They arrive

The builders arrived on a glorious spring day. I was there for 8.30 to let them in with the first load of scaffolding.

Addition: I put this up in haste last night. Just to add that the temperature in the house was a cold and damp (90% humidity) 10C whilst outside it was 15C with 60% humidity. At that point I wondered if we had bought ourselves an expensive, stone-built fridge.

It is a wonder as to why old Italian houses have so little insulation, so little double glazing and such poor heating - a huge, warmth-guzzling fireplace.

But then British houses of the same period were not that different and the winters in the UK, although not necessarily as cold, are considerably longer. Or at least so they say.

Additionally, Italy was much slower to shift towards an industrial society than the UK and rural poverty remained a big issues up into the 1950s when, from recollection, the percentage of non-agricultural workers finally out-topped that of those working the predominantly poor, hilly/mountainous fragmented  land.

Knowing this does not make the house warmer.