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Help! We Bought a Village - Season 4 Episode 24
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00:01Many Brits have made the journey to foreign shores
00:05to find the perfect home.
00:09It's rather delicious.
00:11But a rare few are deciding to take a path less well-trodden.
00:15Believe it or not, there is quite a large building under that.
00:19They're embarking on a bold mission
00:22to preserve the past and save Europe's lost villages.
00:27800 years of history is a lot to be responsible for.
00:32Sawyer coming to help!
00:34In this series...
00:35Keep clear.
00:37We step into the forgotten villages...
00:40On this beam here, there's some medieval writing.
00:43...to meet the brave new visionaries...
00:46This is gonna be fun.
00:48...and seasoned saviours...
00:50On top of the world.
00:52...who are fighting to bring these abandoned settlements back to life.
00:56We're just trying to pick up the pieces, really.
00:59And hope they somehow go back together.
01:01As they turn ruins into homes...
01:03...and rubble into extraordinary businesses.
01:07And you can just lay down and sleep under the stars, literally.
01:10But will they buckle under the strain?
01:13Good way to get it out!
01:15Or find the strength to see it through?
01:18That weighs a tonne!
01:21As they restore the past to build their future.
01:25I can't believe it! I bought a village!
01:36Today...
01:37Welcome to Brittany!
01:39Our village saviours in France are battling storms,
01:42as well as risky renovations.
01:45All the stones can fall down.
01:48It's an emergency.
01:50At Akinta in Portugal, they've got that sinking feeling.
01:54Oh my gosh, that is pretty soft!
01:56Ha! Yikes!
01:59But it doesn't stop them testing out their new water feature.
02:03Silly Dad!
02:05Silly Dad!
02:06The custodians of a village in Italy
02:08discover the truth about their family tree.
02:12I was born and baptised in Scotland, Cesedio.
02:16And to know why I was called after this man
02:19is part of the reason I'm here.
02:22And at a cortijo in Spain,
02:24they're trying to crack a mysterious safe.
02:27Hopefully we can get into this, uh, this thought knocks.
02:32Just the sheer scale of it, you're thinking,
02:34wow, why would he need such a large safe?
02:37I'm scared.
02:38What happens if it's booby-trapped?
02:51The verdant slopes of the Douro Valley
02:53in northern Portugal
02:54have long been the backbone of the country's port wine industry.
02:59Here, the agricultural workers traditionally lived in quintas,
03:03tiny rural villages
03:05where their way of life was undisturbed for centuries.
03:08These days, modern farming methods
03:10mean many of the quintas have been abandoned.
03:13But there is one, 43 miles from Porto,
03:16that's found two new saviours.
03:19John and Tara moved here from Bristol with their family
03:22and are now busy renovating.
03:24They're paying for the work by uploading videos to social media.
03:28But their ideas about living in tune with the natural environment
03:31hark back to a much simpler age.
03:39We live here with our two little boys
03:41and our pretty excitable little dog, Ovi.
03:4480.
03:45They love nothing more than to be outside,
03:47which is one of the reasons why we chose to live in Portugal
03:49so we could have more space.
03:52It's January.
03:53The house they lived in when they first arrived has been demolished
03:57and a new one is gradually taking shape.
03:59Most of the main supporting columns are in
04:02and today the brick layers are about to start.
04:06As soon as they've got all of these beams lined up,
04:09it's literally going to be
04:11dup-dup-dup-dup-dup-dup-dup-dup-dup-dup-dup-dup-dup-dup-dup-dup-dup-dup-dup.
04:14Do you think we can help?
04:15Yeah, I hope so.
04:16They're using honeycomb bricks,
04:20designed to regulate the temperature in warmer climates.
04:23And all the family are chipping in.
04:27Let's do this!
04:29You got it?
04:30Heavy.
04:31Yeah, go for it.
04:34Now be careful of your fingers.
04:37You got it?
04:38Wait a minute.
04:39Wait, wait, wait.
04:40Got it!
