" 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!