We were curious when we bought our farmhouse to see how deep our well, or 'Pozzo' in Italian, would be. First of all, we hoisted up the old pump lying at the bottom. According to our neighbour Ennio (previous owner), the thing had been lying in the depths of the ground for years. The pump should still work. We hoisted, and hoisted, there seemed to be no end in sight, but finally the pump was there.
The hose from the pump was measured. We came up with over 30 metres!
And indeed, the pump was still working!
A pit/pozzo is super handy on a farm. You may not think about it, but at some point, someone must have dug the pit. That's quite a handsome piece of work! But how then?

A special technique used to be devised on how to get deeper. One started by digging a hole. Which is a thing in itself. You have to know that we are on hard clay soil here. You sometimes can't even tell the difference between a rock or hard clay. Anyway, when the digging had started, a ring of stones was put in. The first rings of stones were not bricked together. They were piled up so that groundwater could easily seep through. Then the digging continued from the inside. The ring of stones sank bit by bit. At the top, stones were piled up and bricked up. To make the ring sink evenly at the bottom of the pit, planks were stretched vertically around it on the outside. This held things together.

It must have been an unpleasant job. Imagine digging 30 metres deep, at the bottom of the shaft. Then you really are in the pit! Is that where the expression comes from?
We are therefore eternally grateful to that man, or whoever it was, for digging the hole. Our well is at the very back of our plot. We use it to water our garden. But often we also sit there to enjoy the view and the wonderful peace and quiet.