04:41Well done, boys. Proud of you.
04:44That's it. Is it in place?
04:45Yeah.
04:46Nice one.
04:53Today, John's main focus is the biopool he's building on the lower terrace,
04:58and it's the ideal location because it's right next to a natural spring.
05:03Swimming pools have never been a traditional feature in the Kintas,
05:07but modernity and the heat of the region calls for one.
05:12Eventually, the spring water will be cleaned and filtered by plants
05:15that will grow around the outside edge,
05:17and it should be the perfect spot for a dip.
05:20Getting this liner in is a huge moment for this project.
05:31To make sure they don't rip it, it's a shoes-off job.
05:35But with help from their neighbour, Zhao,
05:37John and Tara slowly manage to spread it out.
05:47Man, we could have built a way bigger pool, hey?
05:49Or just bought a smaller liner, love.
05:52It's a whopping 600 square metres,
05:55or the size of about three tennis courts.
05:58And it's only this big because John thought he'd found a bargain online.
06:02Do you know what I think happened?
06:04I think I ordered a piece that was just around about the right size.
06:08He was doing a special offer on it, I think,
06:10that was, like, buy the size and get the size above for free.
06:13Oh, OK.
06:16It isn't long before their hard work pays off.
06:18So I think what we'll do is we'll just pull out the ends now
06:21and start filling it out with water.
06:23And to fill the biopool, they've rigged up a pipe that leads from their spring.
06:31Oh! Oh, my word!
06:32That was really exciting for a second.
06:38But on its own, it won't be quite enough.
06:41It's a bit of a dribble at the moment, isn't it?
06:44So John decides to channel water from another spring as well.
06:47It'll need digging out first, though.
06:50I'm just starting to open that up.
06:53I've got my fingers crossed this is going to work out just fine.
06:58Soon, the water's flowing nicely.
07:00There we go, that's the water.
07:02OK, Joelle, let's get some of that onto the plastic.
07:05But very quickly, they realise there's a problem.
07:08Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
07:10Too much water is getting under the liner.
07:13It means the pool won't fill
07:15and the ground underneath the plastic will get too boggy.
07:19OK, just trying to lower the plastic so the water will flow to the lowest point.
07:25I just really don't want it flowing underneath the plastic.
07:31All right, I'm using these blocks just to make a bit of a pathway for it.
07:36But it looks like you'll need a plan B.
07:39That's not going to stop all of the water.
07:42from going underneath the plastic.
07:46That's for sure.
07:48As so many of our village saviours have found,
07:50unexpected challenges come with the territory.
07:53And being able to think on your feet is a vital part of the skill set.
07:57All of our ghost villages have secrets locked inside their walls,
08:13and a labyrinth of untold stories winding through their corners and corridors.
08:18But amongst these forgotten places, only one is the final resting place of a mysterious uncracked safe.
08:28Cuellar is a tiny Spanish cortillo about 80 miles from Santiago, and its current custodians, Tony and Lauren from Kent, have been puzzling over the safe since they moved in.
08:40We still don't even know how the safe got into that room, because you can't get it through the door frame.
08:46There is some debate about how the safe got in. Yeah, I mean, at the moment, the thing of how the safe got in is kind of secondary to how we're going to get it open.
08:54Yeah, that is true. But I mean, it just, again, it owes to the enigma of the safe.
08:59Despite the existence of the safe, the cortijo definitely had modest beginnings.
09:06Built in the late 1800s and named after its first custodian, Cuellar was home to cattle farmers and their families,
09:13who lived under one roof with their animals.
09:18But it had been empty for about 15 years when Tony and Lauren came across it.
09:23We came to visit it, and from driving up, as soon as we got to the gate, I just knew.
09:34And then it just kept wowing me.
09:36As soon as I stood at this top here, looked down on those fields,
09:40I just kept saying to Tony, like, I'm getting real good vibes from this, really, really good vibes.
09:45The couple paid 160,000 euros for Cuellar,
09:52which has a five-bedroom farmhouse, four acres of land and three outbuildings,
09:58as well as a traditional Galician grain store called an Oreo.
