Winter arrived on Sunday afternoon

I'm still without a camera, but I'll carry on giving you some visual contributions out of the archives, starting with that nicely seasonal shot of a pomegranate from last year round about this time (our own pomegranate does alas not produce yet, it was only planted last year).

Sorry I've been off-line for a bit. After getting the olives pressed we gave the olive grove a few days rest, partially because we had neglected our own plot for a bit and partially because the car played up, making it difficult to reach the place. The weather had continued to be balmy and at times positively spring-like. Hence weeds were still happily growing alongside our crops. Susan attacked them around the broad beans, peas, fennel, celery and strawberries (we're still picking the odd one!). I in the mean time dug over the former tomato terrace, still finding a few potatoes (from the year before...) and pruned some of the fruit trees.

By last weekend we managed to sort out the car (leaving us considerably poorer) and we got back into the olive grove to prune the remaining dozen or so trees. Before we could get stuck into that, we had a bit of tidying up to do. In the rush to get as many olives as possible harvested, I had left the prunings to lie where they fell. there were now so many of them that we couldn't move along the terraces any more!

So picture this if you will (in the absence of any current photos, you're going to have to use your imagination a bit more): There are 5 terraces with some 40 olive trees. The terraces are not quite as steep as the 18 on our land (any steeper and we would fall off the side of the mountain together with our herd of mountain goats), (no, we don't really have any mountain goats), (too steep for them...), but still, steep enough. Some of the trees, especially on the lower terraces, I had to reduce considerably in size, i.e. from something like 20 foot to more like 10 foot. The only sensible way of getting rid of all the leafy, twiggy part of the prunings is to burn them on a large bonfire. The larger parts can be cut into logs for firewood and than taken home.

The only safe place to light said bonfire is on the top terrace, whilst the car is parked another terrace above that. So yours truly runs up and down those terraces, each time returning with an armful of cuttings to carry them to her indoors, sorry her outdoors, who has the cushy job of keeping herself warm by the fire, making sure it wasn't setting the village alight. Occasionally I would have to clamber up even higher with the really heavy bits of timber.

And all that for TWO SOLID DAYS! The first 1 1/2 days of the procedure, we both were shedding layer after layer of clothing as the sun shone on us and we were keeping ourselves warm (as I say, me working and Susan by the fire...), but by Sunday afternoon, all of a sudden, winter arrived. No it hasn't snowed, but a chilly, stiff northern wind has been blowing down the valley ever since. So this gives you an idea how much we have already cut off those trees, and we've got another dozen trees to go. Mind you we won't have any shortage of firewood for a while. Every time we return from there, the car is full to the rafters.

Here's a wintry sunrise view from our bedroom window onto the Versilia coastline.

And here a wintry view of our village from above:

While we are on village views, here is a nice drawing of our village. We live in the large house just in front of the church tower.

Anyway, to fight off the big chill, we lit a big olive wood fire in our kitchen (we do have a fire place with chimney, so don't worry...) and finally got to do the annual Christmas biscuit baking fest. About 10 different varieties this year! It's nothing like an evening by the fire with the smell of freshly baked Christmas biscuits. It takes me back to my childhood (although we didn't have a fireplace, but an oil oven which stank the place out something chronic).

of rain and grapes and poetry

It's been quite an eventful week. The long awaited 'proper rain' has at last arrived. We've had some real downpours at the beginning of the week, marking the end of this year's watering period. We harvested most of the remaining tomatoes, before rot can set in, making some more tomato sauce and green tomato jam with rum. I was going to pass on the recipe, but there's so much more that happened this week.

Today in particular we were torn between two festas. One was in our village, the 25th Cesare Orsini Poetry Prize. Some may remember that last year the event got practically rained off. The concert piano that had to be shifted up to our little piazza with great care, stayed under cover and we simply invited the pianist and 2 Swedish tourists in to our kitchen for a glass of wine. This year, the same pianist was there, but brought a handier electric piano with him and a soprano singer.

Rain did arrive again, so we all took refuge in our next door neighbour's living room, where the poetry readings took place as well as a small concert. When I say living room, they don't actually spend much time in there and it's more a small private museum. It's in the other half of the palazzo of which we inhabit the former servants quarters.

