GETTING THE LAY OF THE LAND

I climbed up a bit to get this shot because, since blipping a ruin down in the valley on Monday I have become curious about the lay of the land and how people moved about and lived. It's a very hot, hazy day. I'm sorry the picture isn't more clear.

After studying the photograph of the ruin, I came to the conclusion that its original purpose was as an inn. It is difficult to conceive of a time when there were no cars but not all that long ago in was a matter of foot or hoof. People either lived in towns and stayed there or they lived in the country and farmed.

The ruin has a blocked up arched door and I think this was an entryway for horses, often given more respect than human beings. There is room for several horses in the room behind the arched door. The other door would have been an entry to a room for food and drink. There is adequate space for an inn keeper and his family plus several travelers upstairs. There is a stream nearby for water, indeed, there is a river not far away. There are medieval bridges across the river, one of which I blipped some time back, evidence that people did move about. There are also, of course, the Roman roads.

In this picture, the buildings to the right are a convento or monastero. The small part to the left is occupied by a widow with flaming red hair who smokes needle thin cigarettes. The main part is occupied by a family of five: mother, father, two grown children and the father's mother, now almost 90 but still out working in the garden. Behind, unseen, is the priest's house.

The buildings to the left are a group of farm workers' dwellings. The zoom lens has foreshortened things. The long building to the left was once a splendid barn which has been converted into a house but is unoccupied. In front of it is a large square house occupied by a divorcee and her college student son. The splendid barn is hers.

Paths criss-cross everywhere. There are those that run between monasteries which pilgrims used in their progress to Rome. You can still follow some of these paths and the monasteries will still give you a place to sleep and something to eat. Rest, weary pilgrim. Other paths lead to churches and mills.

Our house had only a path to it, barely wide enough for a donkey and cart. Dried chestnuts had to be taken to the mill to be turned into flour and perhaps excess wine taken down to the inn on the old road to Camaiore. One part of it was a carpet of wild cyclamen. I knew we were going to destroy it by building a road, narrow and hairy but covered with concrete.

A slightly different pic of the ruin: Ruin.