la casa - the house

Well, no, it isn't beautiful (yet) but it will be when we are finished! Both of the ugly white buildings belong to the cooperative, which will house our Tavern, rooms for visitors, our multilingual library and lots more!

la casa 2 - the house, 2

A face only a mother could love...

Ali

What would we do without Ali? It is nice to have someone to work with that always has a smile and a wisecrack to keep our spirits up.

il lavoro - the work

We had to dig down in the earth floor both to meet the norms for height in the future tavern, and also to have enough space to install insulation and tubes for the underfloor heating tubes. A wood stove will provide the heating.

da dentro - from inside

This is taken from the back room in the canteen, looking out to the main space and the entrance.

porta - door inside

Door from the inner room to what will be the bathrooms. We had to break the stones out at the base to complete the door.

martello pneumatico - pneumatic hammer

Work lowering the floor in the inner room.

ruspa - our rental dozer

I can't tell you how glad we were to have this! We started by hand power, but after a few days we realised that we needed a bit more power if we were to be finished before the turn of the next century!

stabilizzazione - near disaster

When digging out on the side of our old house, we (ahem) ended up destabilising the outer wall a bit, and had to quickly add some stabilising cables. It was a few tense days, and it taught us a bit about dealing with ancient buildings...

cucina - old kitchen

Picture taken before all this stuff was moved for temporary storage to our ARCI bar next door.

Cucina vuota - empty kitchen

Everything is out and stored in the ARCI bar next door. The brackets at the top right were made by Olivo to hold our new hood (well almost, we bought it used).

Porta nuova

This is a new door, made to connect the tavern to the kitchen, which is actually in the next building. You can see the door to this kitchen in the first picture in this series.

proto bagno - entrance to the future bathrooms

When finished we will have two bathroom facilities, one for special needs as we want everyone to be able to enjoy a visit to our tavern!

proto bagno - future bathroom

No, it doesn't look like much, but the plumbing exits are there at least.

muro - stone wall

With all the stones removed from the inside, we built a retaining wall. It will add a nice touch to the future courtyard.

Architetto - Achitect

We do have some people helping us who know what they are doing :-)

stairs removed

The stone stairs have been removed, and will be turned to allow more space in front of the tavern.

il primo

Here's what we had on our pasta for the first of two primi...

Mauro and the mussels

There were a lot of mussels eaten...

Mussels cooking

Here you can see a part of our new kitchen in operation.

Dinner is served

One of our dinners is quite an operation, but everything works because there were plenty of willing and very competent volunteers!

la strada

Here we are, after our third or fourth course.

Torrano rainbow

local buffet for the Sparviere

The Sparviere

Grigliata 2020 / Grill party 2020

Before we started working on the little building in the chestnut grove, we had a grill party. It was nice to forget the covid madness for an afternoon together.

Re della griglia! / The grillmaster!

We have a huge grill, perfect for making a barbeque for a crowd!

Casoni con tetto rotto / with broken roof

If you look at the roof line, you can see that the main suport is broken, maybe from a large branch of a chestnut falling during a storm. The inside was pretty damaged by water and time.

Messa su un nuovo tetto/Putting on the new roof

Work putting on the new roof. The main supports replaced, now we are putting on a layer of heavy tar paper before replacing the stones.

Le piagne / Re-putting the stones

The art of the original stone roof is not one that any of us are expert in, so that is one reason for the tar paper underneath. The stones will now be mainly to preserve the visual harmony of the traditional casoni.

Le piagne / Re-putting the stones 2

Another view. We used cement on the bottom layers, but then the stones were just placed on the roof as well as we were able.

Le piagne /Re-putting the stones 3

It took a while and a few arguments about how to best put the stones...

Un po' di pulizia / Cleaning up a bit

The end of the day for a member of the stone supply chain...

Casoni con il tetto finito / with finished roof

Well, we did get it finished. A bit of wood trim is missing on the edges, but at least the building is secure.

Base per il forno / Platform for outdoor stove

Ali and Maurizio made a platform (later covered with stone), where we will put the old oven from our kitchen down in town. There will be a removable enclosure to protect it when it isn't in use.

The Sparviere

The Sparviere