10:03It was for people in the olden days to store their grain, dry food,
10:07and to stop things like rats and mice from eating it.
10:14Neither Tony nor Lauren have farming backgrounds.
10:17In the UK, Tony was an electrical engineer and Lauren was a production manager.
10:22But their plans for Cuellar are in keeping with its agricultural past.
10:26They're opening an alpaca farm.
10:29There's still a lot of unknowns.
10:30The alpaca industry here is in its infancy.
10:32But also, because it's in its infancy, it's very exciting.
10:35So, although, yes, it's very scary, it's very daunting,
10:39Tony and I are very headstrong.
10:41We've sacrificed so much for this.
10:44We're giving it our all.
10:46It's November, and since the couple moved into the Cortijo,
10:58they've slowly been unravelling some of the secrets of its past.
11:02There are a number of buildings here to explore,
11:05and they all have clues about the history of the settlement.
11:08This was actually a stable.
11:11So this entire area here would have been a complete opening
11:15for the cows to come in, bed up for a night time.
11:19Over the centuries, the building's been repurposed multiple times.
11:24But it's still possible to find signs of Cuellar's agricultural heritage
11:28and reminders of an era when nothing was wasted.
11:31This here is an original Galician orno.
11:36Orno is a oven, so this is a bread oven,
11:40and there's a huge space in there.
11:43They would put in there possibly 20 to 30 breads,
11:46and those 20 to 30 breads would then last them a whole week.
11:50Bread remains a staple of the Galician diet,
11:53just like cured meat,
11:55which in days gone by was prepared on-site in the Cortijo.
11:59Sausages, chorizos, anything that needed dry curing would go in this room.
12:05Just above here is still the original hooks
12:09to hang all his homon, the chorizos to curing.
12:12But the interesting thing about this space is that there is a window.
12:17It's almost like in the medieval times,
12:19what you'd have is like a peephole, and it's completely open,
12:22and they needed that for the air to circulate for curing the meat.
12:26To imagine all of what used to go on,
12:28you can see why now there are so many food preparation spaces,
12:32so many ovens.
12:34While the larder housed the culinary riches,
12:37the Cortijo clearly had other precious treasures that needed protecting.
12:42To me. To you.
12:44Because there wasn't just one safe, there were two.
12:48I'll just pop it there.
12:49The six-foot monster next to the kitchen has a little brother,
12:53buried in the farmhouse wall.
12:57This one might not be quite as intriguing, but it is just as locked.
13:01And Tony and Lauren have no intention of giving up on their quest
13:04to find out what's behind this door as well.
13:08There's two holes in the wall there, so I think there would have been
13:13either a picture or a portrait or something hiding this.
13:17So, if he felt the need to hide it, he must have kept valuables inside.
13:27Coming up, a septic tank arrives at a hamlet in Brittany,
13:31but is it too big for the driveway?
13:34The trucks arrive and the truck is huge.
13:37Much bigger than I think we were expecting.
13:40And at a village in Italy, they're about to welcome a new generation.
13:45This is full circle. It's...
13:50It's amazing.
14:01While many of France's ghost villages have their roots in agriculture,
14:04others come with more intriguing origins,
14:07like Le Vaux in northwest France.
14:10This little hamlet began life as home to a medieval knight,
14:14the Chevalier du Vaux,
14:16who lived in the chateau and provided shelter for his entourage in the grounds.
14:21Amongst the Chevalier's retinue,
14:23there would have likely been valets, pages and grooms,
14:26as well as horses, hunting dogs and even birds of prey,
14:30since falconry was a popular sport for the French nobility.
14:35Apart from a 15th century well,
14:37there isn't much left of those bygone days.
14:40But there was more than enough magic here
14:42to capture the hearts of Claire and her French husband, Joe.
14:49Everything's possible in a place like that.
14:51I think that's what we very much like.
14:54You can create pretty much everything if you've got ideas.
