Day 15 Lock-down Codiponte...
The weather today? Sunny, bright, and very windy. Thus, quite cold.
But let’s go back to yesterday, Day 14 of the Coronavirus Lock-down Codiponte…
Lovely. Like the previous week, the day was irresistibly sunny, warm and heading towards hot by Noon, the village of Codiponte resting in silence but for the chirping of birds and the rushing noise of the Aulella River. No truck traffic. An irresistible invitation to gather up the Croesus-puppy… perennially eager to escape the from house or garden at any opportunity… pack-up my camera into its metallic green back-pack and head to the chestnut groves above Acqua Paradiso. There was a particular spot I wanted to investigate…
a dirt road off the Cascian Road at Codiponte’s New Bridge… built in the 1970’s when car traffic exceeded the one-way capacity of what is today the recently renovated roller-coast of the village’s famous Medieval Bridge. Codiponte is dialect for at the head of the bridge… is the communal tract leading past abandoned fields, vineyards and olive groves arriving at the natural spring called Acqua Paradiso. There, is a network of paths lacing together Codiponte to other villages and isolated houses in these parts. The tract is a pretty straight affair until, at a fork, it begins to gently twist & turn until it reaches the spring. More forks in the road. Two ways to go: one is to go straight past the spring and an accompanying Madonnina, which resembles a WWII bunker sawed off at the front and accessorized with the Italian’s love of pots full of colorful plastic flowers, slowly rising up and along the long spine of hills towards the North and dominating the Aulella River below or, the other is to hang a hard left and go up, up… up. Either path cuts pass acres and acres of forgotten chestnut groves. An agricultural cemetery.
The Puppy took the hard left at the stone shack happily anticipating the very trail I intended to take. The left hand one up, up… up. It’s a steep climb. On one side are magnificently brightly green moss covered low walls, once-upon-a-time gutters for the equally once-upon-a-time torrential rain-falls here in the Lunigiana, and on the other side, the ghosts of dead chestnut trees disguised by thousands of saplings and roving vines ambitiously disregarding the former live tenants on the terraced slopes. Near the peak of the ascent is an orderly tract to the right. Puppy was waiting for me, a stick in his mouth. He shot up the trail and vanished and I slowly followed holding for balance the camera mounted on its tripod ready to shoot.
Someone has been clearing the slopes to the left of undergrowth and felling trees for what I am sure will be firewood. All to the right, however, is untouched, a plateau of gnarled, crusty chestnut trees, one even imprisoned within the vestiges of a stone shack.
While Puppy scavenged for a better stick and when finding one he lays down to chew away his Wiemaraner neurosis, as I walked the groves. I see a view, plant the tripod, and shoot. I lose myself. The pressure-cooker existence of the Coronavirus forgotten in the mouth gaping beauty of these old trees, useless but for their aesthetics, and probably only to me. I love the spaces between the imaginary King, Bishops and pawns spread out on the plateau or arranged years ago on wide terraces roughed by now from too much neglect and rain. My iPhone squeales and I am quickly brought back to the dictator of our present predicament…
A friend in Holland wrote of the crisis as surreal. A good word for just about anywhere in the world these days of an unbelievable, fantastic, an intense irrationally reality. For instance…
I am quiet. Content, even. Unusual for me. Am a nervous sort. Much like my pup. I work in the garden at il Poggiolo pleased with progress on its yearly Spring-time submission to be rid of the vestiges of Winter. I take the Dog on walks. Croesus has a large collection of sticks, none of which are of any interest to him. I photograph was appeals. Savoring more the exercise of manipulating the camera than the actual result. I lie. I am very interested in the result but, have not mastered the art of the camera, as yet. The 50’s style refrigerator in la Casetta is full of my favourite feel-good foods… gorgonzola, big thick chicken hot-dogs, every salad washed & stuffed into a plastic pouch and tons of white wine! Out on the shelf-unit are potato-chips, pasta and more white wine! And, Thank the Good Lord, I am easily connected with friends & family… the world over… through my offensively expensive iPhone 11 Pro… this is not to show-off but, to share my shame… and an Apple Macbook which cost about the same, damn-it. Whatsapp and telephone exchanges consist of good-naturedly Lock-down Top This… Oh, everything’s closed here… Hospitals are over-loaded and there are no masks, gloves and supplies… I can go to the grocery store and the bank and pet store for cans of Pedigree for the pooch… Dottore You got stopped by the police asking why he was away from home. He was sent back fearing a fine in the mail of Euro 350…. I go out with the Dog and see n’er a soul… and finally, many friends but, especially a girl-friend in Genoa, sends me the most ridiculously funny videos and sayings to keep me laughing… https://youtu.be/-AZ_PRNilv0 and https://youtu.be/FgSlKbVh1SQ…
on the other side of the coin, the simplicity of confinement is continually crushed by the only company to be had beyond the Dog of the late-breaking Internet news and daily emails from the United States Department of State stating that is their want… You didn’t leave when we told you to do so 21 days ago, so now, live with it. Could there be a new syndrome in the offing? Coronavirus Confinement Conflicts? Maybe…
Came home and fixed a yummy grilled cheese sandwich, a side of potato-chips and a Coke-cola and took it up to the Loggia of the Casa Grande for an open-air lunch while addictively checking the latest news. KA-KA-KA-BOOM!!! RAI News 24’s headliner was…
Stricter measures ordered by government to combat Coronavirus.
Turn-of-the-screw or, the fire is raise for the pressure cooker? I don’t know but I could do with a Mauritius vacation on the double. However, and in light of those stricter measures, I will have to find liberation or solace with white wine, potato-ships and Netflixs. Are you game?