Summer fun, water worries, and window waiting
After the frenetic activity leading up to the wedding, July and August saw us able to relax a bit and enjoy the summer without the building work. Not far from us (50 mins by car) is the beautiful walled city of Lucca, home to the excellent Lucca Summer Festival. Unlike most music festivals that take place over 3 or 4 days at a weekend, the Lucca Festival lasts throughout the whole summer, a series of many artists, both Italian and international, performing their full sets. As big music fans we were able to pack a lot of concerts in. This year we were fortunate to see lots of artists that we like, spanning a diverse range - from glam rock legends KISS and Generation Sex (featuring Billy Idol), to the excellent singer-songwriter Norah Jones, Britpop behemoths Blur, to dance gurus The Chemical Brothers. The concerts were all great in their unique ways, relaxed and well organised, taking place in the balmy summer nights. Later in September we also got to see Paul Weller in Bologna. There is something so unifying about music, and attending concerts surrounded by music-loving Italians is truly life affirming! If you’re ever in the area over summer, be sure to check out the festival, there’s something for everyone.
Summer getaways
During the summer, we were also able to do a series of mini holidays - these included to neighbouring region Liguria, taking in La Spezia and Monterosso (in the Cinque Terre) and Tellaro in the Bay of Poets - a beautiful, much quieter fishing village near Lerici; next was the ancient hilltop town of Pitigliano in the south of Tuscany; the stunning UNESCO global geopark of Apuane Alps and Pietra di Bismantova for hiking, and finally to the pretty (and most Scottish) town of Barga for its annual jazz festival.
In August, Nick’s brother Paddy visited us for the second time, taking a short break before he started his PhD in London. We took in some local sights together, including the stunning Parco Fluviale dell’Elsa o SentierElsa for some wild river swimming. The wild swimming was a welcome cooling off as unfortunately our lovely little above ground pool had sprung a leak shortly before he arrived after getting accidentally punctured by a local pool company while cleaning it. The pool guys tried to patch the hole, but alas we woke the following morning to a couple of feet of water left. We had no choice but to take it down and will look to erect it for one last season before we can start work on an in-ground pool in 2025. It was lovely while it lasted for 3 months!
Apuane Mountains
Windows and doors, where art thou?
During this time we were also patiently waiting on windows and doors for the ground floor. We were promised that they would be fitted comfortably beforehand the wedding in June, having been ordered in March, but due to heavy demand and delays in manufacturing we were still waiting come July. We were able to host the wedding without them and live open to the elements for a couple of weeks due to the warm weather, but we had to bite the bullet eventually and had no choice but to board up the holes. We were told by our geometra and builder that it was a widespread problem for lots of renovations and it seemed window companies and fitters couldn’t be more in demand. It was incredibly disheartening to see the natural light and views from the house taken away from us, but we told ourselves it wouldn’t be much longer. How wrong we were!
Eventually building work restarted in September and would focus on the roof and insulation of the house. We watched as the scaffold enveloped the house, making it look like a proper building site. The roofers got to work, stripping all of the old terracotta tiles off the roof and carefully stacking and cleaning them for re-use later on. The work on the roof involved a lot of steps to get it into good condition and improve its energy performance. Most old farmhouses like ours have an energy rating of G (which is terrible). This might be ok for some people who don’t live in their property year round, but for us winters in particular are very cold, damp and draughty. The improvements to the roof would see some beams replaced, a new waterproof layer, insulation, bitumen sealing, with placement of new solar panels alongside the old original tiles. Ideally, roof work should take place in the spring, but ours was to happen over September to December. Not ideal.
Along with the roof, the rest of the first floor and old barn was gutted, readying it for internal renovation. This meant that we had to move out of the main portion of the house and live in the far end of the house in one bedroom. It was a big upheaval, but one we knew was coming. Many renovators have to either move out, or live in an on-site caravan, so still being able to live in the house was a bonus even with the banging and daily building work around us.
A bad year for olives
One of the year’s biggest disappointments was the failure of our olive harvest. Earlier in the year around May there were severe hailstorms and heavy winds just when the flowers of the olive trees were developing and pollinating. This spelled disaster for us and many other growers in our area, though some growers were lucky if their plots were sheltered, and others across other areas of Tuscany and the rest of Italy had good harvests. For us, living on an exposed south facing hillside it was bad news. We watched the trees over summer, hoping to get at least something, but by the time the harvest time came around we barely had any olives on the trees. It’s a sign of the climate change and erratic weather patterns we’re seeing all around the world. We just have to hope every year that the weather is kind at the crucial moments and that 2024 is a better one for us and others affected. It’s disheartening, but something we will now consider very special when we have a good harvest and can make our own olive oil.
