Getting Ready.....

Note the icicle hanging from his cap; it's COLD today, about 22F

This morning Kim and I had errands to run which included a trip to the train station. It's cold and icy out and there still is a lot of snow in the parks. The pictures above show a park across from the train station here in Alessandria.

Kim leaves to the US on Friday and given her departure hour, we decided to buy the ticket now. Her train will head out toward Milan at 5AM. From there to the airport and a plane ride to Boston where she'll visit with Siegy for just short of a week. After Boston she heads to Seattle to spend a week with a friend who is quite ill....

I'll be staying alone in Alessandria for five days and then will make my own journey to Milan to catch a plane for Vienna where I'll visit with Jean and Shadow. Toward the end of the month, Jean and I will fly to Amsterdam where we'll meet up with Kim for a four day visit. After Amsterdam, Kim and I will head back to Italy and Jean to Vienna.

We're starting to gear up for more traveling; the winter doldrums seem to be past us and we're more aware of the clock ticking.... Our friends Lynn and Susan will be moving to Germany next week and Kim and I are hoping to to visit with them following a visit to Venice for Carnivale. Whew! Stay tuned.

I've Been Set Free......

SKIPPIDY DOO DAH, SKIPPIDY DAY.....

I'M OFF TO THE GYM TODAY!

After almost two full weeks I am much better and got to head back to the gym today. When I went outside, I saw that we are still in Italy!

Ice and Cold, Cold and Ice

As you can probably tell, our Chief Blogger has been down for the count or preoccupied or reading or (occasionally) cooking for me, so she has been off her stride of a blog per day. Now I could have picked up the slack but that would require commitment (from me) and expectation (from you) and frankly, who needs that kind of responsibility??

We have been hibernating in this cold and "the most snow in 30 years" city we now call home. I venture out to the gym and the grocery store these days but that's about it. You skiers would think we are nuts- so close to the Italian Alps and here we are sitting on our butts (but then again we do the same thing in Seattle while many of you are off frolicking in the mountains- but jeesh the Alps??!) Our neighbors, Stefania and Alessandro often go off with their ski club on the weekends and 7 year old Chiara would put me to shame on a slope. But as I say in Seattle, and now here, wow aren't those mountains in the distance just beautiful?

Wikipedia says: Monte Rosa, also called Dufourspitze (in German, lit. Dufour Peak), is a mountain in the Pennine Alps. With its 4,634 m (15,203 ft) summit, it is the second highest mountain in the Alps and western Europe^[1] and the highest of Switzerland. Its 2,470 m (8,104 ft) eastern wall is also the tallest in the Alps^[2] and its western side is covered by the Gorner Glacier, the second largest in the Alps. The peak is located in the canton of Valais in the municipality of Zermatt. It is the summit of the Monte Rosa Massif, a range lying on the border between Italy and Switzerland and composed of several summits over 4500 metres.

More Snow!

For the last two days we've awoken to snow. As I write this, just around noon, the snow continues to fall. Kim is off shopping (as in the grocery store!) and I continue to try to get well. My goal today is to make chicken soup and not be grumpy!

We're pretty low key here; lots of reading and web surfing.

Oh, and games scores are the following:

Cribbage: Rachel 110 Kim 69

Hollywood: Rachel 152 Kim 217

And finally, you may recall that we have posted the blog site for Dom and Louise whom we visited in Lucca. You'll want to check out her recent and future postings as she is giving us some Tuscan recipes. You can access it by scrolling down to the bottom of our blog and clicking the link OR, just go to: Abbastanza Buono - Living in Italy: Happy New Year! Buon Appetito!

It's The Epiphany AND a National Holiday...

Another holiday; everything's closed. Rachel is in such a pissy mood that you'd never know it was supposed to be a day of celebration... well at least for Catholics in Italy. But given that she has been sick with a horrible head cold, relapsed, gotten better, gotten worse and now is ready to either kill me or herself, this apparently is NO time to celebrate or even be a little bit happy. Given this is on the heels of my extended irritability for the same reasons, let's just say too much time together is reaping its inevitable problems (snarl, snarl). But tomorrow should be a better day and it will come none too soon.

Meet La Befana!

It's holiday time again! Tonight is the Eve of the Epiphany, a very special night for Italian children....



"La Befana is one of Italy's oldest and most celebrated legends. Each year on January 6 the children of Italy awaken in hopes that La Befana has made a visit to their house. This is a significant day to Italians because it marks the end of the Christmas season and the day that the three Wise Men arrived at the manger of the Christ child. Over the years the Epiphany has been a more celebrated holiday for the children of Italy than even Christmas.

As legend has it the three Wise Men were in search of the Christ child when they decided to stop at a small house to ask for directions. Upon knocking, an old woman holding a broom opened the door slightly to see who was there. Standing at her doorstep were three colorfully dressed men who were in need of directions to find the Christ child. The old woman was unaware of who these three men were looking for and could not point them in the right direction. Prior to the three men leaving they kindly asked the old woman to join them on their journey. She declined because she had much housework to do. After they left she felt as though she had made a mistake and decided to go and catch up with the kind men. After many hours of searching she could not find them. Thinking of the opportunity she had missed the old woman stopped every child to give them a small treat in hopes that one was the Christ child. Each year on the eve of the Epiphany she sets out looking for the baby Jesus. She stops at each child's house to leave those who were good treats in their stockings and those who were bad a lump of coal.

Make sure to keep those stockings hung by the chimney in hopes that La Befana will soon be there.
Buona Festa!"

The above citation is by: Anthony Parenta at his blog site:
http://www.italiansrus.com/articles/befana.htm

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

At 11:45 PM on a cold winter's night with a dusting of snow, we headed to Piazza de la Republica for the anticipated New Year's firework show. As we got closer to the square there were huge explosions of sound and crowds of people weaving toward the show. People carried bottles of champagne and prosecco and everyone had a smile on their face as we navigated the crowd and jumped a bit nervously at every sonic BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!

At the Piazza they had it blocked off and we all gathered in a large circle to watch. It also allowed those with their own fireworks to set them off in a "safety zone".

As the clock began to strike midnight the crowd began counting down, "dieci, nove, otto..."!

And then!

We all ooooh'd and ahhhh'd...

The crowd cheered the work of the firework technicians and we happily dissipated, heading home to sleep in on our first day of the new year. It was a night in Alessandria never to be forgotten.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF US AND MAY THE YEAR BRING MORE PEACE ON EARTH...