The move to Tuscany : Another autumnal fortnight

Last Monday evening we went to our local village club for a talk about wolves - and more specifically about wolves in the local area. As with so many things here, the start time of the talk was an "Italian" 9pm - as in, we arrived at 9pm on the nose, but the talk didn't start until 9:35pm. With an unknown (possibly large) number of attendees expected, the event had been set up in the semi-outdoor area at the circolo - a large covered terrace but with open sides which, over the winter, are closed with large sheets of thick plastic. The plastic certainly keeps some of the cold out, and acts against the wind, but it certainly doesn't make the area warm. There was a gas-fired patio heater doing its best to kick out heat, so we positioned ourselves as close as possible to that, but were very glad of having piled on our warm layers before coming out and we felt frozen to the core by the time we left at 11:30pm!

Anyway, the first half of the talk, given by a lady who studies the local wolf population, was the same as we saw at a very similar talk last year in San Quirico - although we were pleased to find that we understood a lot more of what she said this time. The second part of the evening was a talk given by a man who has been studying ways of defending livestock against wolves (looking at different types of fencing, and various other deterrents). In contrast to his colleague, this guy spoke at a million miles an hour and mumbled a lot, so we didn't grasp quite as much of what he said. There were some interesting facts and figures though. Dogs (of a certain type) are one of the best defences, which is interesting because one of the problems caused by wolves is that they prey on domestic dogs (those that are left to wander around alone outside at night, that is). There has also been some interesting research into different types of fencing, playing noises that the wolves don't like (he described the noises as being to wolves the same as someone scraping their nails down a blackboard is to humans), and using various different scents that are off-putting to them.

The talk was aptly timed as that very afternoon Reggie had come out of the woods proudly carrying a deer spine with two legs attached (which subsequently dropped off). He brought the spine all the way back to the house with him, whereupon he sat himself down and started to eat it. It's very likely that the deer remains were the leftovers of a recent wolf meal.

Monday's wolf talk at the circolo.

We had intended to do some more work on our fencing project at the weekend, but despite it being perfect weather for it, our plans were foiled by the local hunters. In our area wild boar are hunted in squads with dogs - and the hunters and their dogs can cover quite an area in the course of a hunt. It was just as we were about to start our afternoon's work when we heard the tell-tale noise of dogs barking and bells (which the dogs wear around their necks). They weren't immediately close, but close enough for us to be wary about letting Reggie out (and close enough for Reggie to get himself worked up), and since we didn't want to go up on the terraces leaving Reggie on his own in the garden (giving him even more to be worked up about), we reluctantly decided to change our plans.

Instead of fencing, we took the opportunity to do some more work on building up the garden wall, getting us a step closer to (at some point finally)being able to finish the pergola floor.

Reggie did his best to help.

Later in the afternoon, we went to visit our "new neighbours", Gianni and Serena, who we had met (in fact we were introduced to them by our friend Emanuele) at the wolf talk at the circolo on Monday. While they could be classed as neighbours when going as the crow flies (they are just across the hillside from us, and we even realised that we can hear their dogs barking from our house), actually getting to their house involves a long trek all the way into Pescia and then back out again, heading up our valley but on the opposite side of the river.

When Gianni sent directions to get to their house, he said "you pass a house with lots of ducks outside". I imagined maybe 4 or 5 ducks - and possibly even plastic ones rather than real ones - but in fact we came to a point on the road where we simply couldn't pass because there were so many ducks in the road! Stuart started crawling along in the car, but it was impossible to see whether they had actually moved out the way or were just squatting low down beneath bonnet level, so in the end I got out of the car and walked (squelched) ahead of it to make sure they were all shooed out of the way. Gianni and Serena said that the man who lives in that house is a bit of a recluse - clearly he loves ducks!

So many ducks!

We very much enjoyed meeting Gianni and Serena properly, and seeing around their lovely home and the amazing artwork that Serena produces for a living. They seem lovely people, very friendly and very much on our wavelength in terms of living the same lifestyle. They have two enormous dogs (Reggie looked positively small to us when we got home!), two turkeys, some chickens, some fish and seven cats! I had animal envy, and came very close to smuggling one of the cats home with me.

It was the first time I'd had any cat snuggles since losing our dear little Florence. I very nearly smuggled this one home.

On Sunday we headed up the road to Vellano to help our friends David and Sarah with the last of their second olive pick of the year. After having had so many olive-laden trees left unpicked at the end of the harvest they did in collaboration with us, they decided they would like to pick the rest of the trees and do a press of their own. By the time we lent a hand it was already their third day of picking and they had been going great guns! It was just a morning's work, therefore, to lend a hand in the final push for them to reach their required weight of olives - indeed it was a good job it wasn't an all-day job as the rain came in halfway through the afternoon.

The amazing ginko tree that belongs to David & Sarah's neighbours looked particularly stunning against the darkening sky.

The olive/leaf sorter proved to be effective.

David & Sarah's cachi (persimmon) tree always looks so beautiful, as if it's adorned with Christmas baubles.

