few dinner tables set with the easy-to-wipe plastic checkerboard & flowers table cloths, plastic bottles of Coca-Cola & Fanta and water from Acqua Paradiso, plus many dishes & plates with traces of the evening meal. The calls of kids playing in the cool night air out on the Piazzetta. Often well after Midnight. Italian children. Guess they can. Schools re-open on the 14th of September, if all goes according to plan. We’ll see. Collections of people strolling below our house, meeting and stopping to chat with others out doing the same and before they risk Life & Limb on the Medieval Ponte. A nice rhythm pervades. Pleasant atmosphere. I let the sounds circulate and dissipate while chugging along with my book. 34 pages to go.

The August mornings I like the best. Both Dog & I up and out of the bed as the campanile strikes 7AM. What a racket. it reminds the Dog that he will eat shortly. But first… he goes to pee somewhere inauspicious in il Poggiolo’s garden. Me to open windows, make me a caffe’, maybe wash a few dirty dishes before His Excellency saunters in to be fed his breakfast. The Dog always looks astonished his bowl is not already full and on the rug next to his water dish. I take my caffe and a laptop to read the newspapers on-line out on the terrace… overlooking beautifully the Codiponte’s roofs… in a lawn chair You bought for Euro 10. Most comfortable chair for my Scottish fanny around. I savour the No Noise. Well, the birds can’t help themselves. Just Peace & Quiet. And a caffe. The Dog is on the bed.

7:15 Am at il Poggiolo in Codiponte, Tuscany Italy