Truth to tell, Spring is not my favorite season of the year. Pollen allergies, the dreadful changing of wardrobe from winter to summer, the end of good hot stews, tax payment deadlines...those sorts of things. But there is one event here I have come to really appreciate: The return and nesting of the ‘Rondine’ (Pronounced “Ron-dee-nay”) This bird is a swallow and has been revered in Tuscany for centuries.. Puccini wrote his famous opera “La Rondine” inspired by this little sparrow. Well, every year about allergy time, this bird comes to my small town to nest and have babies. Suddenly, one day, you hear all this chirping and screeing, seemingly happy sounds. Yes, we have our pigeons, magpies, merlots, crows, cuckoos and the like; but there is nothing compared to the Rondine…They come swooping high and low, in and throughout our piazza, sometimes flying as low as ankle height in pursuit of insects. And they build their nests. Our town has many terraces overlooking the piazza. In turn, these terraces create porticos, which provide a ceiling where the Rondine build their nests and re-occupy last years nests – to the delight of the locals and the tourists visiting the area. These birds, like all birds, poop outside the nest; but most of the storekeepers and residents tend to clean up after them – rather than shoo the creatures away. Back in the ‘States’, my memory suggests, most vendors would eliminate the poop providing nests…maybe some places would even have laws against such…(Perhaps things are changing there, now that there is a Director of ‘Make America Healthy Again’ who does not recognize there are such things as germs). Anyway, there is much noise and merriment in the making of the nests. Then, one day: Allora! (See the photo above). If you thought you heard chirping before these arrivals, you have heard nothing. The parent birds fly in and out all day, feeding their young. Feeding their howling young until the chicks are too big to fit in the nests. (See photo again). And everybody in town watches the little ones learn to fly. And imagine, they raise two families a season! It is a wonder to behold. When you see something like this you tend to feel not everything is as bad as it seems. (Once again, see top photo above)
