Kitchen Happenings

I'm clearly nesting, because I've been very busy in the kitchen. Either that, or I'm being like Enrico and finding ways to avoid doing the dusting...

Anyway, I've started some limoncello (this takes weeks, and involves first the extraction of lemon essence from the peels using pure alcohol, then adding a sugar syrup to make it drinkable). That should be ready in the next month.

I've always wanted to make sauerkraut, but I'm irrationally afraid and grossed out by fermentation that I do myself, so I've avoided it. I finally bought the cabbage yesterday, confessed my fears to Michael, and the lovely man did the cabbage chopping and massaging, and it's in the sink doing its thing for the next three weeks.

And since we'll have a crowd at Christmas, I decided to make a traditional Christmas cake! Since these need to be "fed" with brandy for months, September's a good time to start. That's now in the pantry and ready to be nurtured with a weekly brandy infusion.


Love,

Alexandra

Events in the Boys' Room

Alviero and Maurizio (on crutches!)

I'm fairly convinced that Enrico would rather do anything than sand doors. Can't say I blame him, but given that it's his profession, it sure would be nice if he'd get a move on with our interior doors. To date, we have our bedroom doors up, and the kids' bathroom door, plus the powder room and guest bath doors. Our bathroom door, however, is noticeably absent, as are the rest of the interior doors.

Anyway, one of his constructive procrastination opportunities was in the boys' room. Maurizio, another carpenter working in the house, has broken his foot (yes, working on our things), so Enrico has leapt in to help. Maurizio was working on a loft, and was unable to perform the installation.

All done!

We had suggested basically a dorm room type construction...lightweight, cheap, relatively industrial and, well, admittedly ugly. I bandied about terms like "multistrata" (plywood) and "economico" and I think Maurizio had different ideas. What arrived is a glorious structure (that looks remarkably like the rabbit hutch, but in a good way, of course!) with tongue-and-groove flooring, an antique staircase, and creates a separate room in what is already a HUGE space. The boys' room has 3.6 meter ceilings (11'9" ceilings), so there was plenty of height to spare.


The other big event was the arrival of the wardrobe. Originally intended for the master bedroom, it was just too large look the same do not actually have the same dimensions and must go where they were originally.

All the pieces and elements are hand carved/drilled

Pegs by Alviero

for the space. It's a "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" size wardrobe, so into the largest room it was to go! Only problem was that it had woodworm, a common issue here as windows and doors stay open much of the year. First stop was dismantling, then to the kilns for cooking, then restoration by Alviero (and probably Enrico so that he could avoid sanding), then transportation back and re-assembling. This is a difficult project, since everything was handmade (it dates to the early part of the 1800s) and so panels that

After a lot of complaining, Alviero used his newly-prepared-by-him pegs (no nails here!) to get the wardrobe back together. We all love how it turned out, and you really have to see it to appreciate how incredibly large it is, because photos just can't describe it; the small-looking door to the right is actually a full-size and rather wide door, and remember the ceiling in there is nearly 12 feet high.

Love,

Alexandra

Sculpture Garden

Remember the Beverly Pepper sculptures that were installed in the piazza over the summer? They've become the focal point of La Rocca. That's right, the fortress park has become the Beverly Pepper Sculpture Garden, inaugurated today.

View from a private property that the owner had opened for the occasion

These seem a bit odd to me, but I'm probably a Philistine

I'm not a huge fan of the work, to be honest, but it's quite nice having the park all cleaned up and to have a sense of cohesion in that there are sculptures scattered throughout. I've included some photos, but Jeremy says I missed several of the works. He's not a fan, so he didn't volunteer to go take extra pictures...

Love,

Alexandra

Luminous flooring

Wet grinding

The front hall is laid in "graniglia" tile, which in English is called "terrazzo." Basically, it amounts to a bunch of crushed marble embedded in a cement that is often colored to match the marble. The material can be formed into tiles or laid as a solid floor. There are a number of industrial floors in the US that are laid in terrazzo, but it's not used as often for residential applications. Here, it is rather common. It was put in from the 1940s onwards (perhaps before, but I'm not sure), and fell out of favor in the 1990s and was widely ripped out. It's had a resurgence, though, and is popular once again.

Lots of shmear

In any case, our tiling had been worn and damaged to the point that it looked like the dull "resilient tile" that used to be found in high schools in the US (the kind that often contained asbestos and was then subject to remediation). The obvious solution is to have it polished, so that was what we did.

