It’s interesting how many cities and towns in the world have a bridge as their emblem. Building bridges is rather more socially positive than building walls! London’s Tower Bridge, San Francisco’s Golden Gate bridge, Sydney’s Harbour Bridge all spring to mind. Italy has its fair share of bridges, particularly as the ancient Romans first engineered the arches used in so many constructions today. Top of the list must be Florence’s Ponte Vecchio but there are so many others that warrant special attention: Venice’s Rialto, Spoleto’s Ponte delle torri and, in our area, that gateway to the upper Serchio valley the Ponte della Maddalena, nicknamed the Devil’s bridge, which has to be one of the most extraordinary bridges in Italy. Dating back to the fourteenth century and built by command of that indomitable lady Matilda Countess of Canossa it connects the east and west banks of the river by means of three smaller arches leading up to a huge central arch almost nineteen metres in height and carries the Via Francigena or Pilgrim’s route towards Rome.

The bridge needed a fair bit of maintenance including repointing its stonework and clearing the arch buttresses of a great load of branches brought down by the floods. We passed it the other day to find the Serchio much diminished in size, leaving large tracts of dry ground in and around the bridge. The buttresses, normally almost submerged by the river, were now visible to their full height.
Lifting machinery allowed the work force to access the underside of the bridge and I was truly glad that this wonderful structure reflecting the middle ages highest engineering skills is surely going surely to survive another century.

Summer is also a useful time for works in our own little home and, with the help of a local tiler, broken ‘coppe’ or curved tiles on the little roofs protecting our doorways were replaced in preparation for the autumn rains.

The tiler brought his dog with him and, after a little initial growling from Archie, our young rescue tom, the two animals began to tolerate each other.

Today will be another day of African-style heat with temperatures touching forty degrees centigrade. I wonder how much more work will get done!