ontignano

The church at Ontignano, a hamlet behind Fiesole where I talked to a bloke about a house for sale. 

I'd seen it on the Internet. Drove down steep and winding roads through the tiny place to a small shaded swimming hole where the chap from the schoolbus told me I needed to talk to Nella who lived by the church. Tremulous I knocked on her door and explained my business. She was hesitant and then we got along. She reckoned the house I was looking for was down the hill beyond her hens. But she said, 'Don't tell them I sent you.' She was, as they say, 'molto in gamba' - a lively soul - and at 85 was full of life. 

She looked after the church in her little rented houselet. The sun beat down.

Later I returned to the 'piazza' and she was there talking to a young rambler asking if there were any abandoned houses he might stay in for the night. One was pointed out 'tutto in rovine' (ruined) high up in the dense woods on the steep hills (colline fiesolane - it's a theme of these blips - the colline).

He set off in the baking heat but soon returned having had second thoughts.