Tuscany 2012 –Arrival

How we find the place at 1 a.m. in the rain on a narrow, twisting, uphill road I still wonder. How we park when parking is all but nonexistent was a minor miracle. How we find the key under one particular flowerpot when the first 15 we try turn up empty can only be attributed to a bit of travel wherewithal: We bring flashlights so we can reread instructions. Our reward in the morning is our first view of a great Italian art – the art of the hillside hamlet. Take a look at Ombreglio di Brancoli, our hamlet some 30 minutes north of the walled Tuscan city of Lucca. The chimes in the church tower you see in the upper right are distinctively odd.  They only chime from one to six times and strike that number again five minutes after the hour. So 1 a.m. gets one gong, but so does 7 a.m.  And 6 a.m. gets six clangs of the bell, but so does noon. The same pattern holds the rest of the day. The half-hours are expressed with one chime followed by lighter-toned strikes to match the hour sequence just described.

We find safe refuge for our rental car beside a tiny stone shrine about 200 meters from our front door. The walk along the narrow drive to and from our car is a great reward every day. The view of the neighboring hamlets and surrounding olive groves is a pure delight.  So are the wild flowers that grace the slope on the other side of the drive, these hyacinths for instance. Talk about living art – these bursts of color – and living in art – these villages.

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2 comments on “Tuscany 2012 –Arrival”

1. elisabeth on August 20, 2012 at 1:17 am said:

   Hi Scott….(and Michael?)
   Are you still traveling? The hamlet and photos of same are magnificent. I especially love the door (is that inside a little courtyard?) and the flowers. Oh, but I love the countryside, too. As for the clock, clearly it chimes in base 6. Why, I don’t know.

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   • scott on August 20, 2012 at 12:24 pm said:

     No, we’ve been back since mid-May. The three Tuscany posts were done at the behest of my web designer in late June. By the time I actually began was able to work the website myself, it was early August, and recording the progress of our month away seemed a little old. Yet I’ll probably add some Tuscany posts throughout the year. Thanks so much for your interest.

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