14:58Claire is an Anglo-French hypnotherapist whose mum is from South London.
15:04But her dad is from Brittany, so she feels a close kinship with this part of France.
15:10We want to keep this place very authentic,
15:12have a small business, but also we want to stay very close to the history of the place,
15:18ready to be close to nature, close to the sea, in a historical environment.
15:25The chateau has twelve rooms, seven acres and four outbuildings.
15:30And the couple hope to create a home for themselves, an event space, possibly a B&B,
15:35and maybe even an escape room.
15:37You need to not be positive but pragmatic and just go step by step.
15:43I am pragmatic.
15:45I dream a bit more.
15:47She's a dreamer.
15:48She's a dreamer.
15:50It's December, and today the couple are trying to get to the bottom of a blocked pipe.
16:02The ground outside the chateau is becoming increasingly waterlogged,
16:06and they can't figure out why.
16:08Joe is the other side of that wall trying to find where the water is going to
16:14and where it's stuck, because the water from this ground is not leaving quickly as it should be.
16:21The water should drain towards the village pond, so Joe starts to dig a channel.
16:29Better. The water is coming a lot, so it's a good sign.
16:34But before he gets very far, a delivery has arrived.
16:40And it isn't something that can be left by the back door.
16:43It's a giant septic tank.
16:47The trucks arrive, and the truck is huge.
16:49Much bigger than I think we were expecting.
16:52So they're going to try and find a way to have it turn at the end of the street there,
16:58without hopefully breaking part of the wall or taking down trees.
17:03Then the truck can come in the middle, and with two tractors they're going to be able to take out the tank.
17:13There is already a small septic tank on site servicing Leveaux's sanitation.
17:18But it's old, and if Claire and Joe ever have paying guests, it wouldn't meet regulations.
17:23Of course, in medieval times, the locals would have used the surrounding woods for sanitation.
17:29But thankfully, those days are long gone.
17:32The tank will eventually be buried underground.
17:36But to get it to the right field, it needs to be transferred onto Joe's digger, then steered through the narrow driveway.
17:48But the boggy ground, though, is making it almost impossible for Joe to get his digger out.
17:53No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
17:57Wait!
18:01Yes, almost!
18:04Luckily, he gets there in the end.
18:06The digger was completely stuck.
18:20Oh, God.
18:22Like a something bring something else, bring something else.
18:26Good news would be better.
18:28Claire and Joe spend the next few hours assisting the delivery team where they can.
18:38So they're going to lift it up, if I understood correctly.
18:41All that trouble is just to be able to go to the toilet.
18:50Joe is not confident at all.
18:53They're lifting it up.
18:54And I think then the truck is going to move.
19:00Slowly, the tank is lifted out of the truck with help from Joe's digger and lowered onto pallets in the road.
19:07But as the sun disappears...
19:10Oh, it's out. My goodness.
19:12..it's still a long way from its final resting place.
19:15But now they're trying to figure out the way to bring in our property.
19:20Because we're on the street.
19:21They're talking about getting another machine, maybe.
19:25Another tractor.
19:27Joe and Claire look to be in for a very long night.
19:38Many of those who set out to revive Europe's lost villages do so because they fall in love with the buildings and the history.
19:44But the custodian of Ichaka in central Italy has always been on a journey of return.
19:51A century after his family emigrated to Scotland, Cesidio has rebuilt the village they left behind and created a successful winery.
19:58Not only shaping a future for his children and grandchildren, but also reclaiming his family's name in this ancient landscape.
20:08I just found myself in the position with the experience and the resource.
20:14And in a sense, the need to finish something I've started because that's what my parents taught me.
20:20And that's why we're here.
20:21It's November, and four months after Cesidio's daughter Sofia has made Italy her permanent home, she's visiting the nearby village of Piccinisco with her dad to trace the family tree.
20:40We're just walking through the center, the historic center, the Centro Storico of Piccinisco.
20:47And we're coming up to San Lorenzo, which is the main parish church where actually Sofia was married.
