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.
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.
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?
Little black hoses...
Archive post March 24, 2010…
Gosh…. will Wonders never cease? And, so soon after My Initial Shock with a paint color earlier in the afternoon. I had no idea that the dangling black rubber tube draped across the facade of my years old Tuscan farm-house is my only access to running water in La Casetta. However, I do have a hunch some clever person will come along & invent another method and/or placement for said tube. Burying it might be an idea, no? So novel too. Gads.
That dangling black tube is our water supply from the source to la Casetta below.
Un-do to re-do...
Archive post March 21, 2010…
The Procedure is... the old chestnut beams are removed for restoration. Then, the first 1/2 yard of stonework is re-built with the old stones and cement mortar. The refurbished beams are then returned to their rightful positions before the cordolo of cement & iron rods in constructed. The cordolo is sort of capping which keeps all together. Once-upon-a-time, only the tree trunks held the stone walls & roof together as one unit. Now, The Law dictates a cordolo and Good Sense requires the under-flooring of a solaio to keep all together, through thick & thin and, hopefully, through shake-rattle-and-roll! (It did in the earthquake of June 23, 2013)
The beams are more than heavy. It needs four work-guys to carry one off. The fourth fellow is out of view in the photo. He was adjusting his ipod for the upcoming effort. Gads.
