Living in San Giorgio di Pesaro and Kingston

Speaking of pigeons. Last Saturday I was coming out of the house when I noticed a dead pigeon lying on the steps. It wasn’t sprawled out on the steps but lying neatly between the step and the wall. At first I thought Sam our car had caught it but there was no blood and then I noticed the single bullet hole in the chest. 

It was a very unfortunate pigeon as the village is a no hunting area and in fact just yards from where it lay there is a sign indicating that this area is not only a “hunt free area” but also an “oasis of safety”. 

The bird was doubly unfortunate as Sunday was the end of the hunting season. Another 24 hours and it would have lived to “coo” another year.

This is the tower of the Church of the Holy Spirit which is in front of the house. They have been restoring the building for some time but are now on the home straight. One of the problems they had to deal with was pigeons. The pigeons have been able to get into the roof space of the church and over time had deposited lots of guano i.e. bird droppings. So an important aspect of the restoration has been to ensure that pigeons are no longer welcome in or on the church. They have blocked up any possible entrances for the birds and where there are lintels etc they have used sloping bricks which prevent the birds from roosting.  However, the main line of defence is to install a very low voltage cable on the building. When the birds come to land they get a small shock which sends them flying off. So far it seems to be very successful. Now the pigeons have migrated to the castle wall becoming someone else’s problem.

This very uninteresting picture shows the fibre optic cable (i.e. the black tube with white paper stuck to it) that is currently being installed in San Giorgio – at least this is what I have been told. They have been laying cable both in San Giorgio and Piagge and it seems that that cable will go the local telephone exchange. Once the system goes live people are saying that our internet connection will be up to 5 times, and with a good wind behind it even up to 7 times, faster than the current speed. We await with baited breath.

Every year we are asked for a Christmas present list so that we don’t get anything we don’t want. Every year we get things not asked for.

This year Bill’s niece sam won second prize in the  “getting me something I didn’t ask for and something I would never have thought of asking for” competition. She bought me a fetching black apron which comes with purple trimming. It also has hooks for attaching various kitchen implements and adjustable apron stings for cooks with the fuller figure. To complete the gift she added a large blue plastic oven guantlet which can, should the need arise, be used for internal explorations of pregnant cows.

The first prize in the “getting me something I didn’t ask for and something I would never have thought of asking for” competition must go to my brother who bought me a complete set of Norman Wisdom films. I am still trying to work out “why”.

Obviously it was a very close competition but the jury felt that Sam couldn’t get first prize as although her give was not asked and would never have been thought of it has turned out to be very useful.

Every home in San Giorgio has now received a booklet outlining the system of door to door refuse collection which is expected to start in March. The large rubbish bins in the street will become a thing of the past.

The system is already in operation in Mondavio and according to their newsletter it has been a great success despite some inital teething problems. They claim that the amount of differentiated rubbish collected has risen from 24% to 68%. This means that the amount of rubbish taken to the municipal dump dropped by 75%. The commune has to pay for each ton of rubbish taken to the municipal dump and so the new system saves money. Of course it costs more money to manage the new system which means “the annual rubbish tax” will rise. However, the success means that Mondavio is now very near the EU target and will not be penalised by central government for not differentiating their rubbish.

When the San Giorgio system starts in March we will have container for food waste, a container for paper and cardboard, a container for glass, a sack for plastics, a sack for cans,and a container for miscellaneous dry items. The very useful booklet explaining the system clarifies important questions such as do yoghurt cartons go with the plastics (they do) and so orange juice cartons go with paper (they do). As well as all the cartons and sacks an “Ecological Station” will be created for items such as medicines, batteries, old clothes, garden waste etc. It all seems very complicated to people used to throwing everything in one large container but if Mondavio can do it so can we.

Anne from Mondavio told us some time ago that eating two Brazil nuts everyday protects against Alzheimers etc. Then while reading a food magazine over Christmas an article recommended that 1 Brazil nut provides all the selenium that the body needs. It also mentioned some possible beneficial facts including helping to protect against certain cancers including prostrate (always good news for men of our age), helping against arthritis and possibly protecting against Alzheimers.  So we have decided to give it a try.

