The road well travelled

26th October 2026

With the house taking up residence on the back burner, it seemed like there would be little of note (which, of course, is sometimes a good thing) this week.

There was some mild interest early on when, the outside lightbulb flickering to a blackout, Stephen scaled our ladders on Tuesday morning, as we were leaving for downtown MSP, to unscrew it. This is more nerve wracking than you might think, given that the fitting is on the corner of the east wing and with only half a metre, if that, between it and the railings, it can’t be accessed head on. Undaunted (well, actually quite a bit daunted), Stephen climbed the ladders while I held them steady, reached his arm out sideways and had the bulb unscrewed and safely brought to land in a couple of minutes. This had to be repeated in the evening when he returned home triumphantly with a new bulb, purchased at considerably less than a similar one on Amazon, from the Chinese supermarket in Montegranaro.

And that wasn’t the end of the fun, and I don’t mean the very toothsome cake (with a hint of Varnelli?) we had for breakfast at Pina. It was time for the safety check on the fire extinguishers, which are required because of the gas tank in the garden. For ease of access, if you recall (but why would you?) we had the other year arranged that rather than the engineer braving the road, we would take the canisters up to him, making the whole business simpler. It was just a matter of putting them in the boot after we took out the shopping, then me waiting to get the go ahead from Stephen once he received the ETA. This came late morning; I ferried the extinguishers up the hill, the man checked them and signed them off, I ferried them back and then replaced them in the outside cabinet. Easy.

What, I bet you’re thinking, could be more exciting than that? Well, the wind for one thing, which eventually fulfilled the warning from the Italian meteorological office. Strong winds, it said, were expected from 2am Thursday morning (we will overlook that it arrived on my phone five hours later over breakfast). They’ve got that wrong, we thought, as the day was calm and clement - until part way through my 6.30 lesson that evening, when the wind did get up, accompanied by driving rain, thunder, lightning and Harry crying above us in the dressing room – oh, and several brief but unwelcome interruptions to the electricity supply. Teaching English in a black out offers its challenges.

Stephen, who was in the centre of MSP for a summit meeting with BFF Manuel, phoned to see if we were ok, but on hearing of Harry’s mild distress, braved the pummelling rain to come home, secure the shutters and keep us safe. The wind buffeted the house for several hours, weakening by morning but still strong enough on and off for us to keep the hatches battened down for the rest of the day just in case.

Fortunately, though windy, Friday was also clear and reasonably sunny, and so we weren’t deprived of the gladsome sight that greeted us when we reached the top of the road on our way for our usual shopping/haircut excursion. The Comune had not forgotten or abandoned us, as the wagon full of aggregate and the bobcat being driven off the back of a flatbed lorry showed. Yes, they were fixing the road, a job that took most of the morning and some of the afternoon (including a detour down our driveway) but to significant effect.

OK, we could have done with some sort of roller to compact the surface, but as Stephen pointed out after he voiced the thought, it would never get back up again. What they did do, though, was dig makeshift channels, with the odd chute into the fields, and form a bit of a camber to encourage rainwater away from gouging into the road surface. Of course, the test will be the first heavy downpour, but fingers crossed that won’t be for some time.

We needed the weekend to come down from such a high, with life still centred on LCDDB as we continued our post-holiday purdah. It’s some time since I did any baking, but I made up for it a little yesterday with a pane giallo (bread made with polenta flour and baking powder, and one or two other nice things) in the morning for our lunchtime soup, and a ciambellone in the afternoon for our merenda (with enough of both to go in the freezer). And it didn’t stop there, a batch of turkey burgers and a pot of mince and carrots (it is almost November) were divvied up and frozen to add to our store.

As ever, Peggy and Harry were unaware of humans messing with the clocks and summer time ending, but did quite well to wait till six (seven to them) this morning before voicing their displeasure. Actually, it was Harry who started complaining, but Peggy thought she might as well join in. Still, it gave us lots of time to get the wardrobe changeover completed, and Stephen was done and dusted comfortably before midday (I was sweating over a hot stove, in case you think I was lounging with a bar of Turkish Delight). Gone are the days when it would take the best part of a weekend, including lugging storage boxes up and down the steps, which is just as well. After a sunny morning, rain, fairly heavy but not horrendous, arrived in the afternoon. Whether or not the newly resurfaced road has passed its first test we will find out tomorrow when out on our morning walk.  Fingers crossed, as I might have said before.