And Now We're on Fire, (but not in a good way.)
I might have spoken too soon in my last post where I said things were back on the upswing. Its amazing how quickly things can turn around. The heatwave is continuing and now there are fires in some of the gorgeous little villages in the.mountains surrounding Lucca and even at Viareggio near the beach. I am writing this late at night, hunkered down in the living room, all shutters and windows blocked shut as the smoke outside is acrid, reminiscent of the smoke in Melbourne. during the bush fires in 2020.
Last week we popped down. to the river with Pandy early morning to avoid the heat and sat by the river with some coffee and little apple pastries as we enjoyed the cool breeze from the river. Looking towards the mountains we noticed a plume of smoke, at first wondering if it was just a. big cloud, but then we could see it billowing and realised there must be a fire or they were burning off some land. By the time we left the river it seemed to have stopped so we thought nothing more of it,
Later in the afternoon as we looked out of our living room window we noticed a plume of smoke getting larger and larger as the cloud got darker and darker. I am doing some volunteer work with the expat online newspaper while the founder Diana prepares to go away on vacation so I was looking at some local news in search of some new events to add to the website and realised that Massarossa a town we just drove through on the bus a week ago was on fire and that 40 homes had been evacuated. I posted it on the news page and also the Friendly People of Lucca groups page on Facebook just to make people aware of road closures towards Viareggio as many people in Lucca have been heading to the beach there. Then the photos started pouring in from people living near Massarossa and Viareggio speaking of burning leaves and ash in the air. Diana was on a bus heading in the direction and posted some spectacularly horrifying photos that now there are more major fires blazing, Massarossa, Bozzano, Gualdo, Viareggio. That night the Tuscan president announced we may have power outages in Lucca and Viareggio due to the fires.
We feel so sad for the people in these beautiful little villages and a number of homes have been lost. Also the poor wildlife and the pets and animals on the farms needing to be evacuated and temporarily homed. A call was put out for the possibility for people. to take in animals if needed and we would have absolutely volunteered,. although Pandy might have wondered what a herd of goats and a donkey were doing in the apartment, a secret lifelong dream of. mine finally fulfilled even if it was only temporary and totally impractical! The firefighters and volunteers did an absolutely amazing job getting everything under control within a couple of days but it was a tense time, even here in Lucca wondering if the smoke would get worse, or more fires would spring up even closer.
I started thinking of contingency escape plans mainly for mum as the smoke in the air was worsening. I contacted my friend Alison in Ireland through Whatsapp and told her she might get a couple of climate change refugees turning up, and where was the nearest airport and where exactly does she live? She rang me in a panic, wondering what on earth was going on as as she does not watch the news anymore and lives blissfully unaware of the terrible shenanigans going on in the world and had no idea Europe was burning. She said, if the need arose of course we could come and stay. Then I realised I don’t have a pet passport for Pandy yet and so I started researching. and looking at alternative forms of transport as none of the airlines flying out of Pisa take dogs.
It never occurred to me moving to Italy, as we looked forward to summertime and some warm weather that this relentless heatwave would have such an impact on how we feel about the place, about the future. I still love Italy of course, but have had to limit going out to early in the morning or late in the evening as it is just far too hot during the daytime to go anywhere too far. This has also put a kaibosh on any excursions further afield as once again it is too hot and my mum can’t walk far without feeling faint. Sadly I fear this weather is only going to continue all over the world as the governments have ignored the scientists and the the people who are genuinely concerned about what is happening to this planet. This just makes me so sad and horrified as I watch the news and see other “unprecedented” floods, fires, temperature records being broken, famine, wars and posturing by the powers that be and I think thank goodness I followed my dream and moved to Italy when I did, because who knows how long we actually have left if things don’t make a drastic turnaround. So if you are reading this, and procrastinating about a lifelong dream, I say do it, pursue it, because life is short, not a dress rehearsal.
View from our. window. 2. The fires on tv 3. View from Viarreggio towards Lucca
I cannot believe almost a month has passed since I started writing this, but we were inundated, not by smoke this time, or flood waters but by boxes! Yes our echo-filled minimalist space was turned into a floor to ceiling city of boxes as our belongings arrived from Australia. The three guys who showed up to move everything upto the second floor had driven from Rome early in the morning and spent pretty much the whole day moving everything with only short breaks for our offerings of coffee, icy amarena and little tidbits to keep them going, as the sweat literally poured off them as the heat wave continues. They were the tiniest guys, but so incredibly strong. The locals in the hood were all fascinated by the big truck parked outside and news spread fast of the wild and strong Romans who had come.
