Wednesday July 29

It has been 5 days since I have wrote. It actually feels longer.

I wondered if anyone still built houses of stone. The answer is yes. Not a lot of stone masons still exist. In Italy, the situation of the traditional stonemason—known as a scalpellino (stone carver) or muratore di pietra—has declined. It takes a highly skilled local artisan who constructs or carves stone purely by hand. It was a generational craft, passed down from father to son, and the young Italians are choosing other career paths.

I had the pleasure this week of watching a scalpellino at work here on the farm. He built a beautiful couch in the yard. He does still build houses and I have no idea what it costs, but he deserves every penny.

John and I went up to Monticello Amiata in the evening a couple of times this week. There are no shops there really. There are 2 bars where locals gather. A post office I have never seen open. A restaurant I haven’t been to yet nor have I seen it. But a group of us are going Friday night. I also know there is a grocery store somewhere, but I have not seen it either. Convenience store—no. There must be a gas station, but I don’t know where.

Saturday 25th

The last trip up we went up the hill past the bar and parked. We saw Enrica and her boyfriend leaving their house and I found out Basilia’s house is there too. The houses are all connected and we decided to walk the streets. It is beautiful. We found a hidden meat shop and an old well that used to be the only water supply until the houses got plumbing.

Sunday 26th

Dario, John, and I went to Montalcino. Dario wanted to buy a gift for a friend and we went for the ride and gelato.

It is a beautiful town full of wine shops. It is the home of Brunello, so the drive there was vineyard after vineyard. When we got back to the farm, we got in the car with Giovanni and went right back to Montalcino. We shared a nice bottle of wine and charcuterie. It was relaxing and we got to know Giovanni. It had been hard to do on the farm because he only knows a few words in English, so everyone speaks to him in Italian. We were finally alone with him to use our translator apps.

There was a concert in the castle, but it started so late we didn’t pay to go in. We put a blanket down and listened for a bit.

Monday night 27th

John and I went to Castel del Piano. It is only 30 minutes from us, next to Arcidosso. Actually, we stopped in Arcidosso and ate pizza. Nothing was really happening in Castel del Piano, but we did find Dario and Giovanni having a beer. The dogs were with them. We chatted a bit and all headed home.

Tuesday night 28th

We went to Olivia’s and Josh’s house to play ping pong. I got a better tour of their home, which I love. Of course we had snacks and kombucha.

So I am all caught up. Today is Wednesday and we are not going anywhere tonight. Tomorrow I am off and I plan on cleaning and looking for my next stay. Also, I want to call a lot of people.