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We live a couple of kilometres from town in a neighbourhood that is very typical of this part of Italy: agricultural fields stretched out between gravel roads, punctuated with brick and stone farmhouses.
Elsewhere in the world in the mid 1950s, the Russians were about the win the space race, Britain joined the nuclear club, and the first commercially manufactured computer had already been on the market in the US for 5 years. Here, the picture was very different.
…life ain’t nothin but tractors and cows.
Until the 1960’s the practice of mezzadria was widespread in this part of Italy. Under this system, the land owner (proprietario) would provide a house and land to a peasant (mezzadro) and his family in exchange for a portion of the harvest.
Lino’s grandfather was a mezzadro working the fields around our house in exchange for only a third of the produce. The other two-thirds went to the proprietario – or so the proprietario thought.
Blog stats are wonderful. Among other things, they tell you how many people visit each blog entry, which links get clicked, and what search terms people used to find you. I just saw on the stats page that someone came to this site having googled for “food caught in esophagus”. Whoever you are, mate, I hope you’re still with us.
Maybe I better add a disclaimer.
Back to the Sibillini last Sunday for a trek up Monte Lieto. Rough going for the first few hours but eventually we made it onto the ridge and had stunning views in all directions, from the mountains above Rome to the hills on the Adriatic – the entire width of Central Italy. Route and video after the fold. Read the rest of this entry »
From an article in today’s Guardian, another reason for Central Italians to be more tolerant.
With it’s symmetrical façade and double bank of arches, this house is an aberration in the local countryside, nothing like the traditional Marchigiano farmhouse. We keep meaning to look into its origins but the investigation continues to slip down the to-do list (below paint the bedrooms and install shower surround, for example).
At Lino’s request, today I went to see Nunzio, the ex-owner of our house who lives in a straight-edged 1970′s palazzo just outside Loro Piceno. We sat at a table outside and he recounted to me what he knew about its history.
Sunday’s trek was at Gola di Celano way down in Abruzzo. It was an intersezionale where lots of CAI chapters meet up for the same trek and as a result we had more than 80 people. The setting was staggering, between the vertical walls of a very deep and narrow gorge, but I tell you what, it wasn’t quiet. Because with 80 Italians in a confined space you can count on plenty of chatting, arguments, wild gesticulation, and general boisterousness.
I was pissed off for the first hour especially as I’d been assured by the head of our chapter that it wouldn’t be a big group. But in the end I gave in and enjoyed the company.
Route and videos after the fold. Read the rest of this entry »
Phil Clark at Zero Champion sent a request under the Freedom of Information Act for figures on CO2 emissions for Portcullis House, the office building for Members of Parliament across the road from Big Ben. When he received a response he wasn’t sure if performance was good or bad. It’s bad:
There was an article in the Guardian last Saturday (thanks to Tessa for spotting it) by Alex James, the bassist from Blur, about having an architect come to his home to give green advice. It’s a scheme run by the RIBA where architects provide green advice in exchange for a donation to charity. At first glance this sounds positive. Certainly it’s a great channel to spread information on energy efficiency.
But things get a little weird when the article states that thick rubble walls keep the house warm in winter – which they don’t. Then architect George Stowell suggests that Alex installs a biomass CHP unit to generate his own electricity on site from wood chips. But there aren’t any commercially available biomass CHP units on a single house scale (or even twenty times that big). He may have meant biomass heating, but it’s a hell of a mistake to make, recommending something that doesn’t exist.
It might be better to send a services engineer. CIBSE should consider something similar to the RIBA programme.
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