Now a few days into our regime I was searching the net for more information on the beneficial effects and came across a paragraph about what happens to the body with too much selenium. I read the following:   high blood levels of selenium can result in a condition called selenosis. Symptoms of selenosis include gastrointestinal upsets, hair loss, white blotchy nails, garlic breath odor, fatigue, irritability. Sounds just like us. Better stop the brazil nuts.

We have been away from San Giorgio for a few weeks while we went to see family and friends.  Just started to read “The Volcano Lover” by Susan Sontag. It is the story of  Sir William Hamilton a British diplomat in Naples in the 18th / 19th centuries. He becomes the husband of Emma Hamilton and welcomes Lord Nelson into his house where Nelson meets Emma. When the book opens he is preparing to leave London after visiting family and friends. I was amused to read the following lines: “Everyone is relieved when demanding older relatives who live abroad conclude their visit.” Obviously our families were much too polite to say either that they were relieved that we were leaving or that we were too demanding.

Recent bad weather in Italy has caused major flooding up in the  north and also down in the south. The Marche has been spared the worst of the weather although even hear the Iper-coop supermarket that we go to was flooded as a nearby river burst its banks. The problem was a lot of rain in a short time but also the fact that in recent years there has been a lot of new building in most parts of Italy and this building has been on vulnerable land. This problem is called cementificazione. A recent survey said that in the 1960s 92% of the marche was defined as agricultural land while today only 69% is agricultural.

A few months ago Michael from Tavernelle asked if either of us played tennis. Bill said that I used to play and would be happy to give Michael a game. The last time I played tennis the rackets were of wood and you could only wear whites on the court.

However, Michael and I agreed to play a trial game and arranged to to to the Tennis Circle at Fossombrone, a town not too far away.

We haven’t looked back. Fortunately we are about the same level and each match is a hard fought contest as the loser buys the coffee and brioche afterward in the “sport cafe” next door to the courts. A tennis commentator would probably say that more points are won on “unforced errors” than on “winning shots” but it is still great fun.

There are 4 courts in the tennis circle – 3 clay and 1 synthetic. One clay court is permanently covered and in the winter the synthetic court is also covered. This means on a Thursday morning from 9.00 to 10.00, whatever the weather, we are playing tennis, the balls literally whistling across the net.

In fact we are now members of the Circle. 40 euros a year and it gives you half price on hiring the court – if we play 20 times we will have got our money back. Another benefit of joining is that you even have an opportunity to go to the Tennis Circle’s annual dinner dance. We have passed for this year.

p.s. our games are more exciting than the photo – honestly.

Sarah Scazzi (left) was a 15 year old girl from Avetrana in Puglia who went missing in August. She was on her way to meet her cousin Sabrina (right) prior to heading to the beach. She never turned up. Various theories were put forward e.g. she had left home in a huff, she had been kidnapped etc. Then at the end of August Sarah’s uncle, father of Sabrina, found her mobile. It had been burnt and left in an old farmhouse near the town. At the beginning of October the uncle admitted murdering his niece in his garage when she rejected his advances. He had violated the body and then throw it down a well. He subsequently changed his story and said that he had murdered Sarah with Sabrina’s help but had not violated the body. Later he changed his story again and said that Sabrina had murdered Sarah in a pique of jealousy as the man Sabrina fancied was paying attention to Sarah. He had only helped dispose of the body. Now the investigators are wondering if Sarah’s aunt Cosima could also have been involved as she says she was in the house at the time but was asleep and heard nothing.

This is a very tragic story which may not seem very relevant to “living in San Giorgio”. However, it is very difficult to avoid the story if you want to watch television. In the early evening Rai 1 and Channel 5 have chat programmes and for the last couple of months the case has been discussed every evening. On afternoon television the situation is the same. It seems like trial by television. In fact they were interviewing the Sarah’s mother on a programme publicising unresolved crime and they told her on live television that Sarah’s uncle, her brother in law, had been arrested for the murder.

 Every one involved in the case has given television interviews and even in the early stages Sabrina’s comments about the day of Sarah’s disappearance were being dissected on television programmes. The lawyers of the suspects are interviewed, the recordings of interviews with the suspects are released, forensic scientists, trial lawyers give their opinions. You start to long for a day when you don’t have to change channels in an attempt avoid more programmes on the case.