Tue 25/6
- Back to Torre del Lago to shoot the house itself. No beach this time.
- Chiatri dei Puccini: Another hilltop retreat near Lago di Massaciuccoli. �??U�??? that fell into disrepair, unlike all other Puccini houses. It could easily play a haunted house in the middle of nowhere. It has however ?o��??��[a killer view of the lake] where you can see the surrounding towns out towards the Mediterranean coast, all the way to Elba.
We saw a pair of butterflies [black wings, navy stripes, white spots and a handsome black abdomen adorned with one bold yellow stripe], mating. They dangled on a thin, fragile piece of grass, one end to another, bending it over with their combined weights. It was an act so delicate and acrobatic; I was in awe.
Lunched at a marvelous ristorante on another hilltop nearby. A spiky caterpillar crawled up my leg. Am starting to wonder if I'm getting ?���?�?? [too happy to miss home].
- Massa Rossa: We had too much time between shots. I pranced around in a rice corn field with stalks taller than me, as Claudio napped in the car. It was just like the corn fields in Signs?�no aliens in sight though.
- Villa Ginori-Lisci, Massaciuccoli: Another lakeside villa. This one is not a Puccini property, but his mate's. The house is a majestic Victorian Neo-Gothic brick house, that has a snazzy little canal in its garden that links the boat "garage" of house to the lake. The garden is amazingly eccentric for Tuscany. It is bound by tall palm trees, and the marshy canal area make it look like Florida. The canal alone could have been the set for Robinson Cruesoe, or Survivor (!) The present owner of the villa is just as strikingly strange. The old Marchese Ginori-Lisci is tall and skinny, with long silver grey hair, twinkly eyes, and a white-blonde-white mouchestache [bad dye job?!] so thick and long, he looks like a 19th C personality or someone right out of Tin Tin.
*PROMISE i'll put the videos online as soon as I sort out my laptop connection*
- Claudio almost flipped on me. Living, eating AND working with the same person 24-7 for a whole week can be tiring, no matter how charming / witty / good at bursting into random 80's songs they are. It's like an accelerated intense relationship, where you stop fancying the person cos you know them too well after three days, and all mystery is lost.
Another thing: he likes to drive the puny rented Fiat Punto like it's a formula one race car. Good thing I wear seatbelts and don't get travel sickness. Bad thing I don't know how to drive.