The following Monday we had our English evening at the circolo. Just four people came (all the regular faces: Roberto & Vikki, Daniele, and Luca), although with just the two of us native English speakers present that was just about the right number to be comfortable. We had made a "swear jar" to take this time - something we'd been talking about for a while as several people (of whom Stuart is one of the worst offenders) have a tendency to lapse into speaking Italian (which, of course, would be fine if it wasn't specifically intended as an opportunity for people to practise their English.). The idea of the swear jar is that if anyone speaks too much Italian they have to pay into the jar, with the proceeds going to the charity that deals with blood donations (which Emanuele, the owner of the circolo, is heavily involved in). It seemed the perfect use for a piggy bank in the form of E.T. that used to belong to Stuart when he was a boy. It has been sitting in the cupboard for a few months (freaking me out and taking me by surprise every time I opened the cupboard) so we stuck a sticker on the front of it (saying "if you speak too much Italian you pay me €1"). We only collected about 1.50, but it did seem to concentrate people's minds as to why we were all there!

On Monday evening our friend Luca invited us to go along to the surprise birthday party he was throwing for his wife, Anna Livia, at a pizzeria the next day. We've met Anna Livia on a few occasions, and were touched that Luca had thought to invite us, so how could we refuse? I have to say that it was a little of an assault on the senses - still feeling a little on the sensitive side after the events of recent months, being immersed in a large echo-y pizzeria at the end of a table of 25 or so loudly gabbering, jabbering, gesticulating and pontificating Italians was something of a test of endurance, but we sat with the one other person we knew there, along with a couple of other guys who were friendly enough to include us in their conversation, and overall it was a very jolly affair.

On Friday morning, we got up and out the house nice and early and headed for Lucca. We had finally got around to making an appointment at a secondary branch of the state archive in order to try and continue our research on the history of our house that we had begun almost exactly a year ago. (Unlike the main branch that we visited before, this branch is only open on Fridays, by appointment only - and only 10 people each time.) We weren't sure what we might find, but it had been suggested to us last year that we should visit this branch for more information - so perhaps at the very least there might be some older maps we could look at to see whether or not the house was marked on them, or some older land registry archives.

In the end, it turned out to be a bit of a wild goose chase - having found our way to the archive, gone through the process of re-registering our details with them (our previous registration had just expired after 12 months) and sat down to explain to one of the archivists why we were there and what we were hoping to look at, it turned out that they didn't have anything relevant to us there at all. And in fact, after a brief discussion between all the archivists in a huddle, they suggested we go back to the original (central) branch that we went to and have another look through the tomes that we looked at before. They also said something along the lines of if you want to know more about the house you have to engage a solicitor to do the research(?!).

So it was a disappointing morning (although the one part that wasn't disappointing was the fact that we didn't have to stay in the archive all morning - it was freezing in there - even all the staff were wearing coats and scarves - so it was quite a relief to leave after about 20 minutes!). We think we will make a return visit to the central archive at some point to have another look at the huge tome we looked at last year - there must be some record of our house/its owners in the there, we think we might have missed it the last time and that a bit more of a concerted, concentrated effort is required.

Friday afternoon was spent prepping, cooking and cleaning in anticipation of a visit from our friends Mara and Franco in the evening. It's been about 6 months since we last had them over for dinner and I hadn't seen them since August, so it was a long overdue social. I have to say that I was a bit apprehensive at the start - I feel as if both my Italian and my social skills (or sociability) have suffered a little in recent months - but I was relieved to find that after a little while (or maybe more accurately after a little wine) I relaxed enough to enjoy the evening and participate in the conversation.

Saturday was forecast to be clear and sunny (despite it having tipped down with rain throughout the night), so we had arranged to go to our friends Paul and Kathy's in Castelvecchio to pick their remaining olive trees. Very kindly, they had offered us their remaining olives - having already done two harvests this year themselves and having more than enough oil for their own needs. So first thing on Saturday morning, we all (Reggie included) hopped into the car and headed up the valley.

Reggie was first to be ready for the off!

We spent a lovely day in the fresh air picking olives with Paul and Kathy, and by the end of the day had racked up almost 13 crates' worth - certainly enough for a pressing. Reggie had a great day running around Paul and Kathy's garden and terraces and was suitably exhausted at the end of the day - he did lots of snoozing in the evening!

A day's pickings.

It was pretty wet first thing on Sunday, and what with the weather and feeling a little tired after a day in the fresh air on Saturday, we had made up our minds that it would be an indoors day - but of course, by the time we got back to the house after our morning coffee in Pescia, it was starting to brighten up. And then the sun came out. So, somewhat reluctantly, we decided to get ourselves into gear to do some fencing... . We got changed, went outside... only to find that there was a hunting dog on the nearby hillside (we think it must have been lost because there was just one and no apparent hunters with it), which was driving Reggie to distraction. So once again, we couldn't risk letting Reggie out on the terraces with us for fear that he would tear off and try and find the dog (or indeed that other dogs with or without associated hunters might appear). So our plans were foiled by the hunters once again!

Instead, we took the opportunity to rake the drive. Paul & Kathy had raked it while they were dog-sitting for us when we were in Bristol at the start of November, but since then a lot more leaves have fallen from the trees, and with the wet weather we've had in recent weeks the drive has just started to become a bit slippery when going up in the car. So instead of building fencing we spent a couple of hours raking all the leaves off the drive before finally coming in for a late lunch and lighting the wood burner.