Leaky Roof

The rains that have swelled our river have also caused a problem in our house. The roof has started to leak.

When we renovated the house, we replaced many roof tiles to ensure the roof would remain watertight. We rely entirely on these tiles to hold out the rain as there is no waterproof membrane or lining beneath them. Normally, this provides perfectly adequate protection from the elements, and I am told that is a relatively common roof structure for old houses in the area.

We think that some of the tiles may have become cracked when we installed the TV satellite dish, and this, combined with the very heavy rains, has caused the leak. I say we "think," because the rain has not stopped long enough for anyone to go up to the roof to find the problem and fix it!

Meanwhile, water has soaked into the middle bedroom's wall. It probably will not cause any real damage - the walls are stone after all. We will just need to re-paint and perhaps repair a bit of plaster, but we're still anxious to fix the leak as soon as possible.

The rain has to stop sometime doesn't it?

A River Wild

What a difference some rain makes. Well, actually, a lot of rain.

Back in Bagni di Lucca last weekend, the river had really risen from when I last saw it in October. A furious torrent filling almost the entire riverbed had replaced the shallow waters running over and between rocks, and the ugly concrete barrier had become a flowing waterfall.

Here's what the river looked like last summer: