Narrowboatboy’s Big, Bad Blog...Narrowboat & Travel blog based on Lancaster Canal

Ok, I admit that's sums were never my strongest area but I was good at Chemistry! Well it didn't take long for some 'Clever D...Trevor...ick' to point out that it was 5tons of logs and not 50 so I don't feel as good about stacking it all now...so thanks!🤓 This track by the late Ian Dury from 'New boots and panties'....great title too. https://youtu.be/eiulgP9kR7c Sent wi' th'ipad

As I settled down in my hammock for an afternoon snooze there was a knock at the door....well, there wasn't cos no-one knocks around here, they pull up the drive, honk and wait for someone to find them. This time it was the local woodsman from the top of the road who annually fetches the winter wood order, sometime in October. He is obviously keen this year and we must be on top of his list as on enquiring as to when the logs would arrive he uttered a word I wasn't expecting, "Adesso!"(Now!). Ten minutes later a tractor and trailer was backing up the drive and had dumped its full load full of logs at the back door. Right.....that will be the winter fuel here then... You order dry, seasoned firewood for the winter by the Quintali here. One Quintali is equivalent to 100kg or a ton, we just had 50 quintali delivered!  You can't get anymore Italian than "Cinquanta Quintali"... The load was a mix of local hardwoods from the nearby woods, dry and well seasoned...

The reluctant but happy guests left this morning and headed off to Florence and I headed off the other way, 35k along the 'Strada dei Vini' to Montepulciano. The place is synonymous with fine robust Italian wine but that is not, surprisingly, why I'm here. Todays visit is for a folklorist event being held here. The 'Bravio Delle Botti' is a popular annual event that takes place on the last Sunday in August. The spectacle is basically 8 teams of blokes from neighbouring districts of the town having a gruelling race to see who can push a barrel up the hill the quickest. It's been going on since medieval times and is still a popular event in the Tuscan calendar. The pushers (spingitori) have to push the barrels(Botti) full of delicious ' Nobile Di Montepulciano' up the steep cobbled streets to the finish at the steps of the Duomo in the main Piazza Grande and then the winners get a cloth flag(Bravio)...Is that it?? It...

I haven't blogged for a while as (a) I haven't been anywhere of note and (b) I have mainly been looking after the guests. I have realised that some folk like to go off every day and see lots of places with statues with little penises and paintings of old ladies looking sad and others are happy enough to sit and relax by the pool with a glass of Prosecco and a copy of the Radio Times(JB?) But anyway, still no rain and therefore the guests here have been enjoying the sunshine everyday in the 30's and getting as 'brown as cupboards'. But this afternoon, I'm going to take a short break and I'm off about 10 miles down the road to have a look at Castiglione Del Lago. We are now in Umbria, at another smaller medieval town on the side of Lake Trasimeno. Here, this castle and fortress was probably on the market in the Middle Ages, about 1247 and built by Freddy the 2nd of this manor . Notice the TV Ariel on the ramparts...I bet even back then it was dodgy reception t...

I had a walk this morning up to the catholic church at the top of the woods, the unassuming 'Sepoltaglia' with a nice view over to the historic Trasimeno lake. I then decided to walk the 3 miles up to Cortona later too...as, you guessed it, they were having yet another festival and I wanted to take a look at this one. So I wish you all a merry Ferrogosto... Ferrogosto has been celebrated in Italy since 18BC and it's historically a catholic feast following months of hard agricultural labour and to celebrate Mary's Assumption... So I'm assuming I need to celebrate it too...."Well, if it's good enough for Mary"... So what in Gods name has this has to do with tackling a massive lump of rare beef steak? Well, this weekend in the Parterre(public gardens) in Cortona, fourteen metres...yes, quite a long way, of red-hot flaming barbecue has been erected for the 58th 'Sagra Delle Bistecca', T-bone steak festival, set up for celebrating Ferrogosto. It...

Now I don't know much about religion being an apiarist, but I had a hankering to go to see Assisi spiritual and sacred and home of the famous Italian patron Saint Francis, and up and till he died in 1226, he was quite the troubadour Friar Tuck of his day. You see the town sprawling up the hillside as you approach and looking quite impressive and inviting. I arrived at teatime, basically when everyone else had been and gone, in order to have a walk around without all the annoying tourists wandering round gawping at maps trying to find the back passage of St. Benedictus and to avoid an excessive heat rash.  A wise choice as I parked at the far end of the town and walked in along old beautifully kept winding streets and up and down once again many many steps leading to church after church after Catholic church.  Why did they need so many? Since old Franny' left, the place seems to have become a haven for sandal wearing monks, nuns, sinners, shrines, crosses, fountai...