20:55And we feel quite emotional because it's now feeling very real that another birth will be registered here quite soon.
21:01Really quite a special thing.
21:03In small rural communities like this, churches were often the only places to keep official records.
21:08With the local priest usually the only person able to read and write.
21:15Volume one.
21:17Okay.
21:19Dating back to the 1500s, these archives are among the most complete records in the area.
21:25You can see how fragile this is.
21:28This is the registry of baptisms from 1504 to 1636.
21:34And it says Jacobo Filio di Pietro di Ciacca.
21:41This is May 1566.
21:45So within the first pages of the book, there is a reference to someone from the family.
21:52We have official record that 23 generations have lived in this exact place.
22:04And the only two missing generations from that story are my father and myself.
22:09And now with my daughter, she's going to be born here again to start the 26th generation.
22:16Sixth generation.
22:19It's a real privilege.
22:21Every birth, marriage and death recorded here is a thread in the intricate tapestry of their family story.
22:28Let's have a look at this then.
22:31This is my dad.
22:33This is his cousin.
22:35Uncle Joe.
22:36Amongst the familiar names is Cesidio's grandfather, who was also called Cesidio.
22:43And the man who inspired this legacy.
22:46I was born and baptized in Scotland, Cesidio.
22:50To know why I was called after this man is part of the reason I'm here.
22:55Because the man was lost at the beginning of the Second World War.
22:59Cesidio's grandfather emigrated to Edinburgh in the 1920s, where he ran a successful ice cream business.
23:08But during the war, he was among hundreds of innocent Italians labelled enemy aliens
23:14and placed aboard the Andorra Star bound for Canada.
23:18Tragically, the ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat.
23:21470 Italians died that day, and 17 of them came from this village.
23:29For Cesidio, who never met his grandfather, reviving Ichaka was never a project, but a promise.
23:40The reality is, we're all children of our circumstances.
23:45And that's our parents, and our grandchildren, and our aunts and uncles.
23:51And any attempt to forget that, is actually just rejecting humanity.
23:57The legacy Cesidio created is now in Sofia's hands.
24:01All being well, in three weeks, a new Ichaka will be born here.
24:06The first in over a century.
24:08A new beginning, in the place it all began.
24:11This is full circle, because now we've got this new arrival,
24:16which really completes the circle of life.
24:19It's...it's...it's, um...
24:24It's amazing.
24:30Coming up at Quinta de Compras...
24:33Ah, I see, look, that's not good.
24:35John's got a bucket load of trouble.
24:37And is the mysterious safe at Cuellar about to be cracked?
24:43Believed to have been lost to history, we found the quay just...clean.
24:49Back at Quinta de Compras, it looks like John, Tara and their neighbour, Zhao,
24:54may have an answer to their problem.
24:56Channeling water from the spring to their biopool.
24:59It's too high, isn't it?
25:00Need another block.
25:01It takes a little bit of adjustment.
25:03Yeah.
25:04Wait.
25:05Wait.
25:06Wait, wait, wait.
25:08Wait, wait, wait.
25:10It's too high, isn't it?
25:11Need another block.
25:13It takes a little bit of adjustment.
25:15Wait.
25:17Wait, wait, wait, wait.
25:19It's too high, isn't it?
25:21They're not going to be a block.
25:23It's too high, isn't it?
25:24But it's too high.
25:25Certainly, it's too high, isn't it?
