So, what has happened?

                                                       

Well, for a start, a couple of hours after I wrote the last entry, my friend Zsuzsa called from London- the Queen had just died... with all that brought with it, including the day of the funeral, when I was glued to BBC World online. Her passing was truly a milestone and the passing of an era. May she rest in peace- and God Save The King.

From that milestone to a very different one, which happened yesterday- the Italian Elections, with the voting in of the Hard Right and with it the first Italian woman Prime Minister. This was no great surprise, but an unsettling prospect nevertheless...

And we are slowly moving forward with the flat- a combined decision between me and Paolo was to leave the whole central part of the flat open.          

                                           

 It was just too wonderful to see it when all the old partitions came down,  revealing  the great open space which will now become the living room, the dining room and the open plan kitchen. My bedroom will now be the most beautiful of the rooms, the one which was previously designated as the dining room, and instead of the kitchen which was to remain the kitchen, it will now become my en-suite bathroom, both with this view:

                                

However, not wanting to selfishly bag the room just for myself, I have decided to have a bedroom which will also be a little sitting room, which can  be used by guests and friends during the day- my bed will be a sort of grand affair;  something with spires, cherubs and red velvet drapes, (think mad King Ludwig of Bavaria)... or the sort of bed people had in their best room in the eighteenth century...and then, at night, I can close the room off and it will be just mine...

                                

Just this moment, however, there is another break in the work. because we are waiting for some building  material - all the plumbing stuff which will go into the floor. There are long delays I have been told. Oh well...                                                                                   

And last night I became a member of the Siena Lion's Club at a dinner which was held to open the new season- the club is more active in the winter months. My friend Antonella is now the President and she gave an introduction to me and my life, which must have sounded like rather a confusing series of events and choices...I also said a couple of words- (In Italian, yes!), then had my little Lion's pin attached by the Master of Ceremonies. 

                                             

Meanwhile there has also been plenty of hiking in the glorious Tuscan countryside: 

                                                                                                                           

" Questa e la fase piu delicata..."

 says Paolo. Well, yes . That  looks like something of an understatement! I believe the neighbours downstairs will require more than the Ricciarelli. I have even been told not to go to the building site because the floors are very unsafe... But yesterday I was there, and so was Natale, the foreman, and Annalisa, Paolo's second in command:

A huge amount of rubble has been dug up- the combined layers of tiles from hundreds of years, which has created an enormous weight on the old wooden cross beams, that was put in- well who knows when...? The work that is being done is absolutely necessary for the safety of the building.

                                                   

However, it is not easy to know, with a drill like the one below, used by Natale, when one reaches the last layer, and pierces through the ceiling of below at Signor and Signora Boschi...the recipients of the Ricciarelli..

                                                    

whose bedroom we can glimpse through the hole in their ceiling below. Madonna! and the next picture shows the view from below...

                                                   

                                                                                             

                           But Natale came with an immediate first solution.                 

                                                      

The floor has now been cleaned of all the layers of tiles, and what we now see is the first layer from when the building went up- who knows when? The 14th century, or earlier? But the weight of all the tiles has made the floor sink down, so that now, when the weight is lifted, the whole floor has lifted by 2-3 cm, so the ceiling below looks like this!

   

Paolo says there will be some reparations to do below of course, but these should be fairly easily done and not too costly... well let's hope so! To reassure the Boschis he has been in constant contact with them, and has told them that they were living under a time bomb- the floor would eventually have collapsed!

Montaperti and other battles..

But before  engaging in any battles, and almost immediately after arriving back to Siena there was a whistle-stop tour to Faenza in Emilia Romagna, where I met up with Patty and a whole group of jolly Americans who were visiting for the ceramics biennale. I wish I could say it inspired me, but there is something about ceramics that tends to lend itself to really rather awful stuff- there are of course many exceptions to this rule, and some great ceramic art, but ... the best thing about Faenza was the company; the lavish dinners and the plentiful Campari Spritzas in the charming main Piazza.

It was therefore an opportune moment to go on a great hike, as soon as I returned, to try and mitigate some of the excesses: A group of 38 retraced the steps of the Sienese army's march from Siena to Montaperti, where a great battle was fought on the 4th of September 1260. It is the only victory  the Senese ever really had over the Florentines, and it is still celebrated. Dante mentions this battle in the Inferno, when he meets, deep down in the lower circles, the traitor Bocca degli Abati: and here is what  I found on it: 

"Florentine nobleman reputed to have betrayed his own party at the Battle of Montaperti (1260) by cutting off the hand of the standard-bearer, an action which occasioned disarray within the Guelf ranks. The Abati were a Ghibelline family, but at Montaperti Bocca was ostensibly participating as a Guelf, hence Dante condemns him as a traitor to the Guelf party."

Our walk took us through the ravishing Crete Senese, my favourite part of Toscana with its lovely soft shapes which are both inviting and somehow forbidding and alien- sometimes a little like a moonscape...      

                                                                                                                   

 

And to return to the subject of ceramics..

This morning I finally knuckled down to checking out what has happened in the flat:  I found an entirely new landscape at 11 Casato di Sopra, since more or less all the non-load bearing walls had been demolished, and the ceilings had been taken down to reveal  what  will become  my new ceilings, leaving  the beams exposed. 

 But  the one  thing that mostly seems to concern the builder is the enormous amount of rubble which is being shifted from the flat- for generations  and perhaps centuries, the successive owners of the flat has just put one layer of ceramic tiles upon another- we have up to 5 layers of tiles all over the floors. It is a miracle that the floor has not collapsed onto the neighbours below! This will all have to be dug up...

   

                                                                                         
And the noise is relentless of course, a trying time for my neighbours below... I shall have to knock on their door tomorrow with a peace offering of some Prosecco and Ricciarelli..

The kitchen is one of the only places which will keep its ceiling: the one above is not very interesting and not worth exposing, as we discovered through the hole we knocked in it.

Back again tomorrow to check the progress!