A look back at times in Italy

Hello.  I hope you have had a good week.  We are well and continue as before.  We find new ways of occupying our time and there's always plenty to do in the house and garden.  Next week I'll do a roundup of April's garden and gardening activities. 

During a weekend we usually phone relatives in Italy or my sister-in-law phones us. They're still required to stay at home, being in the vulnerable category. Younger members of the family are permitted to deliver food to them.  Most live in family groups, but the sister-in-law and brother-in-law who went back to Italy on retirement live on their own.  They're somewhat isolated from the rest of the village, although they do have good neighbours to help in an emergency. They're particularly in our thoughts. In fact, my thoughts often turn to Italy and our house and family there which we very much miss.  Mr P and grandson were there July 2019, but I haven't been there since 2018. Today I felt like looking at photos and made some collages to share.  Some images are new and regular readers will be familiar with others.  I'll post the ones of visits to the nearest small town.  I can imagine that the streets right now will be empty of people. I hope that some day some sort of normality will return to those cities, towns and villages that are having such a terrible time.  

The door bottom middle is not a real door, but painted on boards like the ones in the photo above that have been installed around some houses of historical interest that are being restored. The illusion was completed when over the months the plants grew and trailed down over the boards.

cafés and restaurants daytime and in the evening

a pizza van, day and at night

The barber's shop is on the left of the photo.

There's a van and barber's chair outside.

Thank you for your visit.  Take care, stay safe and well.

A walk around Isola del Liri again

Isola del Liri. It's one of the local towns that we often go to because there are two favourite caffé on Corso Roma where we can sit by the river and then take a walk down to the castle and waterfall.

On a warm evening when some of our family are with us it's even better.

However, on a sunny day in the first week of April we sat for a while by the fountain in the area outside the gelateria enjoying a drink before taking a stroll by the river to see the waterfall from a different viewpoint.  The area around the Municipal Town Hall, which is next to the gelateria, is gradually having a makeover, but there's still more to do.  I wandered up the side street attracted by the colourfully painted wooden boards around the construction site, but then turned back and didn't take any more photos as an elderly lady was sitting on her doorstep and I didn't want to intrude.

The old factory where paper was made using the force of water from the waterfall to produce power to drive the machines has now been opened up to the public. There are steps up to a first floor storey of the old block of buildings and a galleried walkway leads to a viewing platform.  Here you can get a different view of the castle, the waterfall and a tantalising view of the gardens above (not open to the public).    

Students from a school in a nearby town have painted murals on the walls of the gallery with the themes of water and the old paper manufacturing industry.

This mural with its bird's eye view of Isola del Liri shows clearly how the river flows through it and surrounds the town.

The walkway through the old mill exits into a courtyard and the viewing platform.

A family group were taking photos of the view and moved over so that we could do the same.  A girl in the family party offered to take a photo of both of us. (I've had to lighten them) and we started a conversation in English as well as Italian.  They too were out for a stroll before lunch and this local girl was taking family visitors around the town.  She told us a little more about the project to renovate the historic building which will take time and money to complete.

The 12th century fortified palace, the Castello Boncompagni-Viscogliosi, was later owned in the 17th century by Duke Giacomo Boncompagni, Constable of the Castello Sant'Angelo in Rome, who married Constanza Sforza. They both had papal connections through separate family lines. It was Constanza who beautified the castle with the commissioning of sumptuous decorations and frescoes and created the formal gardens in the grounds.

The two photos above taken when we've been there in the earlier months of the year is a reminder of how spectacular the force of the water can be at certain times and how useful this must have been to power machinery. There's another waterfall at the other end of the town which I wrote about here.

It was a good drive out before returning home for our own lunch.

A time in Italy (2)

Although we had days of sunshine and rain during our month in Italy and on our last day the weather was almost like a Summer's day, it did seem as if Autumn was on the way with chillier evenings. We didn't need the log stove and central heating on except for a couple of days, but it's always good to run the system and it's a comfort in an evening.

Our neighbours were beginning to take advantage of some dry weather to make a start on picking up the olives, something we've never cultivated ourselves, as well as gathering produce on their vegetable plots, especially the tomatoes.

We took a break from gardening and housework to take our grandson no 5 who had come with his father to spend some time with us out and about. There's plenty of interest to see locally and on the day trip to Rome we travelled into the city by train. On that day our grandson L measured on an app that we'd walked 12 kilometres around some of the historic centre.

Grandson in the local abbey gardens

Here are a set of photos of our time out and about in the local small towns:-

sweet chestnuts

Isola del Liri - On a rainy day it was time for a coffee and a hot chocolate drink.

Some relatives came over in an evening and we also

went to their home in the old village where

the houses have been converted into cozy, comfortable homes.