My dearest daughter is not stoic.  Yesterday she slammed her thumb in the door of the car.  Did you hear the screams all the way over there?  If you had been listening very carefully you probably could have.  She does not tolerate pain well.  Or blood.  There was a lot of blood.  We had just arrived at our German friend's house for mom's birthday party.  We burst into the house with Grace hysterical, blood dripping onto the floor, me carrying all of our school bags, birthday gift, coats etc.and saying "Emergency, Emergency!"  The room was full of happy party moms and kids who all stopped at stared and poor B, (the birthday girl), looked traumatized.  She is very good in emergencies though, as she hustled Grace into the kitchen, put her hand under cold water, got an ice pack and towel.  I bandaged her up and gave her an ibuprofen and sent her off sniveling and whining with her friends.  Later I learned that the reason B had looked so shocked, (and gotten hold of an icepack so quickly), is because her son had just pushed down one of the other kids giving him a big black eye.  Not a good way to start a party.  But all went well from there on.  There was lots of cake and wine, cheeses and breads.  The husbands all showed up about 2 hours later by which time we were all half way in the bag.  Today Grace has a big raw, purple thumb and she will probably lose the nail.  She had her last tennis lesson of the year and couldn't do backhands but still managed to beat the boys!  xxoo me

Yesterday, GP and I hiked up Monviso, the tallest, pointiest peak in our neighborhood Alps at 3841 meters. (That's 12,601.7  feet.  I checked.)  Monviso, or Monte Viso, is where the the Po river begins.  The source runs out of a crevice in the rock at Pian Del Re, 2020 meters up.  Grace stayed behind with the grandparents and studied for upcoming exams.  She told us that after this year she has become "profoundly against the idea of walking" unless there is a destination in sight.  We have dragged her up or through too many mountains, castle steps, parks and gardens.  So we left her to study, packed a picnic lunch and headed off.  The Po river is the major river in Northern Italy and runs west to east, emptying out into the Adriatic Sea south of Venice.  It is said all northerners must make a pilgrimage to Monviso to see "the source" once in their lifetime.  Sort of like Mecca for Padani or people from the Po Valley.  It is also said that if Napolitani, people from Naples, get too close to the source they shrivel up like vampires in sunshine.  We drove to Pian Del Regina, about 1700 meters, and parked.  The road was closed past that point and doesn't open until June 1st.  From there we walked up to Pian Del Re, and then continued another 200 meters or so to the snowline.  It was sunny and clear but cold, cold, cold.  We bundled up and ate sandwiches perched on a rock looking down over the valley.  There were hawks circling all around, hunting for marmots that have just come out of hibernation.  There were also way too many crazy people who hiked up to the snowline like we did and then continued up on skis.  Let me repeat.  UP ON SKIS!  Then there were all the cyclists with their amazingly firm buttocks who passed us going up!  What is wrong with these people.  We were huffing and puffing the whole way.  I felt like I was going to faint from lack of oxygen and I though GP was going to have a coronary he was so red-faced.  It was lovely.  We were tired.  Ate a big dinner to make up for all of the lost calories.  Wouldn't want to waste away.   xxoo me

view of Monviso from highway

starting out

getting higher

it may look flat but it's not!

never know when you'll feel the need to pray

that's it - the source of the Po

view from lunch

heading back down.  you can see the road meandering.

Just to clarify, I am not sad.  Yesterday's ponderings were just that, ponderings (another made up word).  In fact I am quite cheery.  The sun has finally returned though it is still chilly compared to how it should be.  It's in the 60's by day and 40's and 50's at night when the norm this time of year is summer-like.  The mountains were out in their full glory yesterday.  It felt like months since I'd last seen them, hidden as they were behind gray skies and rain.  Also, the year is winding down and in less than a month Grace and I will be back on home turf.  This has me looking back over the past 9 months and all we've been through.  It started out pretty rough with much homesickness but we have managed to settle in.  I have almost achieved my goal of getting my license.

Big aside - I still need to take my practical exam and I'll check in tomorrow with the driving school to see when they have it set up.  If after this long and laborious year, if I don't get that lousy piece of paper I may do the "myself on fire in front of the Motor Vehicle Department in protest" thing.  That'll teach 'em. 

