MUD DAMAGE

The days have been lovely and we have had a good time going for walks and taking lots of pictures. We heard from our friends this weekend that the stairs down to the beach (that I had pictured here previously) were hopelessly lost, but we did not see the extent of it till today. Hopefully, the proposed new stairs will be built near us, where there already exists a broad gentle incline, now going off to nowhere, but quite conceivably able to connect to the beach.
When we looked up at the path, the dried mud that we noticed had worked like a glacier, carrying away rocks and wooden timbers till there is no way to walk on the path anymore. This is part of the Sicilian phenomenon of “frana,” the collapse of existing structures due to excessive amounts of water falling all at one time, which undermines the foundations of roads and buildings and turns the soil into a sticky, viscous mud. So our daily walks are limited to roads and well worn paths. I stepped off of the path to take photos today and I need to get the dried “fango,” the slippery mud of these parts, out of the grooves in my boots. This gets worst before it gets better, and that is what officials are afraid of. We have had a lovely spell of weather now for three weeks, but the persistent rain for a month before could come back at any time and take more buildings and roads with it.
MUD