25:26it takes a little bit of adjustment but the guttering has done the trick I think
25:39we've got a good solution there for making sure that water doesn't go
25:43underneath the membrane and that it just all flows into where we want it to flow
25:47into this other moments coming out very dirty but fairly shortly it'll clean to
25:52clear clear water just like it's coming out of that one over there a few days later the pool
26:05has almost filled to the height that they need let's have a look how that pipe is going it's
26:11not far off now is it but there are patches of ground underneath the liner that are completely
26:17waterlogged oh that's really soft that's really soft hey I'm sinking into the ground wow is it
26:29not just because that's a new bank that Mario built up so it's a bit yeah I think it is yeah there's a
26:34lot of water in that bank well it's a good week of testing because there's so much rain coming oh my
26:40gosh that is really soft yikes John's solution to this latest problem is to dig a trench called a
26:47swale so that any excess water has a proper channel to run off if you look right now I step here I'm
26:55just going straight into the ground we just don't want that that's pretty rubbish isn't it all the new
27:00soil it's very very soft okay good luck tricky old project this one isn't it yeah swales are a time
27:09honored technique and they don't need to be too deep to be effective so this one doesn't take John too
27:15long but with a storm forecast for tonight he's got another job on his to-do list I want to cut the
27:27plastic a little bit shorter so there's less of it flapping around so that if there is a wind it's
27:34not lifting and it's not going underneath and it's not ripping anything I've never built a bio pool before
27:40never really made a pond before either so all of this is brand new to me and we make a lot of mistakes
27:47here all the time I don't want to make a mistake with this one that would be expensive thousand euros
27:54it's worth the plastic and I don't want to mess it up the liner will be key to the bio pool success but
28:02while John's cutting it back Tara notices there are some parts that are stretched too tightly if you
28:09look at it love in terms of tautness this wall here is looking very very tight over the cement yeah and
28:15those sharp edges could lead to a tear John needs to slacken the liner off trying to make it so that
28:28there's a bit more plastic give down there so that it's got some more clay but it's too heavy first though
28:36he'll need to empty the standing water with the storm due tonight John doesn't have long to get it
28:48sorted but his efforts are soon making a difference I love that looks so much better does it yeah it's
28:59released the tension on that wall massive so to celebrate John decides it's the perfect moment to
29:05test the waters for the first time I think I'm gonna go for a swim are you yeah goodness me
29:15John and Tara are keen to be as hands-on with the renovations as possible but they can't do
29:29everything all right thank you very much I'll take it and you can get out of the way John come on out
29:35the way they can't contribute too much at this stage to the house build so they're focusing on jobs they
29:42can do like the bio pool I'm delighted with that I think we're gonna get a lot of use out of it
29:48brilliant it will be at least another three months before it's planted up and the filtration system is
29:54working but today has been a giant step forward back in Galicia Tony and Lauren have had a
30:10breakthrough in their quest to open the mysterious six-foot safe they inherited when they bought
30:15the cortijo they found the key it's a very unusual key that that hinges in the middle it's got a very
30:24elaborate pattern of the teeth of the key believed to have been lost to history we found the key just
30:31cleaning and on top of the cabinets it just it was just shining shining away in the corner of a cabinet
30:38I was doing a deep clean in the kitchen and then all of a sudden Tony sort of went come and have a look
30:42quick and there it was and the key goes in fine there's no resistance at all that is sort of turning
30:54perfectly the key needs to be used in conjunction with a combination lock and unfortunately they
31:01don't know the numbers the combination will just be like the final piece in the puzzle when they were
31:08out in the fields recently they thought they'd unearthed a clue to the combination we found an
31:13incredibly well-preserved mobile telephone out in the garden they suspected the phone belonged to the
31:19the last owner of cuellar the man who put the safe in there are several sequences of numbers
31:26which there's one sequence here which is eight numbers which if it was a four code combination would
31:32would possibly open the the safe sadly none of the numbers worked so they're back to square one sharing
31:43their home with this mysterious object that's stubbornly refusing to reveal its secrets
31:48hopefully we can get into this there's thought knocks to get it open is kind of secondary to
