59.

The Sarli Home in The Country (part 1)

by Dr. Joseph Mott

On Saturday, June 10, 2023, Giovanni De Carolis led us to a rural property just outside of the village of Laurenzana.  Adam, Fernanda, Christopher, Julieta, and I got out of the car. It had been raining some, and we climbed over what looked looked like an electric wire fence, but we didn’t get shocked.  We started up a little hillside.  The ground was pretty wet, and there were a lot of clumps of grass, but dirt between, sort of a slippery clay, making it difficult to walk or climb up the hill. We all  managed to reach the top of the hill, but did not find any buildings or ruins of buildings. Lower down on the hill, it looked washed out, and there was water seeping from the ground.  Someone had put a new black plastic hose, about 1 1/2 inch in diameter, into the hill where the water was seeping. The hose ran down the hill further, across a little stream, and then up onto the property beyond a fence on the other side.  I surmised that someone had tapped a spring for water.  I was interested in seeing this because Grandpa Mott reportedly lived close to a spring or stream in a rural area.  One account mentioned the possibility of a spring running under the house.  In any event, we did not see any ruins of a house in the washed out area.  In fact, it was not a good locale for a house because of the rough terrain.  The stream was small, but probably could carry a lot of water in the wet season.  Someone had constructed dams (we saw two), out of large masonry blocks, each with a broad spillway in the middle. Perhaps they wanted to form small pools.