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| Grey skies from Santa Fiora (I love the higgledy-piggledy lines of the terracotta tiles and chimneys) |
I talked the other day about
the potential impacts of a no deal Brexit on us moving to France next
year. Since then, we have seen that the Government
is putting in place contingency plans to turn one side of the M26 and M20
motorways into lorry parks in case of extended delays at the border from next
March. What this means is that we should
book flexible tickets to get across just in case our boat is stuck in one of
the lorry parks for days as we don’t really want to go across in the car until
the boat is over there.
[Note to self: one more thing to add to the
do list.]
We both feel that we can’t
worry about what may or may not happen so on Monday we made a few phone calls and fixed dates with various parties 😊
We will be craned out of the water and onto a lorry on Monday 25th
March at Gayton on the Grand Union canal in Northamptonshire. All being well (Brexit traffic jams permitting) the lorry will arrive in
Migennes which is about 100 miles south east of Paris on the Wednesday and we
will be craned into the River Yonne. I
would naturally say, ‘dropped in’ but crane drivers don’t like hearing that expression
😉 Of course, this is all on the assumption
that the coming winter isn’t as wet as last year and that the boat yard isn’t
under water as it was last winter making access by road impossible.
One thing that has struck
us since driving in this part of Tuscany is the number of first-generation Fiat
Pandas on the road. It seems that every
farmer and old couple has one or more of these cars that were first introduced
in 1980, meaning that some of them are only two years away from their 40th
birthday! They are so versatile and are
often seen in fields where we would think only a Land Rover would venture, but
then we remember that many of them are 4x4s.
They are in fields because they seem to be the vehicle of choice for
carrying ladders that are then used to climb the fruit trees. They are also seen loaded to the gunwales
with bags of sweet chestnuts that have been scavenged from the sweet chestnut
orchards.
The other day when we went
shopping in Castel del Piano out of the first eight cars we saw on the road,
seven were first generation Pandas. On
Tuesday we drove to Santa Fiora, an old mining town, about ten miles away, and
when we got back to the car, two Pandas were parked next to us 😊
The area around Santa Fiora
was mined for cinnabar from which mercury is extracted through heating. As with most of the original mercury mines in
the world, the mines at Santa Fiora are now closed but old galleries and shafts
etc. have been preserved and form part of a museum.
Unfortunately for us, the museum was closed as
it was a Tuesday, but we saw an old ore wagon exhibited outside the building:
I must admit to my ignorance
as I never realised that mercury was formed from cinnabar ore and that was one of
three new things I learnt on Tuesday (yes, I still try to learn something new
every day as I’m likely to be forgetting things as I age
😉).
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| Cinnabar ore (unsourced image from the web) |
You may be familiar with
the cinnabar moth, a scarlet and black day flying moth (not to be confused with
the burnet moths which are also scarlet and black but have spots). It wasn’t until
today that I realised where the moth got its name.
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| Cinnabar moth |
You may also be familiar
with the cinnabar moths’ yellow and black striped caterpillars that feed on
ragwort (the yellow flowered plant poisonous to cattle and horses and many
other animals). Plants are often seen with
their flower heads covered in the distinctive larvae.
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| Cinnabar larvae on ragwort |
My third new fact for the day
was that cinnabar moths were deliberately introduced to New World countries
such as Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America, to control
ragwort infestations.
Not to be discouraged by
the fact that the museum was closed we had a gelato in one of the piazzas in
the oldest part of town (it was Gelato Tuesday after all) and then went for a
walk around town. We were lucky that the
promised rain held off, but the skies remained grey which is probably why we
had the place to ourselves 😊
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| We sat under the clock tower to eat our ice creams |
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| Yet more narrow car free streets |
At the bottom of the town
we came across the Peschiera, a trout farm built in the 1400s by the
Aldobrandeshci family. It was built so
that the whole family and their attendants could be fed during the days of
religious fasting. In the 1400s there were more than 200 days of religious
fasting each year
😂😂😂
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| The Peschiera, still full of large trout and now aerated by a water spraying system |
The trout farm is fed by a
stream and the outfall was channelled through stone troughs which the villagers used for
washing etc.
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| The communal washing area or lavanderia |
Santa Fiora is on the
slopes of Monte Amiata and our house is directly opposite on the other side of
the mountain. Rather than taking the easy,
but longer, route home round the bottom of the mountain through Arcidosso,
Castel del Piano and Pescina we drove up and over instead. It’s four weeks since we went up to the top
and we were interested to see the changes now autumn is nearly here.
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| Autumn is definitely here at 1,600m – this ski lift will be in operation in a couple of months |
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| Snow poles were useful, so we could judge the side of the leaf covered road - mind you, we didn't meet any traffic going up or down |
We have two days left now
before we leave on Friday for the north Italian lakes and have mixed emotions. It will be sad to leave, as everybody is
after a holiday, but it’ll also be good to be getting on the road again and
heading for home.
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