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LETTER FROM TUSCANY Winter 2010
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PROSERPINE - MY WIFE BARBARA had left for Oz, as she does almost every year leaving the cold winter to land on a warmer shore, "for business". I remember writing a note to our son Brian in Sydney: "They say that tomorrow it will snow, but I don't believe it." Famous last words! It snowed so much that I was homebound for days -- no electricity, no phone, no internet -- only my mobile phone was working. Barbara was away so she couldn't put it in the washing machine with my shirts. Anyway, I had plenty of food in the house, plus fire wood, red wine and our extravergine olive oil -- anything you do with it makes all food taste wonderful. There was no need to panic. Sometime we have so many people in the house that we always keep substantial reserves: tinned food, chopped wild boar in the freezer (gift from a friendly poacher), pecorino cheese from Pienza and cabbage in the vegie garden which I dug out from the snow .... it was fresh! In the cellar I keep persimons to ripen. Lesley Neil, our tour co-ordinator, said I should put them in the freezer and eat them like an ice cream. We also have nespole and our walnuts but last year we had a bunch of vegeterian young helpers and they ate them all -- buckets full!
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Antonio the builder, one of our neighbours, decided to get out. He placed chains to his new 4-wheel drive but slipped off the road into a ditch ... he had to shovel his way out, poor man. Eventually I got out as well, but on a tractor ... at the top of our dirt road near the bitumen road I had left Barbara's Suzuki 4-wheel drive. Good thinking! I had to shovel the snow that almost covered the vehicle but eventually I was able to drive to our village only 3 kms away ... salt had been spread on the roads so there was no problems in getting around. So after three days I could read the papers and have a cappuccino at the local bar. The front page of the newspaper read: Disaster hits the Val d'Orcia. Almost a meter of snow was recorded, secular old trees had been pushed down by the winds, electrical pilons had fallen, teams of rescuers and electrical workers had been sent from surrounding area to help the locals in the cold with no light ... a baby was rescued by helicopter ... Well, I don't think I will forget Winter 2010 so easily. We have a saying: "Sotto la pioggia fame, sotto la neve, pane" (under the rain hunger but under the snow, bread). We should have enough bread lasting for a few years to come! Ugo |
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