The music was mostly Puccini. Now I must admit I'm a bit ignorant when it comes to opera and always found it a bit of an overblown art form, sort of artificial if you know what I mean. However I've never stood 5 feet from a soprano in full voice in somebodies living room. I must say you start to realise how physically fit these singers have to be, and on full blast she'd compete with a small rock band in volume. It really goes right under your skin. No doubt this little video won't give it justice, but it'll give you a flavour

In addition there's been a small craft's market, a photo exhibition and and exhibition of old farm machinery, antiques and old motorbikes. The other festa we had been wanting to see for some time was the Festa dell'Uva in Vezzano Ligure. I have mentioned the merits of this village before and maybe I should shut up about it.

It beats me why tens of thousands flock to Siena and San Gimignano to see the palio and get ripped off in tacky tourist shops, when there is this beautiful place with probably the best view in all of Italy. It's always nice to visit, but the grape festival is the highlight of the year. The whole town is decorated in grapes.

Vezzano is quite a widely spread village/town with many quarters known as Rione. The inhabitants then indulge in various competions against each other, including a vintner's race and a procession in fancy dress. Each Rione has it's specific theme, which may be:

Roman...

Medieval...

or even cross dressing!!!

There was dancing in the streets...

...but it was all a bit much for some...

while I have nothing better to do...

While I have nothing better to do with my arm in a sling (Susan's gone off on her bike to water the land), a quick note in response to a comment from Ralph in California. This the Campanile in Ponzano Superiore, about 50 yards from our house.

At the bottom you can see a bas relief of St. George killing a dragon. The wall is the oldest part of the village, and formed part of a castle wall once. St. George was the patron saint of the Genoese, who built this castle.

For more impressions check out http://www.ponzanosuperiore.it/.

Long tome no hear...

Sorry it's been a while, lots has happened since the last post. I'm not trying to come up with excuses, but... Well first of all I was away for a few days at the end of June, beginning of July. Had to take the car to Germany for an MOT. Good news it has passed, bad news it wasn't cheap. I'd rather do wothout motorised transport, but can't quite do without it.

Well then as soon as I had returned we were struck by lightning, which melted my computer monitor and the old modem. I managed to get an old monitor off someone for nothing, but it wasn't worth replacing the modem as we were waiting for a new telephone line from Fastweb with a proper broadband connection at last! Yes we have turned our backs on Telecom, despite warnings from people that you'll never know what service you will be getting with these people. Well I reckoned it couldn't get any worse, and so far so good.

So today a premier for this blog: A moving picture with sound! Last night was the annual Musicalmangiando event in our village, a festa with, as the name suggests, there's food and music, but also art and general merryment. The music was supposed to be supplied by our neighbour Mauro and his band Tandarandan, but for some reason this was changed by the organisers. Instead we had fire jugglers and our friend Silvio with some mates playing Rennaissance music. That's what you can hear and see a sample of above if you have a fast enough internet connection.

The food was as usual the Cusina d'Sa' Steu', the cuisine of Santo Stefano, although Remo, the brains behind promoting the local specialities is getting on a bit and semi-retired, so I felt that the standards were slipping a wee bit. For a start quantities weren't as gut-splitting as usual. Mind you when I mentioned that after the desserts, someone found me another plate of roast rabbit. The other good thing was of course that the man pouring the grappa afterwards gave Susan and me an extra helping calling us the number one and two supporters of the Cusina d'Sa' Steu'. Besides he said, anyone as mad as us riding our bikes up and down our hill is probably in need of an extra helping of strong liquor...

Below you see the antipasti being served on the way up from the main piazza:

And then under the last rays of sunshine we settled down for the main courses on the little piazza in fron of our house. In the centre of the picture with her purple back to us and the bare arms is Susan and opposite her our lovely neighbours Susannah and Marco.

Other updates as to what happened on the land etc. coming up in the next few days.

New Cultural Venue for Ponzano

When you think of Italy’s cultural heritage sites, you usually picture Roman ruins such as the Forum Romanum in Rome or locally to us the former Roman port of Luni, from where the marble was shipped (until it got silted up and is now 1 km inland, which is inconvenient for a harbour). Or you may think of the many Medieval cities with their historical buildings, such as Lucca or Florence or numerous others. But you never think of the more recent past. It seems Italy skipped several hundred years of history and an Industrial Revolution, which was taking place all over northern Europe, to arrive directly from the Middle Ages in the modern age.