31:56the significance of whatever we might find inside I mean there could be on our old documents related
32:02to the house and I think to have even old maps or anything photos just for me is the history side
32:07of the story that's really interesting a working safe would be just a bonus because it's not like
32:13we've got a great deal to put in it it could be housing all sorts of treasures um but just the
32:19sheer scale of it you're thinking wow why would he need such a large safe for example we do know that
32:26he was a hunter so if there is something like guns or ammunition I'm scared what happens if it's booby
32:33trapped because that would not be cool with their efforts to open this safe no further forward the
32:41couple have decided to have a go at its little brother buried in the wall of their farmhouse
32:45today they've got hold of a little camera that might give them a clue about what's inside the idea
32:54is if I can get inside there and I might be able to see something oh it's got a light on it so that
33:02little hole there is the other side of this door so you can't see all the way into the safe you can
33:08only just see past the mechanism where there's a tiny little hole so you can't actually see anything
33:12in there no I was really hoping we would be able to get it inside yeah it's such a shame no this safe
33:21doesn't have a combination and they do have a key but the door still won't budge the couple think it
33:28might be jammed with dirt or paint so they have a go with a chef's blowtorch but despite their best
33:38efforts a little test it still isn't ready to reveal its secrets I think we've done all we can
33:46do now today the safe has won enough is enough yeah and we'll need to come back with reinforcements
33:53with both safes on the back burner the couple can focus their attention on getting their business up
33:59and running to pay for renovations at the cortijo the couple are planning to open an alpaca farm and
34:06their young herd is slowly settling in look at those ears go you need to come out come on then
34:12that is Olaf come on then boys when they lived in the UK Tony and Lauren always dreamed of working
34:20with alpacas good boy and when they found Cuellar with his extensive grounds and old cattle barns
34:28it gave them the perfect opportunity these are our boys and they're all super super friendly
34:35their plans to lead alpaca treks and bring visitors to Cuellar have yet to be approved by the local
34:41council but since there's a long tradition of keeping livestock here they're confident they
34:47won't have to wait too long come on darling coming up this is baby Serena there's a new face around town in
35:02Ichaka and she's just perfect to be honest and in Laveau as renovations get underway is the labor force
35:12about to go on strike he doesn't always understand that not everybody is as strong as he is
35:18back in Brittany it's a new morning and Clare and Joe's septic tank is finally where it needs to be
35:39it was crazy it took us five hours to take this huge tank out of the street the couple don't yet
35:50have a date for plumbing it in but at least it's one job ticked off their growing to-do list it's
35:57the beginning it's gonna be like that there's gonna be ups and downs yeah the beginning is tough but I
36:04was seeing it as a huge mountain to climb and I hope we're gonna be strong enough a few weeks later
36:16they might not be much further along with the septic tank or the renovations but they found a vital
36:22revenue stream which should help move the project on we signed a contract with a company to be able to
36:31sell some wood so it's a company where instead of going to a distributor they look for people that
36:37have space and where they can leave the wood and then we need to be open two hours a day for customers
36:43to be able to get the wood and for that there's going to be delivering like big big trucks launching
36:52this business could speed up the renovations hugely but before they can start Joe needs to lay a
36:57track for the lorries to drive on but after a flying start Joe quickly runs into trouble he's hit a tree
37:07and now the arm of his tractor is out of action it's a Sun I don't see very well in my eyes so I touch
37:18the tree and the tube is break to make matters worse the weather has turned I think the storm is gonna
37:29arrive look at that rain you can see it over there so with the groundworks cancelled for today
37:34Claire and Joe have to focus their attention on a job with a bit more shelter the high archway that
37:48leads to the stable block has lost some of its stones and now they're urgently in need of replacing
37:54it's an emergency the couple don't know for sure when this archway was built but it's at least 200
38:10years old it would have been constructed by hand and it's so high because wagons and carts as well as
38:16livestock would have had to pass through it imagine the time it took to build everything just this wall
38:23and then the matter everything and the weight of the stones from just carrying tiny ones it's still
