You say tomato

4th August 2024

It would have been a very uneventful end to July if not for a bit of movement on the house front – metaphorical, I’m relieved to say. With nothing of note on Monday and Tuesday, other than, of course, the temperature inexorably climbing towards a high of 38° on Thursday, it was left to Irene to add a bit of interest on Wednesday.

She was in contact with Stephen, firstly sending him the estimate from the geologist (seemed fair enough, i.e. more than we wanted it to be and less than we feared it might be) and to say that she would be coming the next day with her father and Loris the builder to take a look at the house. It was good news to hear that things were progressing, but as is always the way, they did choose the day we were going to Macerata in the evening and would need to leave home shortly after six.

That was ok and when she got back to Stephen it was to say that they would be here at 3.30. What was even better was that Bertrando told him he could work from home in the afternoon, so rather than leave work to rendezvous with them at the top of the road to bring them to the house, he was able to shoot up to collect them when they called to say they had arrived somewhere around 4.00. There followed another good look round (a second one for Loris as he had come with bff Manuel last year when we tentatively started all this) and the builder’s opinion was that the older part of the house could be left, other than supporting the pillar in the lumber room on which the kitchen floor should rest but the two don’t actually come into contact.

As for the newer section, that would benefit from two columns at the back and two at the front to help secure the structure, with the ones at the front having two parts each to accommodate the terrazzo. He also suggested some keys (long metal lintels) from front to back to help pull the building together. There was also word of excavating at the rear of the house to examine the foundations, as it was mooted that perhaps there weren’t any of significance. The next step is to start the paperwork for submission to the Comune which has to give the go ahead.

It was all done and dusted in good time for us to set off for Macerata at our expected departure time of 6.15, which would give us plenty of time to stop off in Corridonia to pick up my new batch of lenses, park and get to Sugo for a spot of dinner (as good as ever) before the 9 o’clock kick off of Notte Morricone at Arena Sferisterio. When we got to the amphitheatre we had a bit of a surprise. We’d been looking forward to an evening of swirling romantic classic film scores by the iconic Italian composer, and were a little nonplussed when we took our seats (second row from the stage, no expense spared) to find said stage completely empty apart from a triangular construction in the centre, resembling graffitied walls.

This is where you find it pays to read things properly before you book, for on examining the programme and our tickets it dropped that the evening was not a concert but was in fact a contemporary dance production on the artistic life of Morricone to a recorded arrangement of his music. Were we disappointed? No. It was fabulous, even better, maybe, than a concert, with the added bonuses that not only could we feel incredibly metropolitan and cultured, but being a dance performance we were made it home well before midnight.

There was something of a pleasant surprise yesterday when clouds gathered later on in the morning before darkening in the early afternoon. We thought that might be it as the forecast said a bit cloudy but dry. It was wrong. We had rain on and off for the rest of the afternoon and evening, leaving the air a little fresher and the temperature just low enough at bedtime so that we didn’t need the fan for the first time in quite some days.

We had our second visit to Verde Pistacchio this evening, this time to sample their pizzas and I’m happy to report that they were more than acceptable. Laura greeted us as we arrived and told us we were eating on the terrazzo. We took this as a great honour, it being a select spot, even while debating whether it was really a terrazzo or a terrazza.  Apparently, it can be both masculine and feminine in Italian, with each word meaning a slightly different open space, though different definitions when I have tried to figure it all out have just confused me. Besides, this terrazzo/terrazza was roofed so I think strictly speaking it’s a loggia.