House-hunting turns out to be more tricky than I had remembered. (It’s almost 20 years since we’ve done any serious house-hunting.) We’ve had an offer for our Abingdon house that we’ve indicated we’re prepared to accept, provided we can tie down the house we want in Hertfordshire. But - and it’s a big but - the house we’ve set our hopes on in Herts is owned by a couple who are splitting up. She wants to sell the house; he’s hoping he can raise the money to buy her out.

So, is that house on the market or not? We can no longer rely on it and we’ve withdrawn our offer, pending a resolution of the ‘will he? won’t he?’ question.

In the meantime, Erica’s trawled property websites and identified various houses that would be OK. None of them would suit us as well as the house we want, but we’ll have to start hunting again.

War memorial, Acuto

Originally uploaded by John Barnabas.

Also in the war memorial grove there was this piece of bas relief, showing Italian soldiers in their Second World War uniforms. Oddly, it was not put in place until 1982.

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Acuto war memorial

Originally uploaded by John Barnabas.

I found this rather dark and creepy war memorial grove next to the cemetery in Acuto. Before one reaches the main cemetery - mostly concrete and stone vaults above ground - there?s a dark grove on the side of the hill which contains the memorial to the Acuto war dead. The grove is walled all around, with iron gates at the bottom. Inside the gates, broad and shallow steps climb up the hill to a barely seen chapel. The trees are planted in regimented rows ,and by each tree there is an enamel plaque on an iron stalk with the name of one of the war dead - immolated, apparently, for the glory of la patria. Perpetual lights - battery operated, by their looks - burn by some of the memorials, glimmering in the under-tree gloom like igni fatui or will-o?-the-wisp.

An old chapel sits at the top of the steps. The door is ajar and another perpetual light burns there, near the altar. I hesitate to go in - this reminds me too much of those ghost stories in which the hero or heroine enters the ruined chapel in the graveyard only to be locked in or to encounter a crazed and ancient priest or some other horror. I walk around. I have a look at the monument to the war dead - a bas-relief of heroic soldiers in World War II Italian helmets - odd to think that this is a memorial to ?the other side? - that had been placed there in 1982. Why so long after the war?

I skirt around the chapel and pluck up courage to push the door. It swings silently - no ghost-story creaking of hinges, no crazed priest to grab me and slam the door with grating of key and an invitation to eternity - and I see a bare, dim space with a few chairs along the sides. Candles stand before the altar, but there?s nothing on top, not even a cross. Peering further into the gloom I can see that the cross is in fact against the east wall above the altar.

The perpetual light gleams in its sconce to one side of the altar.

A creepy place altogether.

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Acuto

Originally uploaded by John Barnabas.

Here you can see how Acuto, on its hilltop, looks down into a broad valley, where the road from Anagni to Fiuggi and on to Frosinone runs.

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Acuto from La Panoramica terrace

Originally uploaded by John Barnabas.

This is taken looking from the terrace of the Centre for Baha’i Studies, Hotel La Panoramica.

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I returned from Italy on Sunday night. It had been very hot in Acuto (33C at the hottest time most days), but we had a cracking thunderstorm on Saturday evening. I say ‘a thunderstorm’ - I think there must have been at least two storms, possibly three, going on at the same time. From time to time we could see two or three simultaneous lightning strikes.

Acuto is in the Apennine Mountains south of Rome. It’s a small hilltop town, a commune, with narrow streets, mysterious side alleys, stairways, churches. Not a tourist place, but a work-a-day Italian town with a few shops and a real community life. About 750m above sea level. Hotel la Panoramica, the Bah?’? Studies Centre, stands on a hillside overlooking Acuto, which always looks wonderful in the early morning sun.

Thunderstorms have a strange effect on grown people, especially men.
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