My Nono (grandfather), Andrea Federico “Carlo” Bisio, left his village when he was 13. Around the turn of two centuries past. He sailed the seas and oceans for seven years and learned to make breads and pastries as a apprentice baker.
Eventually he returned to Capriata D’Orba and opened a small bakery after many months of renovations. The morning of his first day as chief baker there awaited a young woman at the door of the shop. She became my Nonna (grandmother). What a great love story.
At the beginning of this year I emailed the contractor all through January, February, March and April. I told him if the house will not be finished by the time we would arrive in May, we will just cancel our flights and come in September. Nope… he said in April… the house is done. We got to Casa Therese and it was not done.
I’m all for adventure so urban camping wasn’t so bad. In fact, it was really good we stayed there (Casa Carlo was rented) because the first morning I woke up I discovered a small puddle of water on the newly renovated stone floor in the bathroom on the main floor of the house just off the kitchen. I got a towel and cleaned it up. Next morning, same thing. I called the contractor. He arrived and told me it was from splashed water from the sink. I told him I was positive the water on the floor did not come from the sink. He asked how I was so sure. “Because we have not used that sink.”
He called the plumber who arrived the next day. He changed the rubber gasket in the wall where the drain from the sink was attached.
“Questo e tutto,” he said. “E tutto sistemato!” “That will do it. It is all fixed.”
The following morning… water on the floor. Now three plumbers came back. Replaced the rubber gasket that was a day old and the drain pipes from the sink. “Tutto fatto.” All done.
The next morning… yep… water on the floor. The three came back. They decided to remove the toilet. It was cracked in half where it coupled to the sewer drain. Apparently whoever attached the toilet to the drain cranked it too tight to the stone floor and cracked it. “Torneremo domani.” (“We will be back tomorrow”).
They returned with a new toilet and installed it. They were so proud of their work they brought me to the bathroom to show me how well the crapper flushed. It worked to perfection. Almost. The water from the toilet came up and out of the drain in the new shower.
“C’é un intasamento nello scarico,” I said. “C’é un intasamento nello scarico,” the three plumbers harmonized. There is a clog in the drain.
“Abbiamo bisogno di un serpente per liberare la fogna,” one of the plumbers said.
Literal translation is, “We need a snake to liberate the sewer.” I agreed.
They all stared at each other, then turned their attention to me.
“Scommetto che ne hai un nel grande camion dell’idraulico parcheggiato qui fuori,” I said. I bet you have one in your big plumber’s truck parked outside.
“No, torneremo domani.” No, we will come back tomorrow. And they left.
A domani… The next day all three returned with a coiled hand-operated drain snake that quickly reached the clog and could not get through it.
“Abbiamo bisogno di un serpente motorizzato.” We need a motorized snake.
I’m sure you have one in your truck!
“No, torneremo domani.”
The next day they came back with a motorized snake that could not clear the blockage.
“Abbiamo bisogno di un serpente con una telecamera.”
I bet you don’t have a snake with a camera on it in your big plumber’s truck! I was correct.
“Si. Dobbiamo portare il serpente con la macchina fotografica domani..” Yes. We need to bring the snake with the camera tomorrow.
Three days later they arrived with the snake and camera set up. Within ten-minutes they found the clog.
“Si trova nel tuo deposito accanto al garage.” It is in the storage area next to the garage.
It was early in the morning when they found the blockage. They packed up their equipment and went to their truck, got in and started the engine.
“I bet you don’t have a jackhammer in this truck to bust up the floor and wall.”
“Andremo a prenderne una e torneremo dopopranzo,” We will go get one and be back after lunch.
As they drove away I thought they could sell the big plumber’s truck for some good money, go to Sardinia for a week, come back and still have the cash to buy a Fiat 500 as their new commercial vehicle. They really didn’t need all the space that truck offered.
The following week (it was a long lunch) one plumber arrived with the jackhammer and revealed the sewer drain on the floor and in the wall. It took most of the day. And the aroma… nothing like the fine fragrances flowing from the fine ristorantes in Orvieto.
He cut out the section that was clogged with what seemed like a decade of toilet tissue as hard as concrete. He placed a brick under the drain pipe coming down from the bathroom above to give it support. Took buckets-full of concrete, plaster and earth and dumped it in the garage, got in the big plumber’s truck and drove away.
Three weeks later I caught a flight back to Colorado and…
The sewer drain from the new toilet in the new bathroom upstairs is very clear. As clear as the view to the back wall of my darkroom.
If I had a towel, and I did not because the plumbers used all of them to soak up the sewage coming up in the shower drain, I would have thrown it in.
NEXT: The meeting with our management team.
