Day for night

We decided to have a treat and stay in a nearby hotel for a couple of nights to cut down on the drive back and forth to Fiesole. This is the castle of the Conti-Guidi in Poppi. The hotel shares the hilltop location.

A fairly exhausting day taking on the chaos of bramble, acacia, spindle tree, hazel, field maple, blackthorn and fallen trees.  The Boss meanwhile worked her way through the walnuts removing the guard cages that have become embroiled in a riot of ivy and the very living trunks of the trees.

We applied for residency in the morning at the Comune and then while buying a few supplies got chatting to a bloke. Turned out he was English and lived with his partner near Cannon Mills just round the corner (more or less) from us in Edinburgh. They have a house higher up in the hills and he was over to close it up for the winter.

Later that evening we went for an aperitif in a very quiet cafe in Poppi. We got chatting to the barkeeper who knew the builder (Mimmo) that the English guy had mentioned to us as his roof-replacer. A small world indeed.

So we are now, or almost, officially 'Stradini' - people of Strada. We just have to have the police come and visit us to check that we really are living where we have declared ourselves to be.