Keeping the Wild at Bay

A Clean Village Takes Work!

Santa Domenica Talao is on the edge of the Pollino National Park. Keeping the wild at bay is the job of the Comune which once a year hires a small seasonal crew to clean the streets of our village. This amounts to clearing roadside weeds which we can see would quickly engulf civilization if left unchecked. The fulltime two-person trash crew cleans up after festas and parties that leave a lot of trash behind, but the summer crew gets what is left behind. This is part of the excitement of village life that you get to share today. It would be an interesting job due to the (I’m sure) diverse interactions with villagers along the way.  In our neighborhood, we witnessed two caffe offerings (one in-house, the other brought outdoors) along with advice on how to proceed.

This year’s seasonal crew is Pasquale and Silvio. These two guys have been working their way around the village for a month and they are very sensitive to what residents, like to have preserved.  So, they do not mow down rosemary bushes or other important herbs and flowering plants.

We love the ancient wall across the street and the plants that now live there so we are glad that it remains pretty much the same after cleaning.  The lichen rocks remind us of the old barns on our Central Oregon farm in the USA.

Across from us the alley can get ugly with weeds and pigeon droppings. Although Di is somewhat partial to the weeds here as they hide an I-beam left or stored by the owner of the building. She now knows it will all grow back pretty fast.

The crew managed to get their small truck close for hauling the debris away.  The truck lost its outside mirrors years ago, so that explains how they got it to this point!  I can’t even tell what brand it is given the body damage!! 


While we appreciate the effort made by the Comune, our feeling is that more needs to be done in the way of campaigning for the prevention of littering and graffiti.