Mercuzio & Tebaldo

Allow me to introduce my friends: Mercuzio and Tebaldo (a plague o' both your houses if you don't recognize those names). Tebaldo was the first to discover our beautiful balcony, about two years ago; Mercuzio came a couple of months later, and both have since been regular visitors, as well as regular depositors of nuts.

So you can identify them: Mercuzio is almost all grey, and a bit more rotund. He's the less suspicious of the two, and will eat almonds straight from your hand. Tebaldo has much more red squirrel in him, especially on the paws, is leaner, more athletic, and more suspicious. He prefers to be safe and stores some of his possessions in his hideout under one of the chimneys of palazzo Chiablese.

It's a mystery where exactly they come from, but they're likely one of the many furry inhabitants that densely populate Giardini Reali. They always come to our courtyard via the roofs, through an impressive series of acrobatics, including a final jump, many times the length of their bodies, from a windowsill to the guardrail of our balcony over a three-floor gap, sometimes while carrying food (Mercuzio once got too proud and tried to steal away with a stick of butter almost his size that he had stolen from our kitchen, and of course failed).

These pictures and videos span the two years of their visits — and vastly different weather, lighting conditions, and photographic equipment. It's also funny to watch the progressive takeover of greenery over the balcony, of which I plead guilty.

Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast