Isn’t it boring, living in such a small village where nothing ever happens?
That’s what a lot of people asked us after we moved to Merana, a village on the border of Piedmont and Liguria with barely 190 inhabitants. What can go wrong in such a small community?
Well, first of all there is, of course, the village feud that has been going on for many decades and which means half of the village doesn’t speak to the other half. The “peak” was reached a few years ago with the mayoral elections.
First there was the Mafia-style written threat that put pressure on people by threatening to set their car or house on fire should they consider voting for the “wrong” candidate. After the elections, the new mayor indicted the old mayor and the carabinieri raided several addresses at six o’clock in the morning, looking for evidence of corruption.
Later, the new mayor even wrote to the Pope to complain that the local priest talked about politics during his sermons.
A month later our Pro Loco (the village association that organizes, among other things, the “famous” ravioli sagra of Merana) received the tax inspection after an anonymous complaint. All invoices, accounts and stocks were checked.
All things we would never have imagined to hear when we moved to this quiet village, but there is more !
In addition, we once had someone at the door who came to offer us all kinds of “workmen” to work in our lavender fields. Later we read that he had been arrested for human trafficking. Fortunately, we didn’t accept his offer. Fortunate for me, less so for Nicolas as he’s the one who has to do most on the work in the fields.
We also had a farmer in our village, who grew cannabis plants in his vegetable garden.
Then there was another arrest for human trafficking and organizing trips to Italy, wedding included, purely for the purpose of obtaining residence permits.
In addition, there is of course the usual gossip about adultery, prostitution, neighborly quarrels, divorces, unnecessary municipal expenses, so-called hanging youths, hunters who also shoot outside the hunting season, truffle seekers who boycott each other …
Never a dull moment 😉