Cheers to our builders!

You’ve all read the stories about rebuilding a house in Italy or Provence. They often seem to be tales of disaster and distress. Not with us in Rapicciano. Our wonderful builder Narciso Piccioni (yes, you read it right: Narcissus the Dove) took us through the difficulties of restoring an ancient house with creativity and grace.

Nadine and I pulled a trailer full of household stuff across the Alps, arriving in April to a castello full of dust. It was late and we just managed to take the dusty tarp off a bed, find the sheets, and collapse. Next day the Herculean task of cleaning, sorting, schlepping furniture, and making the house livable began. More on this in a later blog.

Amity and Glenn arrived a little later. That gave us the chance (sadly without Ellen, our third partner) to celebrate the end of the rebuilding with a lunch for Narciso. plumber Gaetano, and electrician Paulo. Here’s to you, gentlemen! You did a great job and also taught me lots of new words in Italian (cartongesso, viti, tubo, scaldare, termosifone….all so useful in daily life).

Here are a few photos of the house. Miracles have been wrought. The horrid pink bathroom has become an elegant white bathroom with chic lighting. The basement storage room has become the summer kitchen (not quite finished but functioning very well for a house full of students). The living room has been furnished by my mother in Texas. I’ll give you that full and fascinating story soon.

Bedrooms, some also thanks to that 40-foot container from Texas, are country-comfy. There’s still a lot to do, but the house now feels like home.

Of course, there’s always the knick-knacks. What was that mantra in the 70s? Accessorize, accessorize!!!! And so, I am happy to report, the Roman amphora left behind by the previous owner, which survived all the drills, cement mixers, rolls of cable, lengths of pipe, and all the rest, could be carried up the stairs and given a place of honor. It means a lot to us, this ancient amphora. We have olive trees of our own and had a great harvest this year (thanks to Glenn and his team). It is a wonderful feeling to join this ancient tradition of harvesting the olives and sharing the oil with students, friends, and family.

I’ll finish with a photo of me sitting (for once and not for long) on the roof terrace on a beautiful Umbrian evening. What are my thoughts? Of the students who would soon arrive, of the studio and what I hope to do there, of friends who will visit, of a great new project, of a dream realized….