Nocera Umbra

We went to Umbria last weekend to see our good friends Carole and Kevin.  Summer has arrived with a vengeance in the South and it was a hot drive north up the motorway that runs along the Adriatic coast.  Finally we turned left and wound our way up into the Appenines, to the small hill town of Nocera Umbra in the mountainous heartland of Italy.  We stayed in an apartment in an old farmhouse outside the town and this was the view from our window.

Carole and Kevin have recently returned to their town house here after an absence of fourteen years.  They bought the place in the late 80s and then were forced out when a series of earthquakes in September 1997 made most of the old town centre uninhabitable.  Now they are the first people to move back to their street, surrounded by scaffolding and building work and a network of improvised water pipes and electricity cables.

The restoration of Nocera Umbra following the quakes is a very Italian story of graft and inefficiency on the one hand and loyalty, patience and tenacity on the other.  I last came here with them about four years ago, when to keep their sanity they had really given up hope that one day they might actually get their home back.  But, slowly the restoration continued to the point where it became feasible for them to sell their trullo complex in Puglia and make plans to return.

It must be strange, picking up the threads that they had to drop so suddenly all those years ago, when their Italian dream unravelled in a few short days.  I really hope they weave something new here from the old.  They certainly deserve to.  Good luck my dears!