However, Ponzano Magra (as opposed to Ponzano Superiore, where we live. Superiore, because it’s in the hills above, and Magra, because it lies in the valley by the river Magra) has one of the few sites bearing witness that an Industrial Revolution did take place in Italy. In fact it’s the largest site of its kind: the Ceramica Vaccari.

Around 1880 a ceramics manufactory was established in what at the time was in the middle of nowhere. Carlo Vaccari took over the site 10 years later. He had obviously seen and decided to copy industrial villages in England, such as the textile mills of Yorkshire, where forward thinking factory owners not only supplied a place to work for the local population, but provided them with everything from housing, medical care, a school, shops, a social centre and even a chapel. This was the birth of the village of Ponzano Magra. After World War II the site fell into increasing decline. The site still produces ceramic tiles, but due to modern machinery needing a smaller workforce and less space, a lot of the old buildings now stand empty and the former workers houses are now not exclusively inhabited by employees of the works.

I have always been fascinated by old industrial buildings. I visited the gasworks in Belfast shortly before they turned them into trendy housing and a hotel. The walls of the gasworks were immortalised in the song “Dirty Old Town”: “I kissed my love by the gasworks wall. Dirty Old Town…” And it was dirty there in those days. A canal carried the most solid water I’ve ever seen through the site, and it stank to high heaven.

Anyway I digress. I always felt that leaving this site mostly unused was a shame and I feared, they’d probably turn them into yuppy flats too, when they would be so much better as a venue for cultural events. So imagine my delight when this is exactly what they’ve now done. Currently there is a series of concerts being held there under the heading “Bella Canzone”, featuring Italian singer-songwriters as well as an arts exhibition being held under the title “Emergenze7”.

Yesterday we had a chance to go for the first time. The theme of the art exhibition was loosely based on the impact of industrialisation on humans, which was a fitting subject for the surroundings of the derelict factory halls. Works included “Amazzonica by Stefano Tedesco. It consisted of a large, black, cylindrical tent that you could enter. Inside you realised that there were actually different shapes of black and you were surrounded by 8 speakers giving out jungle cicada type noises, which also may have been noises of some kind of machinery. Another exhibit by Aurora Pornin and Daniela Spaletra called “M16: mondo sommerso” was put together mostly from materials actually found on the premises. A mosaic, partially from old tiles, partially from old tools, rusty tins and engine parts is to show the set roles each man woman and child has within the confines of a workers village. Next to it these overalls are hung up, like the ghosts of the workers who formerly occupied this space, above a hopscotch game drawn on the floor.

Very original were also the works of Matteo Ratti collectively under the heading of “Cermobil”, who has created giant insects and humanoids out of old machine parts, incorporating the odd skull. Very dark, but impressive. Below is what looks like a heavy metal guitarist.

And a spooky spider and insect arrangement

The concert we saw there last night featured Francesco Tricarico. He was obviously known to the audience, but I hadn’t heard about him before. I wasn’t too keen on the music either. His accompanying band consisted of 2 guitars (presumably because he had 2 friends who could play the guitar), a bass, which was turned on too heavy, throbbing my bladder (in fact I think the bassist himself needed to go for a wee himself, the way he was prancing cross-leggedly over the stage), a keyboard and an over-enthusiastic drummer. All that background noise distracted from the singing in my opinion, mind you the singing wasn’t all that great either. He was being interviewed before the start of the concert and the interviewer suggested he was influenced by Bob Dylan. I’d agree insofar that like Dylan, he couldn’t sing either, but Dylan unlike Tricarico could write songs

Well it was a free concert, and hopefully not the last time an event like this is organised. The exhibition is on until the end of the month, if you are in the area. The last of the concerts is tonight, so you’ve gotta get your socks on to make it.

Volunteers Wanted!

The weather slowly has improved again. Thursday and Friday were quite mixed days with showers always threatening. So we used those two days to do some research. I have decided to write a book. Babette and Paul said they would help me with the printing and I have got it pretty much planned. It is to be a guide to walks around the Lunigiana, whereby I use the geographic term in it’s loosest definition as the provinces of La Spezia (Liguria) and Massa / Carrara (northern tip of Tuscany). The desire to write this guide was born from a frustration of the inaccuracies of even the most detailed maps of the area as well as of the general sign posting. I intend to include at least one walk for each ‘comune’ of those two provinces, give info on any sights along each walk, notes on history and nature, recommendations for places to eat and drink, public transport links, annual events, alongside detailed descriptions of the actual walks themselves with correct maps. I envisage including some 50 walks in the book and to put one day a week aside to research another for the next 12 months.

