It is windy today. The wind is picking up strength, too. Bura, or bora in Italian, can be quite blustery. I am still getting used to the sounds of my house. As well as the houses across the street. The bang I just heard must be from one of the loose shutters over there… The houses at Borgo 21 and 23 are both dilapidated. Roofs caved in, top floors full of holes, collapsed stairs, broken windows and shutters, crumbling mortar… One of the rotten shutters from Borgo 21 came off in yesterday’s storm, and I wrote a letter to the municipality regarding the danger to the public. There are many houses at various stages of disrepair in Motovun, and they are all at risk of collapsing one day. This happens quickly in this climate even with stone structures typical of this region. The water leaches the old mortar away once the roof and floors are gone. Another bang, but a different one this time… It must be from the ruin further up the street, at Borgo 15.

Addendum (September 20, 2016)

To this day, I am most attentive to the sounds of my house. As well as the sounds of neighboring houses, most of which have been refurbished in the meanwhile. Every sound I cannot account for attracts my attention at once. If I cannot trace it, I walk around the house in search of the clue. Or I step out of the house and listen attentively, my mouth wide open. If need be, I spend quite a while solving the riddle. By comparison, it is entirely different when I am in my beloved’s apartment in Zagreb. I am attentive to all sounds within the apartment, all right, but I could not care less about the sounds coming from the rest of the apartment building, let alone the neighboring houses or the busy street. My two homes, as it were, are entirely different in this respect. I am all ears in Motovun, and I am nearly deaf in Zagreb. Two worlds, two minds.