Studying and soap
During September, I (Fran) began the start of a more formal study in horticulture and garden design, commencing with the Level 2 course Principles of Plant Growth and Development with the Royal Horticultural Society, who are based in the UK and where I’ll take my exams. The studying and career change is one I’ve dreamt of for many years. I hope that with these qualifications I can better tend to and understand our land and plant requirements, design our own garden area, and maybe one day start a business supporting others with their gardening needs. My main area of interest is in dry gardens that are able to be sustained using minimal to no watering in the summer. There are lots of sources of inspiration here in Tuscany and I’m looking forward to connecting with gardeners in Italy and around the world. I’ve become a member of the Mediterranean Garden Society, which holds monthly talks from experts across the world working with similarly challenging dry conditions.
Along with this studying, I also made my second batch of cold-process olive oil soap. The soap I’ve been developing is made with all natural ingredients (95% olive oil), locally produced essential oils and our own lavender buds. I had been researching how I could make a small business from it one day, making our own essential oils, too, but the rules and regulations currently make it difficult, so it’s just a hobby for now. Friends and family have given the soaps glowing reviews, so that’s a wonderful payback in itself.
Homemade lavender and Lemon and poppy seed soaps
Storm Ciarán wreaks havoc
October was unseasonably warm, seeing temperatures in the high 20s, but little did we know what was around the corner. At the beginning of November, Tuscany saw one of its worst storms in decades. Storm Ciarán a ‘bomb cyclone’ with both heavy rain and wind brought severe flooding and landslides, with a state of emergency declared and six people sadly losing their lives.
Our farmhouse wasn’t spared. Unbeknownst to us, our roof wasn’t water tight and precautions to protect it in case of heavy rain hadn’t been taken. During the storm, which dumped nearly a month’s rain in one night, we woke up in the morning to multiple leaks across the roof, infact, I was woken up with drips landing on my pillow. Downstairs, water had been pouring through the temporary doors and windows, leading to minor flooding and lots of puddles in the kitchen. Electricity was cut off and the road leading to us was a muddy quagmire, barely passable by most vehicles. While this was a bad situation for us, the rest of Tuscany saw much worse devastation, and we were lucky to have just superficial damage. Fortunately, the roofers were able to arrive the next day and secure the roof better with polythene. All a bit late, but thankfully there was no lasting damage.
Cheering us up after the storm, we had friends Kenny and Jo visit us from Australia.We had worked with Kenny during our time in Glasgow and had been inspired by their adventures journeying across Australia in their converted campervan truck. We met them in Florence and took them around our local area, visiting Lajatico for lunch. They gave us encouragment with our renovation work and hoped to visit again when we’re all ready to receive guests.
Covid, catch ups and windows finally arrive!
November also saw us get a second bout of Covid, we think, probably from a packed bar in Florence. We both had different symptoms - me with a loss of taste and smell, aches and pains, and Nick with a bad fever. Luckily we both recovered after a week or so. Unfortunately it meant that Nick couldn’t meet up for a special get together we had planned with Jenna and Justin (the bride and groom from June’s wedding). They had planned what would be their fourth trip to Italy in one year - this time to Bologna! They have truly fallen under Italy’s spell and we had a fantastic time, mainly eating our way round Bologna with them. What better place to do it?
By mid November, the windows and doors we’d been waiting months for finally arrived. Unfortunately the doors, although mostly great in that we got our lovely view back, were missing outside handles (not optimum), so it’s back to the drawing board on them! It’s one of the many minor frustrations with a project and renovation like ours. We haved learned that you have to take the good with the bad, be patient and stay optimistic. It’s always a little thing compared to so much that is going on in the world.
Christmas with friends
As December came, our focus of course switched to Christmas. This year we decided it wasn’t right to leave the house due to the roof work ongoing, so we decided to stay put. It was touch and go whether we would have heating, so we were over the moon to accept an invitation to stay for Christmas with our good friends Marie and Lorenzo (who run Authentic Tuscany holiday rentals and experiences) in Vicopisano. We had the most fantastic time staying in their cosy medieval tower apartment, Casa Colomba. The days there were filled with terrific food, music and laughter, and while we missed our families we were thankful for our friendship and sharing the time with such warm people.
Pandoro cake with marscapone cream and berries - it was so good!
Between Christmas and new year we did one last trip away, this time to Lake Garda. We’d visited earlier in the year and had fallen for its charms, so much so that we wanted to see what it was like out of season. It didn’t disappoint and we enjoyed staying in a hotel on its shores (Hotel Sirmione) that had a wonderful thermal spa with an outdoor pool heated by thermal water. It was truly memorable and very relaxing after our busy year.
View from our hotel window - Hotel Sirmione
For New Year’s (Capodanno in Italy), we partied again with our friends at their local Circolo (a community club), seeing in the new year with locals, eating the most hearty of dinners, including lentils (considered good fortune in Italy) and toasted each other for a great 2024.
For us, though, getting the roof finished at the turn of the year was the icing on the cake, or more aptly the terracotta on the top! As 2024 approached, we look forward to getting the renovation completed, hopefully by Easter.