We have taken all sorts of wonderful trips, short and long.  We've met all sorts of interesting people and made a few friends.  Though we, (grace and I), would still much rather be in BBH, I think we'll survive here. 

xxoo me

I am alone with this memory.  Maybe that is the hardest thing about losing someone.  I think of all those memories that make up my life, good and bad, that only I now have.  It could be that which makes us orphans when we lose our parents, no matter what age.  Who else is there that remembers this childhood memory or that one?  It's a very lonely feeling to have so much of our past tumbling around inside us, unsharable.  Saying "Do you remember...?" to fewer and fewer people is one of the saddest things about aging.  Ugh.  Too seriuos.

Another ponderable (not actually a word) item is this.  You know how there is often disconnect with older immigrants in the US and their American raised children and grandkids.  The younger people are too Americanized and lose many of their traditions and customs and simply their parent's views of the world.  Well I see that here with many of our International students and their parents.  Grace is 99.99% American, born and raised and in comportment and attitude.  But I have American friends here whose children they can't fully relate to.  Their kids were raised here and are in most respects, Italians.  I was talking today to a girlfriend with a couple of teens who have grown up here.  She plans to return to the States and is worried about losing touch with her kids as they will surely want to live here.  Another gal is from Syria though they have lived abroad for 20 years.  She and her husband are Muslims but the children are very western.  I have her two little girls in one of my classes and I have to say I cannot imagine them in headscarves!  There are also the "homeless" families who have spent so many years traveling that they have lost a base.  Our Dutch friends have spent their entire married life moving from place to place with his UN assignments.  Their children have never lived in Holland and have no interest in doing so.  If you ask them where they'd like to live they say the US as that's where they lived the longest, 3 years.  When our friends retire and move back, where will their kids be?  Even after her 4 years here I am quite sure that Grace is so firmly rooted in Maine that she'll want to be nearby.  I hope so!

xxoo me

My Thursday market friend, an avid biker, has broken her collarbone, doing what? Biking!  This is why I do not believe in strenuous exercise.  It's dangerous.  Here are a few more pictures from Verona.  xxoo me

rubbing Juliet's boob for good luck

the crowds outside the concert

ditto

A reprieve from the weather Gods!!  After weeks of thundershowers and more predicted for yesterday, we were mighty worried about the concert being rained out in Verona.  But no!  There was only one small 10 minute sprinkle, otherwise the day was fine and the evening even better.  Yeah!

So this is how it went.   We met up, Grace and two friends and all the moms, at a local supermarket and started out at 11 a.m..  The trip to Verona is 3 hours.  On the way we listen to;  Capital Steps (a favorite of my Dutch friend from her years living in New York.  Who wudda thunk?), Eurovision winners (a yearly European singing contest that  just took place), a bunch of Dutch jazz  (Dutch gal's uncle is a well know musician).  Guess who drove?  Dutch gal.  It started out sunny and we had food for an army.  One never knows when you might need a marshmallow.  I was not the marshmallow culprit.  The three girls were in the very back of the enormous red  Ford Explorer with diplomatic plates, (we didn't stick out at all), singing One Direction songs at the top of their lungs.  After all the rain we've had, the fields on either side of the highway were very green and filled with wild red poppies.  The Maritime Alps were bathed in sun on our right starting out and we arrived with the Dolomites dark in clouds on our left.  It was quite scenic.  When we were about 3/4 of the way there, we stopped at a Autogrill to use the bathrooms and grab something to eat cause marshmallows wasn't cutting it for some of us.  We felt a funny wobble pulling into the parking lot and low and behold, when we got out we saw we had a flat tire.  Though perfectly capable of changing it ourselves, (at least my friends are - me not so much), we wandered around and found two Slovakian truckers to change it for us.  They were very friendly, toothless and strong.  One spoke Italian quite well.  The other just smiled and nodded a lot.  We tried to buy them a beer or coffee after to thank them but they just waved us off and went back to the big wheeler.  Previously unknown fact;  truckers in Europe are not permitted drive on weekends.  So they just crash in their trucks where ever they happen to be and consume huge quantities of beer and hookers.

