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.