I popped down to Sandra Patisserieto get some coffees and the very handsome man at the deli a few doors down was chatting with my downstairs neighbour and stopped me to chat about how strong they were especially the short wiry one, Massimo who was a strong as an ox, and traversed the stars like a Sherpa in the Himalayas carrying a wardrobe on his back. Many of the shopkeepers popped their heads out and spoke to me about how far I had come to live in Lucca and it was fun watching the shenanigans in the street as passersby peered into the hallway or stopped to chat to the movers, and a nice chance to get to know everyone in the neighbourhood better.
It was amazing how the sound changed instantly in the house, the noise deadened like being in a vocal booth in a recording studio. One of my friends Mia who moved to Italy about a year ago said I must be so excited having our stuff arrive and that “its like Christmas when you open every present and you like it”. That has been a lovely way to look at it, instead of being frozen with dread at the thought of unpacking everything. Her words have rang true for many boxes, especially clothing and shoes as I have been wearing the same handful of outfits for months and my shoes were all looking a bit worse for wear. Every time I had to go out somewhere I would think who did I see yesterday? Will they be there today? Darn I cannot wear that again then!!:-) So it was nice to just pop some of my favourite dresses on and change up my sneakers. Other boxes on the other hand, have made me wonder what on earth were we thinking? I suppose it is two houses combined, into one, a small two bedroom, and mum’s three bedroom had a garage and a couple of sheds filled with things now in a two bedroom apartment! Despite giving away so many things before we left it still feels a bit overwhelming and last night I remarked how I kind of miss our makeshift cardboard box coffee table and all the empty space, but also happy to have our couches, to actually lie down sometimes and put my feet up.
The first night, the priority was assembling my bed and installing our mattresses. Oh my goodness it was like lying on a cloud, when I finally hopped on my bed, absolutely blissful and my mum called out from her room how the love of her life, “Topper” as in mattress topper was finally here. We laughed so hard. Despite the mountains of work ahead I felt so lucky and grateful just to have a nice bed to sleep in. That same evening a massive lightning storm had rolled in, which went on for about an hour. The view was absolutely spectacular as we watched from the living room window, as the sky flashed white, orange and purple and we thought, finally, the heat will abate, and there will be some much anticipated,…… craved for rain, ….except not a drop of rain fell in Lucca, not one single drop! A very whitty person in the Friendly People in Lucca group made me laugh the next morning. His post read, “for those of you that missed the rainstorm last night, I will be doing a reenactment at 9am, where I shall, be emptying half a glass of water over my balcony,.” Rain is a major topic of conversation at the moment, not only in Lucca, but all over Italy where the River Po is drying up, inhabited islands on Lake Garda once surrounded by water suddenly have extra land where the water has receded. Very scary stuff.
And so, the last couple of weeks I have been attacking box city with fervour and perhaps too much vigour, as the movers stacked boxes on top of each other and some were very heavy, all of which I have single-handedly had to tackle, unpack, fold, giveaway, lug down flights of stairs ready for the weekly carta collection. I think I have injured my stomach muscles as a result, and that combined with a change in water and diet, post-coved weirdness it is all somehow wreaking havoc. Anyway after yet another visit to a doctor, I am booked for a scan this week, which will hopefully get to the bottom of what is going on, as box city is nearly annihilated once and for all.
It hasn't entirely been all work. and no play, as I have also been at school for three hours every morning for two weeks learning Italian at a school called Melting Pot which I can actually see from my balcony as it is less than 20 steps from my house, which also naturally means I am always the last one in the classroom! Giulia my lovely teacher was not perturbed in the least.”E normale!!”
I thoroughly enjoyed the class, my Italian has notably improved and as an amazing extra bonus I have made two wonderful new friends Nancy and Lidia, two young violin-playing sisters who moved to Lucca from Mexico and recently graduated from the Boccherini Institute. With Lidia and my other friend Cristina I did catch the Equadorian sculptor, Pablo Atchugarry guided tour and exhibition, which was absolutely fascinating and I discovered a church with the most incredible wooden ceiling and acoustics. I managed to pop to Livorno and was a beach bum for an afternoon with my teacher Daniele, a beach with nowhere to change except on the pebbles. and rocks, so that was interesting trying to undress and put on a tankini whilst surrounded by people on all sides! Getting to Livorno from Lucca on a Sunday was an adventure in itself, which due to sheer exhaustion just reliving it I will perhaps save for telling another day.
Thunderstorm that finally brought rain to Lucca. Footage taken from my kitchen window overlooking the balcony.