Deeper and down

9th February 2025

Giving lie to my scepticism of last week, Stephen had a message on Monday from Irene saying that the geologist was definitely set for Wednesday, and any lingering doubts were pushed aside when not only did the open back truck bearing the geologist and his oppo appear on the road but fifteen minutes ahead of the promised 8.30 ETA.

They were followed soon after by the man with the shaft making machine, which was manoeuvred successfully behind the garage and the well, Stephen having set to, after breakfast, removing the wire fencing at that part of the garden. He had thought he might make it to work later in the morning, but the two hours needed to extract the fifteen metres of clods (which Stephen suggested maybe shouldn’t be thrown into the field behind with its burgeoning crop, hence our new garden installation) to form the shaft and line it with the material (something like a firm gel, less fracturable than concrete) to form the tube took  a good two hours. Both truck and shaft-making machine got up the hill with no trouble, leaving enough time for Stephen to fasten the wire fencing back in place before lunch.

The shaft man was back at the same time the next morning, but fooled me and Harry by coming in a blue tractor. Odd, I thought, why isn’t Luigi in the usual red one – because it wasn’t him, obviously, which also accounted for why Harry didn’t immediately leap onto the terrazzo and start barking as he does when the Mogliani 2 appear. The man pronounced all was well when I had a word with him later, as he lifted the newly fitted lid to show me the tube. I made the requisite appreciative noises, even though I am missing the gene that makes you find these things exciting. We now have to wait about a month for things to firm up fully before the monitoring equipment can be lowered into place.

I had my first lesson in the evening with Luca and Matteo, who had indeed been in the wars as attested by his crutches. He managed to navigate the threshold and the sill of the doorway successfully, swinging up and over without coming to further harm. The lesson went ok too, though in the circumstances I thought it wise to avoid anything related to technology, especially drones.

Another early finish on Friday meant that Stephen was home in good time to give the grass its first cut of the year, it starting to get a little on the thick side reflecting how mild the winter has been. Nor did he arrive empty-handed, as he’d been to Totò for some bread for us and a tray of Carnevale dolci to take to Marco and Maddalena’s the following night.

I know it is only a week since we were last there, but this visit was after dinner to drink a glass of something sparkling, eat a few of the festive frittelle (which sounds so much more appetising than fried things) and give him his presents, the previous day having been his birthday. He was very pleased with the light-up metal M and even more pleased with his official Roma socks, from the online store, but the beanie, knitted in the team’s colours and with the emblem on the front, left him gasping for words and, indeed, for breath. Such is the passion (or blind devotion) of the football fan.

Our installation

Today has been another ‘at home’ day as Marco and Maddalena’s wasn’t our only outing yesterday. We had a little tour after lunch, stopping first at CarloCarla where they filled our five-litre can with some of the olive oil pressed from their trees last October – and having tasted it on New Year’s Eve we knew we were on to a good thing. From there we went to Corridomnia to stock up on cleaning stuff, both household and personal, at Risparmio Casa but not, you will be shocked to hear, to eat at DiverXo as we’re still full from the last visit, two weeks ago.