Now this is where I would like some help by anyone reading this who either lives nearby or is planning a holiday in the region. I need some people to try out the walks to see if my garbled directions make sense to them, before I launch the guide onto the unsuspecting public. Please send me an e-mail or leave a comment below. The above photo was taken on the walk we tried out this week. It’s a 5 ½ hour walk starting from the medieval centre of Santo Stefano di Magra, through quiet woodlands up to Ponzano Superiore with it’s narrow alleyways and sweeping views, down to the valley again past a Victorian style ceramics factory and back to Santo Stefano via the Regional Nature Park along the river Magra with it’s varied birdlife. Herons, storks and even flamingos are amongst the visitors during migration times.

Today the weather turned bright again, but with a strong wind blowing. I had planned on picking my olives today, but with the high winds I decided not climb the top of a 10 foot ladder. Instead we took down the tomato and bean plants, which have finally finished for the year. Mind you I still picked a good kilo of beans today! We also planted onions today, about 100 each of brown and red ones. In previous years I unsuccessfully tried to grow them from seed, now I just planted small bulbs to grow them to bigger ones. Whilst this is marginally more expensive then buying seeds, I’m hoping the results will be better. I also bought a dozen Brussel sprout plants. Last year’s grown from seed didn’t do to well either and were mostly eaten by some nasty bright red bug with a ferocious appetite. We also picked the first kaki of the year, so I shall make some of my famous ‘I can’t believe it’s not mago chutney’ chutney tomorrow. For the recipe look up this blog 6 December last year.

Of slimming, beer and mushrooms

The perfect slimming plan! Guaranteed to work.
Step 1: Base your diet mostly around potatoes. You can do with them what you like, boil them, fry them, eat them as mash or gnocchi or whatever else.
Step 2: Grow your own potatoes. Choose a plot some 25 km away from your home, preferably up a hill. Only ever cycle to this plot. Turn an uncultivated stretch of this land over with a spade prior to planting your potatoes, then plant them.
Step 3: After a few months come back and dig over the plot again to retrieve your potatoes. The calories you have expended on growing the potatoes are roughly equal to the calories you take in from consuming them.
Step 3 ½: If you are feeling particularly energetic, you can come a few times in between to weed, water (carrying the water up a few terraces from a nearby river) and earth up around the plants. This will increase your crop, but of course also involve further expenditure of calories. As you can see here we were out potato digging in Villa today, cycling back with over 10 kg of spuds on the back of my bike, which is particular fun coming back up our hill… Mushroom season has also started in earnest. Around us it’s still to dry, but in Villa we found a good crop of chanterelles last week. Today we found a good handful of little brown button-like mushrooms, which I haven’t actually identified, but I had thrown a couple in last time with the chanterelles and we’re still alive. We also found two beautiful porcini. So we’ll have a lovely mushroom dinner.
This evening we also decided to test my home-made maize beer. As you can see it’s a bit cloudy, but it has a distinct hoppy aroma from the wild hops we picked and a nice dry finish. It actually tastes of beer despite the fact that it hasn’t seen any barley. Alcohol content is about 5% AbV. I only made an experimental 3 litre batch, but shall try a larger amount next time.

Finally the festa on Sunday got pretty much rained off. There was a poetry reading in the small community centre in the village, but the concert was called off. They had actually lugged up this huge concert piano up to outside our house. Anybody who has ever visited us knows how many steps this involves. They just covered it up against the rain and collected it again the next day. We did have a little private festa in our kitchen though. The pianist and two lost Swedish tourists came down for a glass of wine. We had the Swedish couple over for dinner even. They weren’t actually lost. Elin and Martin were on their holiday and, looking on the internet, found themselves a little B&B just outside our village. It turned out a jolly evening.

