Benvenuti to all my lovely Loyal and New Followers
Snowy mountains in the distance.
Photo P Finnigan
This morning’s train was delayed, so to get my man to the airport on time, we drove to the half-way point at Empoli where he could hop on a fast train from Florence. He was slumped in the driver’s seat with a very long face. “Look I’m wearing my overcoat, it’s so cold. Don’t you just hate it?” He groaned. “Well, it will be even colder in London.” I say unhelpfully. But then I pointed out the beautiful view of the snow topped mountains against the bright blue sky and got a glimmer of a smile. Bless him. It is some time since we have driven down to Empoli and at least three new roundabouts have been introduced on the main road! Rumours abound that certain well-known people own a lot of the land where roundabouts are built and that these certain people have pocketed the money paid by the authorities for road improvements. Mmmm. Well, driving back, I could see no need for these small roundabouts other than slowing the traffic down for a few seconds! Meanwhile, the road surfaces remain appalling, in fact so bad that if this was England, drivers would have sued the pants off the local authorities by now! Hey ho… But the view of the snow topped mountains had been fantastic, so I smiled, shrugged and got on with driving back home via Fiano.
Speaking of Fiano, our local village, the senior villagers called a crisis meeting last Friday, to decide what to do with the recently abandoned coffee bar attached to the barely used old cinema. It is called the cinema, however, the only things that happen there are the occasional concert and electoral days. This last week the village was dead. Laura’s Alimentare (grocery)/bar was closed again and so there was nowhere to get a coffee! The butcher, baker, chemist and Milko’s Cartolibreria remain open, but we wonder for how long? I was unable to attend the meeting and wait to hear the outcome. Something must be done to bring the village back to life again, it’s all very sad as we are more likely to be found in Certaldo these days.
Rallies for Paris. La Nazione.
Down in Certaldo last Wednesday, like thousands of other towns and cities in Italy, a rally took place in memory of those murdered in Paris. All the communities came together including the migrant population. We have a small Muslim community and many North Africans, and the numbers are rising. Finding work is hard enough for the italians, so we can only see a difficult time ahead.
Castello di Oliveto
La Nazione
But on the bright side, A local landmark and popular place for weddings is The Castello di Oliveto. High on a hill between Certaldo and Castelfiorentino, it is very beautiful indeed. A renowned professor has just confirmed that the 15th century architecture is attributed to Filippo Brunelleschi, the famous Florentine architect. So this will now lift the status of the Castello to even greater heights.
The local Commissario and two carabiniere. Photo – unnamed English woman.
Finally, I have slipped in a naughty photograph. No not that kind! The local Carabiniere do not like having their photos taken. When the new Commissario arrived in Certaldo he was walking across the main Piazza in his very smart uniform with ribbons and lapels flapping, flanked by two lesser, but impressive colleagues and I asked if I could take a photo. No, not allowed said one of the lesser ones! Then this morning the three of them came into the cafe bar Il Solferino and I sneaked a photo by pretending to search for a signal on my phone. Now, I don’t think they can arrest me because you cannot see their faces, but you never know. Watch this space!
Well, must get on. I may have some good news on a new home by the weekend; I’ll keep you posted.
have a great week.
Salute June x
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‘My Father, The Assassin’. Book one in the series.
‘The Bolivian Connection’ Book two in the series.
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