door Maarten van Eerd | mei 31, 2025 | Blogs English
“Vorrei il Pugliese, per favore.” I eye the customer in front of me with quiet dread. Margarita, the baker’s wife, turns around and pulls the last one-and-a-half-kilo loaf from the shelf. She places it carefully on the wooden board next to the scale. “Tutto?” Does she...
door Maarten van Eerd | mei 12, 2025 | Blogs English
We’ve bought a forno. Or rather, we’ve bought a house with a forno. Again. Our first house in Italy came with a forno too. A forno is a stone building, about three metres by three, with a gabled roof usually overgrown with weeds and grass. There’s sometimes still an...
door Maarten van Eerd | apr 24, 2025 | Blogs English
Manutenzione – Maintenance Previously on: The mayor has promised to visit for an assessment of the ‘entire’ drainage problem in our borgo, but Giorgio’s septic tank is still leaking. It’s been three weeks since the consiglio with the mayor and his grand promise to...
door Maarten van Eerd | apr 11, 2025 | Blogs English
Giorgio has started a WhatsApp group: Borgo Casigno. I read his first message in disbelief. This Saturday morning, there will be a consiglio, a meeting, with the mayor about the fognatura — the drainage system — in our borgo. Giorgio calls on everyone to...
door Maarten van Eerd | mrt 31, 2025 | Blogs English
Previously: Our neighbour Giorgio has discovered that his septic tank is leaking and cannot be repaired. It’s thirty-two degrees in the shade, and we’re sitting in Marco’s garden, waiting for the afternoon breeze, when Giorgio comes walking over. To Annarita, the...
door Maarten van Eerd | mrt 27, 2025 | Blogs English
“Siamo in un Borgo, caro – we live in a borgo, darling.” Annarita’s expression contains a mixture of compassion and amusement. Annarita is almost eighty and one of the few people who have lived in our borgo all their lives. Actually, the only one. She stands as...