Jam session under the stars

Last night we organised a big jam session on the little piazza outside our house. Our English friends Pam and John, who have a holiday home in Calice al Cornoviglio, have had musical visitors from France. So after much to-ing and fro-ing we managed to get them together with our musical neighbours for a session under the stars. I took it upon myself to cater for over a dozen people, which was no mean feat, considering we had a budget of about €1.33 or thereabouts. I attempted to make the local snack ‘farinata’, which is basically just a mixture of chickpea flour, water and olive oil, which is baked in the oven on a flat baking tray. It was only a limited success, as I discovered that our oven does not stand on an even surface and as the batter is pretty runny it turned out thick one end and thin on the other. Well, since the foreign visitors did not know what it was supposed to look like I just about got away with it.

Next I made my own variation of the local mes-ciüa soup, which was invented by the dock workers of La Spezia. They gathered up any bits of grain or dried pulses which had escaped from sacks while ships were being loaded and unloaded. Now the main ingredients are chickpeas, dried beans and pearl grain. I added a bit of celery and some herbs to embellish it all. Next I made a large pot of spaghetti with a roast tomato sauce. Next an ‘anything-I-could-find-in-the-garden-quiche’, which included aubergines, courgettes, green beans, cherry tomatoes, green peppers, basil and pancetta (didn’t find that in the garden). And finally I served some blackberry tartlets made from wild blackberries.

Luckily the visitors brought plenty of wine so this turned into a lovely festa. Soon we were joined by quite a few of our fellow villagers who were attracted by the sounds of the accordion, pipes, fiddle and hurdy-gurdy (or vielle as Sheila the player of that instrument preferred it to be called). Soon there was even dancing going on. We were celebrating until about 1 o’clock in the morning. I hope we didn’t keep the priest, who lives next to the piazza, too much from his beauty sleep. He obviously didn’t feel inclined to join in.

On this frugal living I just came across a great ‘Independent’ article, here’s the link: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/the-thrifty-foodie-how-to-eat-better-but-pay-less-836638.html. I have recently invested in the book mentioned in there: ‘Food for Free’ by Richard Mabey. It’s got descriptions of over 100 edible plants, berries, mushrooms, seaweed and shellfish, fully illustrated and with recipes. And in it’s newest addistion it comes pocket-sized, so I carry it with me at all times now. We have just tried out the Pontack Sauce recipe on Thursday. It’s made from Elderberries, red wine or vinegar and various spices and is to be used as a condiment, which goes particularly well with liver. Apparently it gets better with age (somewhere I’ve read it should be kept at least 7 years, but we had a try after about 7 minutes), which is just as well as I made over 2 litres of it. It has an interesting sweet and sour flavour with lovely dark fruity notes and an all staining deep red colour. Also on Thursday I’ve made fig jam with the second crop of figs. It was odd this year, the same fig tree produced one crop in late June, then nothing until now, then a second crop just as big as the first.

A final word about the weather, although the weather forecast keeps forecasting rain 'within the next few days', this hasn't happened yet, not even threatened to. The thermometer seems stuck at around 29 during the day and 19 at night.

Paradise Found

The search is over! After centuries of humanity’s search we have at last found the location of the fabled Garden Eden as described in the Book of Genesis and depicted in numerous works of art. Columbus thought it was in South America, others sought to bring paradise back to earth by either converting the rest of the world to their holy faith or, failing this, just slaying them. But it’s already here above the small town of Arcola near La Spezia, Liguria, Italy. It’s just like it’s been described, you reach up or down and you find something to eat. The snake seems to have moved out, but fig leaves are still available as items of clothing. Most other animals seem to get on with each other too, except me and the mosquitoes and the neighbour’s cats with each other. Incidentally there is an excellent book on the subject “Paradise – A History of the Idea that Rules the World” by Kevin Rushby. He follows the history of the paradise myth back from the Greeks (Pythagoras), the Persians through to Columbus, the pilgrim fathers of America to modern paradise seekers, like ourselves, looking for their own piece of heaven in foreign lands. The book is a really good read and comes highly recommended.

Sorry about the long gap between postings again. We’ve been busy keeping our little paradise tidy and well watered. It has rewarded us with plenty of produce. Apricots, apples and since today hazelnuts are all ready. Of course there are still plenty tomatoes and other veg, which is just as well as we are pretty much skinned at the moment and would be reduced to begging if it wasn’t for our own food. We’ve been busy preserving too, blackberry and apple jam, ginger and pear sauce (great with pork), green beans in brine with herbs, roast tomato sauce, dried beans, celery in brine (just an experiment, see how that turns out), mixed fruit salad in syrup.

