House Calls

visita a domicilio

We live in a small town that does not have every service people need…at least not in a fixed location. However, in our area of Basilicata the tradition of house calls is alive and well.

Valerie first learned of this when she was here by herself and had car problems last May. Our friend Tonino put her in contact with his meccanico who is in another town about an hour away. No problem, the meccanico will come here, pick-up the car for repairs and then return it to us. We have since done this more than once with this meccanico. Oh yeah, there is no extra charge for this service.

Lucanella also has a parrucchiere who visits twice a week and always has a full schedule. There are a couple food vendors, selling fresh fruits and cheeses, who drive their trucks from piazza to piazza each week. This is in addition to the regular weekly market on Saturdays.

We recently ran out of gas in our bombola that powers or cook top. No problem, we stopped by the local supermercato and told Giovanni who promised to deliver a full tank that afternoon. “Do you need our address?”, “Why? Of course I know where you live.” Giovanni arrived as promised with a new bombola hoisted over his back.

We have had Don Tonino, the town priest, make a house call to bless our home. There is also a medico who comes to town each week to see patients, her husband the veterinario also comes at the same time. A lot of locals have farms animals so he is always busy.

Lucano has had two visits from the veterinario. The first time was soon after he became a resident of our house, to check him over and give him the necessary shots. The most recent time was when we had Lucano “fixed”. Yes the veterinario came to our house, gave Lucano an anesthesia and performed the quick procedure on our kitchen table. While Lucano recovered we toasted with a digestivo and talked about locals we know in common with il veterinario. In case you wonder, Lucano has had a full recovery and is warming my lap as I type.

I’m certain there are other visita a domicilio we have yet to discover. 

Too bad this seems to have become a lost tradition in the USA.