Capraia

On the tiny island of Capraia we met Guliano, a sophisticated Roman in his late sixties and his two travelling companions, both retired department store managers.  Guliano invited us to supper and it turned out he was, among other things, the retired General Manager of the shipyard just up the Magra from our winter moorings and that he and one of his companions lived in Monte Marcello, the charming hill village above the Magra.  Between them they were able to answer many of the questions we had about the local area to which we had been unable to find answers in our six-month stay, as well as many new facts.  “You know that the bridge over the Magra is able to open?” Guliano said.  “No” we replied doubtfully, (the thing looks like a fixed road bridge).  

Guliano explained that he had won for his shipyard a big contract to build plastic minesweepers for the Italian Navy, but the boats were too high to go under the bridge.  After six years of arguments with the local authorities he had managed to implement a design by which the middle span of the bridge slides open on hydraulics, driven by a portable generator.  “What were all the trucks doing moving dirt up and down the road to Monte Marcello all over the winter?” we asked.  “Ah, you noticed them” Guliano replied with a light chuckle.  “I’m having an underground car park built near my house”.  It was a lovely evening during which the guys explained that they were on an extended tour of Corsica and Sardinia, with constant calls from their wives about when they were coming home.  “We keep saying we don’t know yet”, Guliano explained with a twinkle in his eye.