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.
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.