We got to Verona about 2:30, dropped the girls off where the police had blocked off the center for the concert, and went in search of a parking space.  Remarkably, we avoided the designated concert parking miles away, and found a place in a underground lot five minutes from the center.   Then we walked up into bright sunlight and complete and utter chaos.  For those of us over 20, One Direction, (or 1D as I have been informed they are referred to), is a group of cute, mildly talented boys with too many tattoos and all in need of a good haircut.  Well evidently we are WRONG!  Or so 30,000 screaming teenaged girls, ( and a disturbing number of dads), seem to think.  There were crowds like New Year's Eve in Times Square.  Verona is a small, old city with narrow cobbled streets.  The concert was held in the Arena (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verona_Arena) that thankfully is in a huge piazza.  The crowds filled the piazza and spilled into all the surrounding streets.  We stopped behind the Arena where an especially active, screaming group was amassed to see what was going on.  We climbed up on the railing of a building beside some old guy (our age) with binoculars and a couple bug-eyed daughters who explained that on the other side of the wall across from us the band was waiting in a white tent.  We think we saw the back of one of the boy's head in a baseball cap because the screaming became particularly shrill when he appeared.  I thought it would be funny to scream and wave like the 12 year old's all around us but my friends didn't find it amusing and almost lost me in the crowd with the speed in which they left.  It took us an hour to find the girls, ensure that they had everything they needed and make plans for meeting after the concert.  Then they were swept away with the mass of hysterical teens towards the entryways and we squeezed our way against the flow and headed for a quiet bar and a glass of wine.  We found lots!  Verona is gorgeous.  It has a huge amount of tourism from Switzerland and Austria and caters to the high end visitors.  It is impeccably renovated with store after store of outrageously expensive Italian goods and tons of restaurants and bars.  As we went farther away from the center towards the river we found great little restaurants for the locals.  We had to stop and try snacks and glasses of wine at many of them.  Verona is also where Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is based and though of course the characters are fictional, this has not stopped the clever Veronians from cashing in on the story and making Juliet's balcony a major tourist attraction.  There is a lovely bronze statue of Juliet whose right breast is very shiny as it is rumored to bring good luck to those who rub it.  We all took our turns.  The concert started at 9 so we went to see what was left of the crowd after the gates had been opened to let the ticket holders in.   The place was still mobbed.  Thousands of girls from all over Europe had come hoping to get tickets even though they had been sold out for months.  They were screaming and singing along to the music as though inside the walls.  These boys have the effect of the Beatles on fans but doubt they have the talent or the longevity.

A little aside here.  We girls of the '70's really missed out on this boy band stuff. The '60's had not only the Beatles but The Stones and The Doors etc.  The '80's had all those "Second English Invasion" bands like Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet.  What did we have?  The Jackson Five and The Osmonds.  Really?  I had a poster of David Cassidy from the Partridge Family up on my wall.  The guy was shirtless, white and hairless and scrawny.  I probably out-weighed him.

At 10:30 the show was over and the floodgates were opened.  It took a half an hour for the girls to reach us but it was worth the wait.  Best people watching ever.  You would think we were watching the aftermath of a natural disaster.  The tears!  Hundreds of girls were sobbing, supported on the arms of friends, mothers and fathers.  The others were crazed with huge unblinkng eyes, walking zombie-like, probably repeating the mantra, "I can't believe I saw them...I can't believe....".  Eventually our clear-headed but somewhat deafened girls found us and we headed home.  It took over an hour to get out of the city and three to get home.  They girls talked up a storm for the first half an hour then all went quiet. 

On the road and sooooo excited

the Arena from the back

Moms at 1st cafe'

Juliet's balcony. note the 1D headband.

Arena after dark

We plopped into bed close to 3.  I go into to work at 11 so I let Grace sleep in till 10 and she went into school tardy today.

















                            







                                      ooxx me

This weekend is not looking good.  It still hasn't stopped raining and in fact there has been serious flooding in Veneto, the region we are driving to tomorrow for the concert.  It is the rainiest spring on record.  Oh joy.  Then to add to my disappointment, our lovely big lunch in the country was cancelled.  Our host has a sore throat.  Oh suck it up!  All that good behavior this week preparing for today, for nothing. 

Last night we went to the International Book Fair which is in Torino every year.  We'd never been and it sounded intriguing.  It wasn't.  It also wasn't very international.  A few countries were represented in booths selling books by their well known authors but it was mostly small publishing houses trying to get their products out there.  Plus I must admit that though I can read Italian, I don't read it well and I don't enjoy it.  Reading in Italian is a task.  Reading in English is a pleasure.  I'm simply too old to start now.  My learning new tricks brain has closed it's doors and locked up.  We were also dragging Grace around which was a real treat.  14 and bored at 10 o'clock at night.  We treated ourselves to ice-cream on the way home.  Ice cream makes everything better.

