The previous owner recently sent us a message via Facebook that we are legally obliged to maintain the grassland around the house. This is necessary because the dry summers can lead to forest fires. He did have someone for us and today his former gardener is working with a tractor to make our property safe and accessible again in three mornings. And how fast that grass grows here. Two months ago everything was still short and now it is a meter high. In principle, one mowing per year is sufficient, provided that you do not do this turn too early in the spring.

Mr. Nicola Gras
Mr. We have named him Nicola Gras in our telephone book. We meet him as soon as he gets off his tractor. Our Italian is still lousy, it's all going way too fast for us. We introduce ourselves and thank him for the work. Immediately we learn another word and we will not soon forget that: "Grassi" means "fat" and our round gardener on the tractor rolls almost shaking on the grass when we show him the phone where he is registered as Nicola Grass. We quickly point to a blade of grass and say: 'grass, grass'. Haha, he is not coming anymore.

It's all about trust
We pay the espressino (it is not a cappuccino and also not a macchiato, but delicious) and latte di mandorla (fresh mix of almond milk and water), and walk onto the square of Ceglie Messapica. We had an appointment with Gianfranco from Masseria Genovese this morning, he has indicated that we will supervise the construction for us. As a construction engineer with a large network, he appears to be our lifebuoy. It is all about trust in Italy, we will have little presence during construction and we need people who are fiducia. We are told that confidence in the Italian system is not ashamed. The European Commission is of course looking at the Italian government with suspicion, and hopefully the financial markets have substantiated that confidence in the current Italian course.

UNESCO world heritage list
We had underestimated the renovation job on our previous visit. The trullo must remain as old as possible. We are dealing with a house type that is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The farmhouse is perfect for realizing 3 bathrooms and 3 bedrooms with a large communal space in the middle where you can cook. It's all about Italian cuisine, isn't it? Orecchiette making “little ears” of pasta or testing the pizza oven that is waiting for us next to the fireplace in the trulli. Daydreaming is very easy in this fairytale environment.Back to reality. Before we ever start cooking here, we need to check decisterno (well), but also place all the electricity and drains.

The first thing we need is a skeptic tank with sufficient capacity. The Greek brother-in-law (Zeerdi fiducia) has an engineering office in Ceglie Messapica and within a few days makes a complete electricity and plumbing plan and draws the drains. It will not be easy to get to our house with a truck filled with building materials, the narrow farm roads are not made for trucks.

The large moving van that will be driving from Martina Franca in the Netherlands in 2 months' time will not get to the front door anyway. , finds a darling. The help that is offered to us is perhaps the best of all that we have found here in Puglia.