Neighbors
Love them or hate them, you're gonna have them
The smallest house in the world was built to annoy a neighbor.
Good neighbors are a gift, a true treasure. Even if your neighborhood is less than ideal, or there are problems with your house, great neighbors can be reason enough to stay.
Like when I lived in the Western Addition neighborhood of San Francisco in the 1980s. There were two drunks who lived in an old beat-up Lincoln Continental that was always parked on the corner near my flat. I said hi whenever I saw them. Then, at about 1:00AM one night, a friend tried to wake me up by jumping on the garage roof next door and throwing rocks at my window. To my delight—and her chagrine—the guys chased her away. Those are the kind of neighbors you want: the ones that are always looking out for you.
Bad neighbors, however, can turn an otherwise idyllic home into a nightmare. (Do not, btw, watch the 2022 Netflix film, The Watcher. Yikes!)
Italy’s bad neighbor conflicts make for good stories and great sight-seeing.
The smallest house I mentioned is on Sicily, not far from sea-side town of Cefalu, in Petralia Sottana, a medieval town within Madonie Park, a nature preserve. Named “Casa du Currivu,” meaning house of spite, it is not functional as a house as it is only one meter wide from the front façade to the rear. Instead, it was built simply to anger a neighbor.
As you may know, Italian houses typically occupy a small footprint and gain size with additional floors. However, in order to do this, you need the approval of your neighbor and, in this case in the 1950s, the neighbor said no. The denial was legitimate because another level on the house in front of him would block his beautiful view of the countryside. Alas.
If you own your home, I bet there have been times you wished renovations on a neighbor’s property needed more than a permit by the local municipality. Right? Have you had an experience where you wished your approval was needed in order for a neighbor to do something?
In this case, while a neighbor’s permission was needed to build an extra floor on a current home, that same permission was not needed to build an additional home on your property, providing the minimum distance between buildings was respected. And this is what the aggrieved homeowner did. As you can see from the photos below, this narrow “home” was built with a large balcony on the top level, not that there is any way to access it. On the rear wall of the building facing his neighbor, there is a window, presumably that can see through the front window to the view (in theory) or maybe to further infuriate. I mean, a window facing you where you once saw a view is unnerving! Revenge, indeed.
About 35 miles south of Florence, is the town of San Gimignano, known as the Town of Fine Towers. For almost 200 years during the Middle Ages, two significant families, the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, were enemies, as the Guelphs supported the Pope and the Ghibellines supported the Roman Emperor. Their conflict was immortalized by the building of tower houses, one after the other, always increasing in height. Only when the local council finally decreed that no tower could be taller than the Palazzo Comunale (the town hall), did the insanity stop. By then, there were 72 tower houses in total, up to 230 feet tall. Unfortunately (or fortunately) after San Gimignano submitted to the rule of Florence (in the mid-14th Century), many of the towers were cut short, making them no taller than the height of surrounding homes. While the historic center of the town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, only about a dozen of the tower houses remain.
I’ve been pretty lucky to not have had any bad neighbors that I can remember. Through my work with the Census Bureau, however, I’ve knocked on a LOT of doors with unruly dogs. Dogs that bark loudly and incessantly. Dogs perpetually in their yards that bark at every noise. I’ve often wondered how anyone can endure this kind of racket - the neighbor or the dog owners themselves.
– oh wait, I did have that problem once! While I was able to resolve this issue, first by reaching out with concern (are your dogs okay? I’m worried about them), I eventually called the local animal control who stepped in. If that solution hadn’t worked, however, I would have had to move. No kidding.
What about you? Do you have a bad neighbor story?
Even Senator Rand Paul has difficulty being a good neighbor. While he and his neighbor, Rene Boucher, had once worked together, Paul had an annoying habit of piling up garden debris along the property line he shared with Boucher. Boucher was fastidious about his landscaping and paid for his property to be professionally kept in top form. Paul, on the other hand, did all his landscaping himself and wasn’t particularly good at cleanup. Whether his habit of leaving garden waste was deliberately antagonizing (the neighbors had a falling out over political differences) or purely innocent, only Paul knows. At one point, however, Boucher “had enough” and charged Paul with such force that he broke six of his ribs. After being sentenced to eight months in jail and ordered to pay Rand $582,000, Boucher sold his home, paid the proceeds to Paul, and still owes him money.
Remember my post from last week where I share the fundamental tenets of the great world religions? Love thy neighbor, show compassion even when it is not shown to you, be honest and truthful, forgive, and refrain from violence. Obviously, it starts with our neighbors next door, on the same block, or in the same building.
But no one ever said it was easy.
Special thanks to Francesca and Ed for sharing the Italian stories with me!
How interesting as always . Good neighbours are a blessing indeed
We have recently moved because of our horrible neighbors. We moved 150 miles away and have landed next door to absolutely fabulous neighbors. Sometimes it just isn’t worth hanging on. Fortunately for us it has turned out to be the best thing we ever did.