The weather has continued to be warm to hot and dry with the exception of the main national holiday of Ferragosto, when normally virtually the entire population of Italy heads for the beach. This year they were a bit stranded, or un-stranded as the case may be, as it was unsettled, windy and showery all day.

Last week was our sagra at Ponzano Superiore, the Sagra della Scherpada, our local version of a covered vegetable pie. As usual it was extremely busy on all 4 days, although we only we went the one day, Saturday. Over the period of these celebration the population of our village swells from some 300 to some 3000 and the volunteers cooking and serving really have their hands full. On Sunday we saw our neighbour Mauro playing with his band Tandarandan again. They performed at the Ethnological Museum of the Lunigiana at Villafranca. That way we had a chance see the contents of the museum too and were amazed to see many agricultural exhibits and tools that looked exactly like things we still use now. I knew some of our tools are a bit old, but I didn’t thinks they were museum exhibits yet.

Via Francigena

The good weather has returned yesterday. And today we took full advantage and went for another walk trying to find an easier route over the mountains towards Aulla for any Via Francigena pilgrims. After enquiring with our neighbour Piero, to ensure that there is indeed a route across the mountains and getting rough instructions, we headed off again. For those who have been asking, here is the description of the road from Aulla to Sarzana, avoiding the Via Cisa. It should only be attempted by fairly fit mountain bikers, or in an off-road car or horse. In fact for horse riders it’s the only route. Whilst the Via Cisa is dangerous for cyclists, it’s impossible for horses. The problem in finding this route was, that every single detailed map of the road that I have consulted shows it passing the 665 metre peak of Monye Grosso on it’s eastern flank. This is however not the case it goes around the other way.

Out off Aulla you take the left turn signposted Bibola, Vecchietto. This a proper paved road with very little traffic. On reaching Bibola you carry on towards Vecchietto. Halfway between these 2 villages is a cemetery on your left. Shortly afterwards an unpaved road turns off to the right next to an old useless rusty gate. It starts climbing quite steeply, then levels off a little, before becoming really steep just before you reach the top off a crest. Just before you reach the crest, you will notice a gate on the right and a load of noise indicating a quarry, the road forks. Bear right to reach the top of the crest. The road then descends steeply again for a couple of hundred yards, where you take a sharp double-left turn, away from the quarry. Now you’ve got the worst behind you. The road now follows the contours of the Monte Grosso for a couple of miles, with the mountain on your left and the Magra Valley on you right. You pass a little crossroad, signposted ‘Monte Grosso’ to the left and ‘Chiamici’ to the right. Carry on straight ahead. Finally you reach the ‘Quattro Strade’, a larger crossroad. Sharp left is a sign for ‘Monte Grosso’, left the Via Francigena sign for ‘Vecchietto’ and ‘Aulla’ and to the right for ‘Sarzana’. Turn right following the sign for Sarzana. As a point of interest after 2-300 metres there’s a small path to the left which only goes on for about 10 yards, but the view from there is spectacular.

The next sign you encounter is to the left for Falcinello, which you ignore. Since 4 Strade you have been going gently downhill in a fairly straight line. After about a mile and a half you arrive at a hairpin bend to the right. Straight on at this point is the pedestrian route down to Ponzano Superiore, however riders continue on the wider road, ignoring any deviations. After another mile or so, having passed a couple of derelict buildings and still steadily descending the road becomes paved. After another 3-400 metres you arrive at a road with a restaurant on the corner ‘Il Volpara’. Turn left there and after 1 km of undulating paved road you arrive at the main piazza in Ponzano Superiore.

Here you can come and stay at Susannah and Marco’s or visit us for some refreshments. Walkers follow the signposting for the VF off the Piazza, which takes you down there within 2 hours. Riders ride through the village. At the first hairpin bend at the bottom of the village there is a small road branching off the apex. Follow this down. It is paved at first, then becomes a rough track again. Avoid the steeper right turn halfway down, other than that this route is straight forward. Near the bottom off the hill the road becomes paved again and you arrive at an old-fashioned (Victorian) looking tile factory. Free wheel a bit further until you reach the main Via Cisa again only about a km before Sarzana.