38:29heavy despite the rain that the couple are now making good progress and looking on the bright side
38:35it's like a bakery isn't it creating your recipes there's something quite satisfying about it I've
38:44mixed quite a lot of concrete since meeting Joe he doesn't always understand that not everybody is as
38:51as strong as he is taking on the responsibility of restoring a village can be daunting but Claire and
39:10Joe have definitely now hit their stride I'm quite satisfied when I see the job done it means it's moving
39:18along yeah I mean we're getting there we've got a lot of walls to repair we've got energy
39:27motivation and when you're here you cannot be weather dependent the sun is our aid no it's in the heart
39:37the sun is in the head the sun is in the heart
39:48back in Ichaka it's February and the new year marks the beginning of another chapter in the
39:53incredible story of this 500 year old village Rafaela Eleonora and Serena there's a new arrival
40:04and she's quickly winning the hearts of everybody she meets the new member of the family this is baby
40:10Serena who has been long awaited and she's a little darling she was born in December and she's just
40:21perfect to be honest when Chisidio's grandfather left for Scotland a hundred years ago he couldn't
40:28have imagined that the 26th generation of his family would be born here first member of the family
40:34born in Italy since your father dad was born here in 1919 and she was born in 2024
40:49it's been seven months since Sofia and her husband Luigi moved to Italy and after a bumper harvest in
40:55the vineyard this year the future looks promising there is one issue that they need to sort out sooner
41:02rather than later though a permanent house to live in we are in an apartment with five people
41:10because we are waiting for our house we've got this famous house the famous house that we moved from
41:16Scotland for in July last year and we are still waiting for planning permission to get started
41:26their new house will bring a fresh lease of life to the last derelict corner of Ichaka
41:32sadly some buildings are now beyond saving and will need to come down
41:36but the couple are determined to reuse as many of the old tiles and stones as they can in their modern home
41:45latest development is that we should fingers crossed touch wood
41:53working starting in the middle of February end of February
41:55now how long that work will last now that's the real question watch this space i'm hopeful that 2025
42:03we'll be in even if it's the 31st of December 2025 i'm hopeful that that might happen
42:10in the meantime sofia and Luigi have plenty to keep them busy as they focus on taking the business
42:16and the village forward, and carrying on Cesidio's legacy.
42:21Sofia is slowly taking off my hands a lot of the administration.
42:26Luigi, on the other hand, is taking over marketing and sales.
42:29They're both a great help.
42:31I'm starting slowly, slowly, slowly to take a step back
42:36and take more time to think about doing the next silly thing.
42:41Sofia and Luigi have big shoes to fill,
42:44but they definitely don't lack ambition.
42:47Luigi is already taking steps to put the village's unique Maturano wine
42:51on the global map, by visiting as many trade fairs as he can.
42:56We grow a single varietal, Maturano.
42:58Never had a Maturano.
42:59I doubt you have, and I'm glad, because you're about to hopefully taste
43:01what I think is probably one day what's going to be the definition of Maturano AGT.
43:07As Cesidio reflects on how far things have progressed
43:09since he first dreamed of revitalising the village of its ancestors,
43:13he knows that it's exceeded all expectations and Ichaka couldn't be in safer hands.
43:20I'm pleased that it's happened.
43:25Yes.
43:26But is it going to leave something that is permanent,
43:29that will make life easier for the family in the future?
43:33I'd hope so.
43:34Even if it's to the point of just growing fruit and vegetables,
43:40then it will give a couple of generations something that they can do for themselves.
43:47For decades, the family that once bound this village together was only a memory.
43:54Now they're thriving again.
43:57Cesidio always believed the thread was never truly broken.
44:01It was simply waiting to be woven back in.
44:05We've come full circle in the last year.
44:08For Serena to be born here within a couple of months of our mum coming to live here
44:13is a remarkable circle of life.
44:16Is it a confirmation?
44:19I'd like to believe so.
44:25Next time.
44:28In Spain, Tony and Lauren's safe finally gives up its secrets.
44:34Well, well, well.
44:36While in France, Claire and Jo's old barn makes way for an exciting new venture.
44:42It's going to be part of a big reception hall we want to do.
44:45And we want to keep the style.
44:47And in Portugal, John and Tara go granite shopping.
44:51Our stonemason is going to come up here and kind of hand-chose them.
44:55As they get loaded, he'll be saying, no, yes, no, yes, no.
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