Do you ever come back to a place, after so many years, and relive everything in a new flight, amid amazement and nostalgia? New emotions make your antennae vibrate, and that‘s how it is for me, today.
(by Katiuscia Girgenti)
Inside the church, the stables and stables of vaults and round pillars. Of solid bricks, marble and stone are the dwellings of the sharecroppers, going round and round, like the walls of the mediaeval manor house. I always wondered, given the irrigation canals and the prevalence of wheat crops, if there was also a mill inside. Either way, it would have fit right in!!!
The gates opened and from the cobblestone driveway, which ran through the garden, one could reach by carriage the patronal residence, with its towers, sundial and terracotta capitals. A flight of fancy to evoke the everyday life of yesteryear, projected into the 16th century. All of a sudden I imagine Mrs Adorno, as she gets out of the carriage and pulls up her skirts slightly, so as not to soil them with mud, just enough to not arouse the squire‘s humour at the sight of a bare ankle!
I don‘t understand why, out of all the nice thoughts, this has to come up! Personally, I wouldn‘t even bother; I‘m a bee!!! It may be that, alas, the splendour of yesteryear is an old memory and the palace is now abandoned to neglect. But today, UnclePatri and I took the opportunity of an exceptional opening. The Peacocks, the only remaining witnesses to the wealth that once was, welcomed us at the gates and led us through the halls to the chapel, where important weddings and banquets were once celebrated.
With a colourful flight, to the rhythm of an ‘Allegro‘ violin, they accompanied us through the immense park, adorned with centuries-old plants, from which one can admire the estate in all its magnificence. When I was still going to school on the bus, I used to pass by here with my classmates; at other times, we used to fly around in the afternoon, after homework, but I had never looked at this place with today‘s eyes, and if it is said that ‘everything has its time‘ and certainly my youthful flights will not return, it is also true that, for some things, times may return.
So, who knows, if the time has come for the Castle of Castelletto di Branduzzo, also known as the Botta Adorno Castle, to shine in a new guise?
Keep following the Meliflora Bee
by Katiuscia Girgenti
