Energy

We use a gas-powered (with a bit of electricity, too) caldia to heat the water that flows through the network of tubes that lay under the floors to keep our house warm in the winter.

Most of our neighbors also have such heating systems; it is the standard, I would say. The caldia, that is.

Then there are the locals.

I wrote previously about their wood-burning furnaces.
I recently had the opportunity to actually see one. This big, dirty red machine is in the basement -- the wood goes in the open door, and with the magic of technology, heats the water that flows through their house.




Part of the wood supply is in the taverna. I distinctly remember them working on this project in August during the break from work when most Italians head to the mountains or beaches.


They buy permits to chop the wood in the surrounding hills.
Hard labor.
Hard, hard labor.
(I did hear a chain saw this August, but hard labor nonetheless.)

I foolishly asked Marco what would happen when he and his wife grew old & could no longer do the back-breaking work?
Silly, silly me, how quickly I forget that I am indeed in Italy, where family trumps all. His children, of course, would take care of them.
Of course.