ANOTHER TUSCAN ROOM, ANOTHER TUSCAN VIEW

This view is from a sort of all-purpose room. It is the Doberman's bedroom, a spare bedroom, a linen cupboard and Himself's dressing room. It is small and dark and has but this one window.

The house had not been lived in for 40 years when we bought it. When I first crept into this room over broken tiles and a sagging floor, bats flew out of it. The Italian surveyor with us clutched his hair and shouted, "Birds!" Considering that he did not speak English, this was quite a good effort.

There was a non-flush toilet built into the room, just a seat with a hole in it and a drop to a concha (tub) below. Emptying the tub must have been one of the less pleasant tasks of hill living but no doubt better than going to an outhouse in the dark and in all weathers.

The building seen from the window is a capana (hut or little barn). It was so overgrown with a hummock of vines, wild clematis and brambles that we didn't know it was there. Once we took possession of the property we came out with a carrier bag containing bread, cheese, wine and a vicious penata, the local dialect word for billhook.

While I sat full of the joys at owning a bit of Italy, Himself was hacking through the undergrowth. A hair-raising cry came from inside the jungle. Since Himself is accident prone and faints at the sight of blood, I feared the worst.

He emerged in tact, however, and said, "There's another building in there!" It was a little barn with space for a donkey below with a hayloft above. It is not often one gets such a bonus when buying ruins. We turned it into a tiny guest house out of which guests popped in the morning complaining of claustrophobia. It is now used for storage and a seasonal lunch place for anyone working here. We call it "The Bothy."