:: Scuff Productions ::

Monday June 9
As our plane was en-route over the Mediterranean from Barcelona to Milan’s gigantic Malpensa airport, Emelio and Elena were driving the 2 hours to pick us up.

It was wonderful to see them again as we arrived, and we wasted no time getting on the freeway for the return trip back toward Turin. They live just 20k this side of Turin, so we turned south at that point. Each time we turn off one of the traffic circles it seemed the road got a little smaller, farms bigger, older, more scenic. Here are farms with history. We pass buildings hundreds of years old built encircling the farm center both for security and winter practicality. Both families and animals were kept inside the stone wall fences / arches….

**We pass mini-tiny family monuments called Pilone’s some only 5×10 with places for flowers, etc. Private places made sacred by something that happened to an individual. By the dozens. The richer the family, the larger the monument.

**We pass through or by “villages” EVERY mile or so……and although stunning, it’s not surprising, that EVERY village has a LARGE ancient Catholic Church. I think I’m going to remember every name by the time we get to Macello, our destination, but quickly realize…an impossibility. The closer we get to Macello, the road seems to have narrowed almost to a one-lane highway. How do they do that here? Well, smarter than we, almost every car here is a mini, not the extravagant SUV business in America, so it works.

**This luxuriant farming area is RICH and lush. At the moment, the RICE fields are coming along, the semolina Wheat is nearing harvest (and corn starts are up). There’s LOTS of Corn being grown for polenta or a variety for animal feed.

**The extent of HOME vegetable gardening is stunning…….no space is wasted. Tiny corners by highways even have any mixture of veggies growing, tied up with poles, strings. This goes on mile after mile. When we learn to grow our own food in America to THIS extent, our health will improve?

** We arrive in Macello….. turn through this tiny village to pass a castle that is 400 years old we’re told…completely walled in, with remains of an old moat. You can even see the main tower from Elena’s house:

They tell us their friends Giiani (Johnny) and girlfriend Gabriella have owned the castle for 30 years, a purchase he came to finance by winning a one time huge gambling bet. Can you imagine? Johnny has had one purpose for 30 years: to begin restoring the castle to its original condition. In the win, he only earned HALF the castle. The other owner, a billionaire, is simply holding, thinking he’s made an investment somehow…without repairing anything. WOW! I wish I could win at gambling and buy a castle in Italy.

We pass the towns 500 year old church to see the village gathering for a funeral. Seems the entire population is there.

We pass onto a road with no dividing line. We pass one more tiny family memorial by the roadside, and soon turn onto a single lane paved road moving through fields of corn toward a grove of trees in the middle of corn fields.

We turn into a grassed drive of their home built in 1826. AH! We were greeted by the two Knights of THIS castle, Pippo and Nero:

pippo

and 13 year old boss, Nero!

Emilio & Elena have been working on this fabulous country home since they aquired it from the family of the original builders.

Wow! When they bought the house, Those people were true farmers, had been all their life, in the old ways. Elena saw it the first time as the “grandma” was slaughtering a chicken on the well cover…. She was s bit shocked.

They saw THIS 1826 house:
1. Each room had an outside door, not a connecting door because some rooms were not meant to steal heat from another.
2. Walls were: about 24-30 inches thick.
3. The only real bedroom was OVER the kitchen, but the couple’s only access would be walk outside (even in dead winter), around to the stairway up to the 2nd floor bedroom because it would be warmer over the kitchen.
4. ALL of the farm homes and walled in buildings in larger farms were built facing south….NO windows would be placed in the north side because of the winds. ALL windows were built into the south side.
5. The cattle/livestock all lived in the east half of the house, and the 2nd floor there was to store the hay, feed. EVEN chickens were kept in there.

It’s hard to imagine it having that look in this beautiful Italian country home picture:

As we sat, walked around, and chatted, we were amazed to see ALL the work they’d done to open up the house not wanting to lose one ounce of the old feeling. Emilio has tiled the entire house including much of the walls. 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, modern kitchen, etc., inside this beautiful structure.

Each time you’re in the yard, somehow, your gaze is easily drawn past the beautiful semolina wheat fields, past the sound of the river going by down near the trees at field’s edge, to these not so distant mountains:

How would it be? You could get up each morning, look OUT your window at the ALPS!!!! Little did we know, in a few days, we’d spend a day up there in the middle of those mountains.

Soon, Emilio realized he needed something from the tiny store…… he went, came back to report something so unexpected I got goosebumps:

HE SAW GIIANNI (“Johnny”) , their old friend and was invited over to the “castle”. Emilio said, no, he had American guests, and Johnny said, “Bring ‘em over” in Italian of course.

**WHAT? Our first night in Northern Italy will be spent learning things in the heart of a 600 year old castle? Yes! Before we had time to think about that fabulous offer, we were off in the car. I swore the corn had grown a couple inches between the time we arrived and the time we were on our way to the Castle.