Have you got your breath back? Written a message? You can see that just behind this old haybarn the street starts to go downhill. As promised!
Here there is a wood-stack with a feminine touch, “The night while I dream”, in local folklore it is also a song. In his 19th century bed, he is dreaming about meeting her and flying with her over the rooftops of Mezzano. It brings to mind Marc Chagall, but the author is Erika, niece of the well-known 20th century artist Riccardo Schweizer who was born in Mezzano.
Continue going downhill. The street opens out here between the houses and the paving is in cobblestones. There is a small structure to service the neighbouring houses: it is an outside water closet. Only two now remain in the village.
These water closets were built of wood or with stone held together with a little lime mortar. Only in more well-off households were people allowed to have one on the balcony or on the external stairway, but this really was a great luxury. They were usually found in a convenient place between houses or in the fields. With hygiene too, one managed with what mother nature provided. On this outside water closet you clearly see how a shingle roof is made: they are of larch wood, skilfully slit along the grain, then placed at staggered levels and held in position by stones placed over where the horizontal boards were fixed. This type of roofing also avoided the use of metal fixings and was used on every building. You can still see shingle roofing in some places, for example the church or many rural mountain dwellings which you can find around here.
On the wall of the house in front of you there is an inscription within a decoratively shaped outline, this recreates the form of openings found in some lofts. GMB FFL 1832: the first letters are the initials of the name and surname of the owner; FFL “fece fare lavori” signifies had work done, followed by the year of construction. There are others similar versions on other houses. These inscriptions are a demonstration of the pride and many sacrifices made in order to build a house and also leave a recollection for the future. These inscriptions are still used and are often carved into the ridge beam. Let’s continue our way down.
