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You may be relieved to know that there were no more unexpected visits from the odd person who was happening to be passing by Sigma, but that doesn’t mean we were without anyone making a beeline for LCDDB. Fortunately, these were on legitimate business, and welcome business at that.

The first was on Tuesday morning when Marcello turned up in his four-by-four with his trusty super strimmer to set about licking the grass into shape. With lockdown continuing to ease and Stephen accepting that the wilderness in and around the garden was beyond the remit of his horticultural interest, he had asked Marcello, stopping their cars as they passed each other in the middle of MSP in that way that Italians have of causing minor traffic jams when something or someone of interest attracts their attention, if he was available to come and sort out the grass as he has in the past. He was more than willing to do so, not only because he is a nice man but also because business is also a little slow where he works.

Two mornings, before the sun got too high, saw him making everything look so much neater, and Stephen has asked him, given that he has a bit more free time than he might want at the moment, if he would like to come and do an hour or two every other week just to keep on top of things. He was more than happy to do that, only leaving us with the problem of making sure he takes the money we have agreed when it comes to payment as he seems to look on us as charity work.

Tuesday afternoon saw Stephen in giro, having to search out some green velvet for boots currently going through production. This, you may rightly think, is a bit like leaving it till the last minute; shouldn’t the material have been sourced before manufacture commenced? Well, yes it should, and it was, but due to some slight mishap that appears to have been caused by shoe goblins coming in the night, for it is a mystery to all concerned how all the boots came to be slightly off in the same way, they have to be made again.

At least Stephen had some ice cream to console himself with after dinner, for following the success of our contribution at Manuel’s last week, we decided to treat ourselves when we were shopping on Tuesday morning. This time it was Mrs Bar del Borgo who served us, but she was equally as puzzled as her husband when we asked for only three flavours (chocolate, strawberry and amarena) in our container. She was further nonplussed when we said we didn’t want any cones, but this actually served in our favour. Thinking that we were in obvious need of some missionary work, she disappeared into the back then returned smiling beatifically at us and proceeded to open up a box of premium wafers, putting a few into a bag and handing them over with the ice cream. And very good they were too.

It was shopping time again on Thursday and a revisit to Porto San Giorgio, only this time in the afternoon rather than the morning as we had one or two other things to do on the way back. It was not just a return to PSG but also to the Paco Arte shop where we bought the Guzzini bowls last week as we had in mind to buy a smaller salad bowl in the stone colour. Unfortunately, they were out of stock on that one. This was only a minor blip, being an additional extra, as what we really went for was to make up a little set of the range as a birthday present for Maddalena. In this we were successful, and left with a festive parcel containing a large salad bowl, salad servers and a large oval platter.

Buoyed by this success we headed back inland to Girasole to the supermarket in search of baking tins. This was because Stephen had sent me the link to a recipe on Facebook by our new favourite cooks, two bearded gentleman that go by the name 55Winston55, for a savoury ciambella but my tin was the wrong dimension. After much humming and hawing we eschewed the glamorous non-stick options with interchangeable bases for two bog standard aluminium ones (26cm and 22cm), of the variety much loved by Italian nonne since time immemorial, at less than €5 for the pair. And very well the ciambella turned out too, showing that sometimes the old ways are the best.

After a brief stop at Click Café to stock up on coffee bags for the caffè machine, we treated ourselves to aperitivo (and bread) at Totò, which is always a good idea, before coming home for a conversation appointment with another new contact. This time it was Alberto, originally from Milan but currently marooned (though happily so) in his apartment in Fuerteventura. He usually just winters there, but a certain pandemic has prolonged his stay. I again had a very nice chat and we will hopefully get together again sometime next week.

As for the birthday present, that proved a great success when we took it round on Friday evening (two days early but we didn’t want to clash with any wonderful surprise that Marco had lined up) for a chat and an aperitivo, another post-lockdown first. Maddalena loved that it was environmentally ethical, she loved the design and, to make it a hat-trick, loved the size as she didn’t have a large salad bowl in which to toss lettuce with abandon. And that would have been that for the weekend, if not for two significant developments.

The first was yesterday morning when a white Mercedes 4x4, one that we seemed to recognise, crawled down the road and made us more than a little excited. Indeed we were correct in our assumption, as emerging from it was our old friend the road man, who surveyed the area and had a word or two with Stephen. He had not, he said, been prepared for the road to be in such a bad state, just having been told to come and look at it by the Comune but not forewarned (because why would they?). If he had known, he wouldn’t have come down in his car. No comment. Before he could do anything, though, he said that the Comune had to come and cut back the undergrowth at the sides and that he was going to go back to the offices after speaking with Stephen, who affirmed that he had left an array of photos there showing the current condition. I would say watch this space, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I might have said that before in this context too many times.

The second development was this evening when Stephen came back from taking the recycling bin for tomorrow’s collection clutching the post from the box at the top of the lane. As well as the water bill and an insurance reminder (there’s a novelty) was a letter from the UK, hand-written in a style that looked distinctly European. This seeming conundrum was resolved by the simple expediency of opening it up to reveal a charming card asking us to save the date of 21st August 2021, as on that day my nephew Jonathan will be marrying his French fiancée, Laure, somewhere in the environs of Bordeaux.

This was very good news, not least of all because we had been told privately a few weeks ago by a source who shall remain anonymous that the date was 21st September – right in the middle of LineaPelle. We had feared that we might not have been able to attend, but now we know it is in August, Stephen can do what he likes best, which is to plan and organise. He lost no time in getting on the Internet and searching for properties to rent in the area so we can make it a holiday as well as celebrating a familial rite of passage. He has, so far, stopped short of putting dynastic château in the drop down menus, but the search is yet young.