A path less rocky ... Breaaaathe!

It has been a rocky few weeks and without wishing to court fate, I think we might just have found a way through the unexpected, bureaucratic boulders thrown our way by the local municipality last month.

In a nutshell, the only way for us to extricate ourselves from the rock and the hard place we find ourselves in (yeah yeah, I'll stop with the geological riff now)  is to pay for an engineer who will come and test the construction materials used in the new structure - because there is an acceptance you can't do much to safeguard a late 18th century trullo from being shaken down in an earthquake but you can ensure modern materials are up to scratch.

If if all is well, which we are assured it will be, final permission certificates will be granted in a month(ish). So, fingers crossed. Our pockets are lighter but at least the path feels less stony. (Alright, no more, I swear).

Meanwhile, we have the okay to keep working and and IT IS SO EXCITING!!!

The cones are slowly but surely going up. The system is wonderfully old fashioned even though modern methods/technology include a limestone/cement membrane between the inside drystone construction and the outside drystone build of the cones to ensure we are waterproof and rock-fall proof!

During Spanish rule, when the trulli apparently first started to appear, they were built in a way that if one stone got pulled out, the whole structure collapsed: this meant the farmers and shepherds who built them didn't have to pay their Spanish overlords exorbitant taxes for a new building. I'm quite sure I've told you this yarn but hey, as we journos say, once a good story, always a good story.

Anyway, the stonemasons (known as trullari here) put up a string 'umbrella' around the foundation of what was left of the cones and follow the lines to the top....this week they had sunshine and tapped and smashed and re-built to their heart's content.

Mimmo, the constructor, sent me so many photos and every time one pinged into my whatsapp, it made the day look sunnier and brighter and my spirits lifted despite the grey skies and pouring rain here in London.


I must confess that I have become an addict on second hand furniture sites and have word files in my laptop brimful of ideas for how to furnish the tiny spaces inside the trulli to make them both aesthetically pleasing and true to their humble origins but also utilitarian for easy-going holidays in the sunshine (for us and our future guests and rental clients). I have this sense that pared down and minimal is the way to go - but not in a way that feels cold or unwelcoming.

Below is the little alcove between bedroom number one (fits a double bed, that's it) and to the right of the fireplace, a cubbyhole which will be a very cool shower and toilet).

The conundrum and challenges of spaces not much bigger than a small yacht is intriguing ... I've also got ideas about what to plant to add to the lovely selection of trees already there. Oh, and I'm so excited that my grandparents kitchen table (a huge part of my childhood memories) has been set aside by my mum and will be coming from Naples to Puglia to be the centre of the little kitchen).

Honestly, I just cannot wait. And yet as we enter our 6th month of this crazy adventure, there is something wonderful too about delayed gratification, about planning and dreaming and never quite knowing what awaits you around the corner ...

 I hope you like the  photos from the week's work.

And a zillion thanks to those of you held their breath with us - and chanted 'balls of steel, we must have balls of steel'!