Rocky road, one step at a time

The last site visit began with a couple of hiccups: a car rental blooper saw a deeply grumpy husband express his mood floridly to the man at the counter - #wifewithredface - while I managed to leave my new phone (with bank cards, bookings etc etc) in the ladies loo at Bari airport. Thankfully, whoever used it next handed it in to lost property and I got it back - but not before a good hour of gnashing of teeth/hysterics/kittens from me. This meant we did the drive to Monopoli where we were staying the night in a gritty/gratey/grisly silence. Truthfully, we are a damn good team in life, Robert and I - just not in the car. It's been a pattern since day one and hasn't changed terribly much. That said, we are also glass half full people and a good plate of pasta and a stiff drink soon melted the glacial atmosphere, as did walking past a delightfully Italian pebbly beach scene!

Site-visit day dawned bright, the sun hung in a sky deep and blue. The drive with vineyards on one side and the sea on the other lifted our spirits and excitement mounted.

The truth is that as the ruin has slowly been deconstructed and rebuilt, I've felt a strange kind of melancholy at the loss of something beautiful in its decrepitude and there is a part of me that fears the changes I will see every time I visit. (It reminds me of the odd melancholy I felt with my newborn girls when each day meant they were moving further away from that incredible time of total immersion in early motherhood. Okay, I know this sounds weird but it's the only comparison I can find to describe the feeling).

This time was no different: the site looks like a bomb went off and you realise, once the earthmover has been in, just how unforgiving and rocky the ground is - and why Puglia is full of drystone walls.

Wow! Boulders the size of a small car in some places and enough rock to build another 10 trulli I reckon. Part of me felt elated at how far we have come, another part of me wondered how the hell it will all pan out - and when?!

The pool now has a bottom and the aluminium sides are going in as I write. Pool technology has changed so much it seems (not that we have ever had a pool before). I want it to look more like a dam but have been thwarted by council requirements ... have a few tricks up my sleeve and hoping I get 'em through.

Inside, OMG it is starting to look wonderful. The simplicity of whitewash and stone, the excitement of finding how to make these teeny spaces work as bedrooms, cum reading spots cum lounge rooms... the floors will be poured next week and this will make a huge difference as the levels come up and we get a better sense of the 'feel' of the spaces.

I absolutely love the little anteroom Mimmo the Magician has carved around the little fireplace.

And I am totally in love with our little bedroom even if it will only have room for the bed!

Outside, both from front and back, Trullo Mar'e Stelle looks quirky, nestled into the landscape as it has for two centuries but almost ready to receive humans again.

Oh, and how fabulous are the little stone steps leading up to the aperitif terrace?