Wild-Fire in the Trees

Yesterday we had a bit of a fright when a forest fire sprang up just a few hundred yards from our house, at the bottom of our neighbour's garden.  Just below Capezzano Monte, olive groves and clumps of pine and chestnut cover the hillside all the way down to the town of Pietrasanta.   Fire had broken out in the undergrowth - probably a spark from a bonfire of grass cuttings - and quickly leapt up into the trees.

Suddenly we felt very vulnerable, as the pine cones burst in the branches like hand grenades and bamboo exploded in the undergrowth.   But the fire brigade and the antincendio dei boschi arrived within about 20 minutes, ran a pump and hose down through the olive groves and soon got it under control.  Luckily there was no wind to fan it or carry it deeper into the gully. It has made us see how easy it is for these things to happen.   I was already calculating which of my possessions I was going to take with me when I ran from the house!  Hopefully, we will never have to.  Must take care with the barbecue!!

Wildfires in Italy

So here I am  back in Italy, in the little house in the olive grove, where it is hot, hot, hot - as the locals put it 'caldo a morire' which translates roughly 'hot enough to die'.  Today it was around 40 degrees with no vestige of a breeze.

We walked along to the little bar in the village last night, to watch the sunset, but found ourselves watching wildfires instead.  The photographs were taken in very dark conditions so it's difficult to see all the fires that we could see.   One big one to the right of the church tower, another further over almost obscured by the tree branch,  there was another one on the other side of the hill generating a lot of smoke,  and shortly after we took this photo two more appeared on the hills just above the top of the tower.  You can just see a number of points of light in this picture. 

They were using helicopters and specially adapted planes to douse them. The planes actually touch the surface of the sea, ploughing a white furrow, in order to scoop up water.

Then they fly into the smoke to drop it all on the blaze. It's very skilful flying and very impressive to watch.

This morning the whole valley beneath us was under a pall of smoke.

Tuscany Burning

I'm just off to Italy for some much-needed convalescence, so this will be my last post before I arrive. Like Greece, the Tuscan Alps also have a problem with wild-fires and recently the mountainside above Peralta - where Neil is working - has been blazing. He walked up the hill early the other morning and sent me these pictures of the fire as he casually strolled through.




It looks hot - but after weeks and weeks of miserable northern weather and a maximum of 17 degrees (this is summer?) I think I can take a little heat!

I'm looking forward to the relaxation, the Prosecco, and cafe life. I have a favourite cafe, run by two sixty-something men with grey pony tails and ragged jeans. The main attraction is going to the loo, where they play a tape of someone's sonorous voice reading Dante. It's quite hypnotic and people do seem to spend a lot of time in 'i servizi'! The tables are heaped with newspapers and poetry books, and it was here that I first came across Alda Merini 'one of the most powerful contemporary female poets writing in Italian' according to one review. I think some of her poetry is quite religious - content difficult for an aetheist - but the sound of it is utterly beautiful. I've never let my religious differences put me off Donne or Hopkins, so not Merini either. I'm learning Italian and hope to be able to understand it better in the original language soon.

Here's to practising! And I will remember to raise a glass of Prosecco to absent friends.