These floors WERE clean

Some dusting to be done

Upstairs

After the frustrations of trying to get a new workman to actually show up, our pavimentista finally arrived. He spent 2 1/2 days with his magical machine, and buffed the floor to a fine gloss. This entailed wet grinding, then filling the holes with epoxy, then dry grinding. The excitement about the dry grinding is the discovery of the dramatic chimney effect in our house. We were really made aware of it when we were walking up the alley and could see what looked like smoke coming through the boys' window; the fellow was grinding at the front door, three floors down and at the other extreme end horizontally. Yes, this did mean that we ended up with thick dust and grit everywhere. I did point out that perhaps he could have let us know that he would be sanding dry so we could have protected surfaces, but he said it was the first time this had happened, and that there was barely any visible dust where he was working (true). Crazy!


 That said, the result is worth the hassle. It looks beautiful!

While he was with us, he went ahead and cleaned the old, dirty travertine ledges, as well.

 Love,

Alexandra

Furniture Delivery

We are very fortunate that we happen to have a taste for antiques in a dead market, meaning we can pick up furniture from the 1700s in good condition that costs the same or a little less than Ikea. I had made multiple purchases of some "recent" (late 1800s/early 1900s) furniture from a dealer in Turin at the beginning of the year, and she had agreed to hold the items until we were ready for them.

Well, yesterday, our furniture arrived! It was a very exciting day.

First, I had to let the local police know that a large truck would be coming. After the cops had spoken directly to the driver about his arrival time, exact size of the truck, where he should park, etc., I also let him know that he needed to call me in advance so that I could alert Umberto. The thing is, the truck he was driving would not be able to make it all the way to our house, and I knew we had about 350 pounds' worth of stuff to shift, divided among 2 pallets.

Of course, he forgot to call me.

Anyway, I called Umberto in a panic once I knew the shipment had arrived. Much consternation all around, since Umberto had in the meantime loaded his truck with items for a different job. Gah! Of course, the local police force knows Umberto, so once I'd explained the delay, all was well.

Two pallets, one over 2 m long, the other over 2 m high

Moving the first onto Umberto's truck

Approaching the courtyard

In you go!

Loading the second pallet, which we decided to separate

Our new china cabinet

The girls' armoire

Storage chests

The china cabinet in place behind the table; the remainder on
top will need a new home, to be found in the future

Girls' armoire upstairs...some assembly required

The armoire is 8 1/2' long and 7 feet tall,
so it comes disassembled; a giant
Ikea project with no instructions

Love,

Alexandra

End of a Chapter

Yesterday was the day we turned in our keys to Via Mazzini. I had previously wondered whether it would be bittersweet, but truly it was only sweetness in my mouth as I left the meeting with the owner's daughter. There was nothing wrong with the place, really, but it wasn't ours, and it didn't have our things in it, and it wasn't to our taste, and somehow it wasn't our home ever despite our 7-year tenure.

Plus, we just love our new home! We'll still see our old landlord in town (although he has sadly gone downhill rapidly over the last few months), and we have such a lovely space in which to continue to enjoy Todi...and where we can host our guests! It's exciting to see our visitors' calendar rapidly filling up over the next 9 months.

The last two weeks have been a ton of work. Aside from the obvious of a basic move, I took the time for a seriously deep clean: dismantling the dryer, taking apart all sorts of things, vacuuming in every conceivable location, windows, baseboards, tops of doors, window trim...you name it, we/I cleaned it. Add to that the unpacking in the new place and the continual moving of items from one provisional location to the next pending the arrival of new-to-us furniture, and you have one exhausted family!

And that is why we haven't blogged in a while.

Love,

Alexandra

"Gru"some happenings

Yes, it DOES take up the entire street

Today and tomorrow, our only road into town will be blocked in order to permit the installation of a rather large "gru" ("crane", which will be used for working on a beautiful palazzo in town). We deliberately chose the bar for our mid-morning coffee to give us front-row seats to the event.

First, the large mounting crane came all the way up to Piazza Jacopone to turn around. It was accompanied by another huge truck carrying the tubular vertical components of the to-be-installed crane. We missed much of this event, but we did get to see the final part put in.

Last piece to be mounted for the crane itself

Up and away

And now to assemble the thing

Jeremy reported that they were installing the counterweights later today, so we're not sure what they have to finish in the morning. I think I know where we'll be having our coffee!

Love,

Alexandra