We walked the bit from Ponzano Superiore to Bibola in the reverse direction and it took us 3 hours. On the way back we took the official, well signposted path via Vecchietta, which took us 2 hours. Puci, the neighbour’s dog followed us all the way, causing search troops to roam the village for him. It was a great adventure for him anyway. Hope this helps, Babette and Paul. It must at least partially be the route you took in September.

A bit of history

It’s a really miserable day today and I have no particular indoor tasks that I can think of. So I’ve got a bit of time to talk about where we are and where we would like to be. I evidently have some readers, who haven’t met us yet, so for those of you who already know our story, please bear with me.

In the spring of 2004 we decided we had enough of life in England. I had worked 15 years in the wine trade, but with the high cost of simply surviving in Surrey / London we never really had more than a months salary on our bank account, and usually much less. The only positive was that with the property boom in the UK our house, which we had bought in 1995, had tripled in value. So rather than being occupied solely with working all the hours under the sun, being stuck for hours in commuter traffic and sleeping, without any tangible results, we decided to cash in our assets, buy a camper van and look for somewhere to live in Liguria.

Having paid off the mortgage and various other debts and with no immediate source of income, we had only a limited budget as to what we could afford. It had to be something we could move into more or less immediately before the winter and we wanted a plot of land, but that could wait. When we found this place in Ponzano Superiore we weren’t sure at first. It needed a lot of work and it consists of only 3 rooms, a large kitchen, a bedroom and a windowless storeroom. The place had character though, being part of an historic palazzo of the Marques of Remedi, it has spectacular views (on clear days we can see Elba 150km away), it had a roof, windows and running water and, most importantly, it was well within budget. It turned out to be the right decision. The location of the village couldn’t be better. It’s quiet and out of the way, but also conveniently located within 5 minutes of the motorway linking us to Pisa, Parma and Genoa. By car, public transport or bike it’s no more than ½ hour to the cities of La Spezia and Sarzana with all their amenities. And best of all there is a fantastic community spirit in the village. It’s a mixture of older farming folk, who have been here for generations and younger people moving away from the hustle and bustle of La Spezia. And all of them know how to have a great time. They don’t need much of an excuse to start a festa: to celebrate the patron saint, the local dish of scherpada (a kind of vegetable tart), generally the variety of the local cuisine, the homecoming of some American woman, whose ancestors left the village 150 years ago, a wood chopping competition or Italy winning the world cup.

There are free concerts, exhibitions and open-air food festivals taking place all summer, some even on the inner court of our palazzo. So you just have to stumble out of your door to join the merriment. People tell me “oh you lived in London, there is so much culture.” Well I couldn’t afford the culture in London, and whilst I might not get the Rolling Stones and the latest Picasso exhibition here, I take part in a lot more here than I ever did in London.

Once we moved in we put the word out that we were looking for a plot of land to grow our own food. It soon turned out that prime farming land around here is not cheap. We had various offers of plots around the village, that we could not really afford. They were mostly well looked after plots, planted predominantly with olives. After 6 months search we found our plot on the other side of the valley in Arcola. We had to compromise in various ways. It is almost 10 km away from our house. There is a short cut on foot or bike, but it involves descending from our village (300 metre altitude) to sea level and ascending on the other side to about 220 metres and vice versa of course). Secondly it was totally overgrown with brambles and bamboo and not touched for 5 years. And thirdly it is a steeply terraced plot, making it difficult to cultivate and impossible to keep any animals on there.

On the plus side, it has a great variety of all manner of mature fruit trees on it - a dozen olives, cherries, plums, apples, pears, figs, hazelnut, peach, apricot, chestnut, kaki, loquat (another new fruit to us, but delicious) – there was an old shed full of useful tools and it was within our budget. So now we commute most days across the valley, usually by car as we often have something to carry on the way there (compost bin, chainsaw, strimmer) or back (wood, veg), but sometimes on foot or bicycle. On the photo above you get a bit of an idea of the terrain. I am taking the photo from about the second terrace from the top, whilst Susan is standing 3 terraces below. There are in total some 16 terraces. As you can imagine it’s tiring just climbing down to the bottom and back up again, let alone doing some work as well and carrying stuff up and down! We started beating down the jungle by hand only and cleared most of it this way within a year. Only recently we invested in a strimmer and chainsaw, which lightens the load considerably. Slowly but surely we are winning the battle. As from next year I feel we will reach the full potential of the land.