Feeling guilty...

Bless me father for I have sinned. It has been more than 2 week since my last confession... blog entry! sorry, blog entry! Sorry got a bit carried away there. I'm just so far behind, not only with blogging but with gardening too!

This is really just a quick "I'm still alive" entry with a pictoral record of what's been happening in the last 2 1/2 weeks or so.

The pilgrims left us again on their way back to France. They haven't updated their blog for a bit, but I have heard from them and they are still progressing well.



Hardly had they gone when the next batch of visitors arrived. So with them we frollicked in the sea:

...sunbathed...

Eddie proved so popular with Iana and Peter the 7-year old twins that Peter drew this picture of him:


The text on the top reads: "Dear Hako. I like your puppy so much that I sometimes think he's a rock star..."

We also went to the annual flower carpet display on Corpus Domini in Santo Stefano di Magra. Spectacular as always!

Elisabetta, our English pupil has had her first Communion (now she's allowed to confess her sins.)

We met a tortoise.

It hasn't all been idle though. I did get some work in every now and then, like a second strimming session before our land was returned to jungledom. This is me and Eddies having a wee nap afterwards. Note the grass flecks all over me of evidence that I really did do some work that day at least.

And now... It started raining again after a spell of very nice weather. So I'm still behind on the weeding, cutting side shoots off the tomatoes and tieing them up, planting out leeks, more weeding, picking more cherries, picking plums, weeding, cutting down the dead willow tree, cutting down the virtually dead plum tree, weeding, planting out the litchi tomatoes (they are still tiny, but they are showing!), weeding, weeding, weeding...

Another invasion has announced itself for September. I must make sure I'm better organised before they all arrive.

Of Stray cats and Pilgrims

This is our latest house mate up there; we call him Garfield, because he is the spitting image of the famous cartoon cat. He does not seem to belong to anyone in particular, but he’s a clever cat and knows how to beg. On balmy nights he does not mind striding the alleys of Ponzano Superiore, but on rainy ones like tonight he seeks shelter with softies like us. As you can see he already feels quite at home and he fell asleep as soon as he had finished reading a couple of chapters of this thriller. He purrs very loudly and at night he has been known to snore loudly, but he’s such a dear we can’t bring ourselves to throw him out.

The weather just started to turn again this afternoon. This morning we were in Villa under grey skies, bottling the cider (it’s delicious!) and carrying on the strimming job until we succumbed to a fine drizzle slowly making work unpleasant. By the time we got home we were enveloped in low cloud and the rain set in in earnest. The weekend and Monday was mostly fine, with just the odd light shower on Saturday. Our neighbours used the dry spell to get their heavy olive crops in, but we decided to delay as at least one of our trees bears a particularly late ripening variety. We on the other hand got on top of the weeding on the late vegetable beds.

Yesterday we had some pilgrim visitors: Babette and Paul, the authors of a guide to the Via Francigena, the ancient pilgrim’s route from Canterbury to Rome, came to see us while re-checking part of the route for a new edition. We had them around for lunch which extended to an all day affair. We found we had a lot of things in common, including a certain wanderlust, and it was a real pleasure finally meeting them in the flesh after having known them for some time purely as ‘virtual friends’ from the internet. I had a feeling we would be on a similar wavelength, but you never quite know until you actually meet people. They are planning to move closer to us, from Brittany to the Provence and I for one hope to see them again in the not too distant future. On their books see http://www.pilgrimagepublications.com/

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.

Nice weekend

There were a couple of interesting bits of news this weekend. First I have been contacted via this blog by a couple, Babette and Paul, who run a website about pilgrim's ways in Europe in general and the Via Francigena in particular. They have travelled the entire route from Canterbury to Rome first on horseback, then by bicycle. They are now in the process of writing a guide about it and wanted to know about accommodation around us. Those of you who have already visited us, will have met and possibly stayed with our lovely neighbours Marco and Susannah. They have long been thinking of letting their guest room out to passing travellers, but thought no one was going to climb up several flights of stairs to stay in fairly basic accommodation. If however, these travellers had just crossed the mountains from Aulla, they’ll probably be glad of the warm welcome that Marco and Susannah would afford them. So, after I just went over to have a chat with them, the B&B at Marco and Susannah’s is now officially open! The view from their guest toilet alone is worth the entry money. Have a look at the Website of Paul and Babette at http://www.pilgrimagepublications.com/ and check the link to their blog on their travels earlier this year. Their motivation for pilgrim’s routes is born out of their conviction for eco-friendly travel, i.e. on horseback, by bike or on foot, which is something I can only endorse. So do check them out!

The other thing that made this rainy day a bit more interesting was our other neighbour Mauro coming over for a favour. He plays the accordion and bagpipes in a traditional folk band, Tandarandan. They play traditional dances of the Lunigiana region. We saw them playing a couple of weeks ago and they are very good. They found a write-up to their latest CD on a Belgian web-site, but couldn’t understand it as it was in Dutch. So I just gave him a translation of this glowing review. For those of you who understand Dutch, check it out on http://www.folkroddels.be/artikels/35644.html. For the rest of you, if you want a flavour of some traditional music of the region check out their web-site on http://www.tandarandan.it/ and click on ascolta for some samples. See the photo above for Mauro in action.