Paving towards the piazzetta...
As mentioned in a previous blog post, the threat of continuing with new public works projects in Codiponte proceeds apace with a new stone pavement running from the recently renovated Medieval Bridge… the natives are still quite restless about the stone roller-caster still and perhaps more so since the Culture Police AND City Hall, ie il Comune, rejected the citizen’s petition… to the village’s cement crappy piazzetta. It has not been easy. On everyone…
basically, it has rained nearly non-stop and, when not, the concomitant cloud cover keeps everything pretty darn wet & slippery and all this since my hip op of the 22nd of October. Today’s date is the 17th of December! Someone can do the Math. Keeps the work-guys off the job until, on the rare occasion, there’s NO RAIN. About two days for every five days of deluges. Undaunted, progress has been noted. From the newly renovated Medieval Bridge to the dark archway before Codiponte’s piazzetta, the village’s epicentre, now courses a new ardesia stone pavement. Alternating sized stone pavers span between the confines of the once-upon-a-time single thorough-faire in Codiponte. There is even a center stone strip to relieve the boredom of the spiffy pavement. Or, it might just be a necessary visual guide, so folk won’t tend to go askew. Old people mostly. Oh, and one lone American with a crutch.
None of this was I aware of until I gladly returned home to il Poggiolo and the upstairs, one level, Appartamento Azzurro, to recuperate from the rigours of my hip replacement surgery and, most especially, from the bureaucratic Rules & Regulations of two weeks in the hospital and Don Gnocchi rehab center…
I hate socks. Never use them. And, at home, I go barefoot. Nor am I keen on those Nike slippers with a single strap across the foot. Grotesque fashion with white orthopedic socks on. Smacks of those folk in distant Eastern European countries or, wanna-be European countries. Not my style. I just continued in rehab what I am always used to doing and got verbally smacked by a nasty, greasy haired, leaning on the wall, little bureaucratic doctor in the wee-hours, caught going to the bathroom slipper and sockless…
The local construction noise and confusion roared up to y my quarters and is worse than the above indignities or, if I may add? Much worse than being poked & pried for blood at 5:30AM and by other health care atrocities. Jack-hammers, mini-bull-dozers, other heavy equipment & machinery and lots of men… MEN… screaming commands at each other in dialect starting at 7:30AM. How could anyone sleep, think, enjoy a quiet morning moment with a caffe’? Peace & Tranquility reigns for barely an hour at Noon for the whole din to begin again until Quittin’ Time at sunset. I later heard a few residents of Codiponte had fled to their children’s abodes in sister towns & cities to avoid the racket and mess.
Then, the work-guys started playing with the utilities. Logically so. Rip up what’s underneath and for sure, it is time to install new water mains and sewers. NO WATER for 8 hours. And, with new pavement comes new street lighting. Huge mock-19th Century lanterns dangling off cast iron arms. So, of course, the electrical lines above were re-strung & reinforced to handle the extra current. NO ELECTRICITY for 8 hours… twice! With each and everyone of these shut-downs, il Poggiolo rebelled. Water heater in la Casetta when on the Fritz. NO WATER. NO ELECTRICITY. Took 10 days to have a service representative restore it to health. Other parts of our complex suddenly would loose the juice too. Several times where the Dogs & I are staying. Can freak you out to have NO ELECTRiCITY when Nature calls… at 2:12AM. And You in TOTAL DARKNESS the night afterwards down in his Kingdom. We will ride it out.
I would say that in two week’s time, the via Comunale will be completed. Leaves the piazzetta to be refurbished with the same new covering of ardesia stone. Should hopefully bring some much needed Dignity to the WWI Monument to the Fallen tucked underneath the three sycamores along the banks of the villages stream… the village’s once-upon-a-time sewer. Glad I missed that.
Still unfinished...
Archive post November 14, 2019…
I had thought that when I came back home to Codiponte from two weeks in the hospital and rehab after my left hip op, the work on the Medieval bridge would be way, way finished. Nope.
What continues to disturb…
the large blue and black corrugated plastic tubes sprouting like an art project or, a visual social commentary at the junction of two low walls which will be part of the scenic overlook adjacent to the Medieval bridge’s parking area. A new light pole has been erected to carry the electrical cables strung across the Aulella River to the central part of the Codiponte. The old pylon will be eventually be dismantled and carried off. We hope. Right now it looks like a forlorn relic. And, nothing has been accomplished to resolve the dangerous part of the bridge’s pavement. There have been accidents, sudden falls, scrapes, etc. Apparently, the Madonnina can do nothing to help. He hands are tied holding the Baby Jesus? In thanks for the new coat of stucco inside & out of Her niche and the new set of steps up to lay flowers or, place one of those Brico Centre red votive candles. One is a fake and instead, has a battery to keep the light going 24/7, its flicker an unconscious warning, perhaps?
Takes me a good 10+ minutes to cross the bridge on crutches. Morning & afternoon exercises. Would be bad enough on two legs, but with four, well, it’s a very slow & perilous go. The upside of this journey is I meet other villagers attempting the crossing too. A slow go for them. We meet and suddenly, we have a quorum to complain and belly-ache about the idiocy of carrying the bridge to this deplorable state, i.e. the appallingly iffy pavement and the roller-coaster arches doubling one’s efforts to be safe. After venting, someone shares news of the more recent disgrazie of some unfortunate citizen’s encounter with the Medieval bridge.
I have since run into other gossip circulating Codiponte that the Culture Police… La Sopra-intendenza dei Beni Culturali… insisted upon rigorously respecting the Medieval aspects in the bridge’s reconstruction barring any concession to modern conveniences… ape-scooters, baby carriages, grocery strollers… or, needs of the local populace. The median age here is over 50 years of age. And I know most folk over the age of 70 use canes. More instability than two crutches. Yet, there’s a nice number of kids under the age of 7 years, which should have been factored in. Nope.
My late-breaking impression is the majority of Codipontesi are very unhappy. We shall see how all this pans out. I just hope I don’t crash & burn in a tangle of me and my crutches.