I assume we are heading out tomorrow even if it is raining, which is probable.  Poor kids.  Their first concert in the pouring rain?  I'm hoping for a miracle from the weather Gods.  xxoo me

Still raining.  No end is sight.  Looking for tall building but damned Italians don't do skyscrapers.  me

Did I mention that it is the rainy season and that every 1 day of sun is followed by 3 of downpour so heavy I don't go out for fear of being washed away?  Did I mention the upstairs neighbors who 24 - 7 are either singing (him), screaming (her) or vacuuming (?)?  Did I mention the fact that we live in a tiny apartment with no privacy space and a husband who often works from home?  How bout that fact that I'm on a diet and can't eat to relieve the stress?  Did I mention all that?  Well now I have and you'll understand why I've been putting in lots of unpaid hours at school just to get out!  Grace and I are supposed to drive to Verona this Sunday with friends so that our three girls can go to their first concert.  They are going to see One Direction, the boy band from England.  The concert is to be held in Verona's Arena, an ancient Roman amphitheater.   The girls bought their tickets months ago, spending their own money and a lot of it.  The drive to Verona is about 3 hours and they need to be there well ahead of time so we'll leave late morning even though the concert doesn't start ill 9 pm.  And all of this is dependent on the weather.  Will they cancel the concert if it pours?  The Arena is obviously open-air but the stage is covered.  Will they give ticket money back should it be rained out?  Or just give tickets to a future concert that undoubtedly we wouldn't be able to make.  And when will we know if it's cancelled?  Certainly not before we have headed off into the dawn light of Sunday.  In the meantime, while the girls are getting their groove on, we three moms will be touristing around the city.  I've been before but it was a long time ago.  Please don't let it rain!!!  xxoo me

Alright I am definitely on a diet and this time I'm serious!  Yesterday we celebrated Mother's Day and both of the grandparent's May birthdays and their anniversary.  I made a big lunch with 4 appetizers, fish and side dishes, fruit, cake and wine.   We ate for an hour or more, I did the dishes, ate more cake, and then I took a nap.  I have spent this entire year here eating and drinking, and talking about eating and drinking, and writing about eating and drinking.  Next weekend we have two days of lunches/dinners out and about.  I have got to behave for the next 5 days or surely my liver will explode.  Just thinking about it is making me hungry.  This is a dangerous country.  xxoo me

After a typical Saturday morning of grocery shopping, laundry and cleaning the bathrooms, we took a drive to an area we'd never visited before, though it is just around the corner, so to speak.  Behind the hills and to the north of the city is another beautiful area know for Freisa wine.  It is all steep hillsides and lush valleys.  We discovered lovely little towns complete with their own castle and/or ancient church.  We found our way to a winery atop a high hill with views out over the countryside and the Alps.  It felt very remote though we were within a half hour drive to the city.  It was so warm today that I was out in a skirt, showing my blindingly white legs to the world.  I haven't had any sun yet because though it has been warm, it has rained every afternoon, starting about the time I get home from school.  We got back about dinnertime with a trunk full of wine and some flowers for the grandmother.  Tomorrow, mother's Day, the grandparent's are here for lunch.  GP is snoring on the sofa and I'm heading to bed soon too.  Sunshine and afternoon wine wiped me out..... Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there.  xxoo me

I have started teaching Kindergarteners on Thursdays from 9-10.  As Thursdays have been my day off I was not pleased to hear they wanted to come in to the library, but fortunately it worked out that I can drive Grace to school, hang around for an hour to do their class, and then head off for the day.  Today my Thursday market friend picked me up outside the school at 10 and she and I and a visiting Canadian friend of hers, went for a long hike.  He drove to the base of the mountains, to a little town called Chiusa San Michele, and parked at the train station.  From there we followed a marked "walk" up Mount Pirchiriano, to the Sacra Di San Michele, the Abby and religious complex that Grace, Gp and I visited last fall.  The walk up took almost 2 hours and my calves are feeling it tonight.  At the top we had a picnic and then tripped back down the cobbled trail.  Of course we rewarded ourselves with gelato after reaching the town at the bottom.  Quiet weekend ahead.  xxoo  me

I am the old lady on the right.

Italians don't mow.  It drives me crazy.  Our communal condo grassy area has needed to be mowed for weeks and no one seems to notice except me.  GP says I'm an obsessed American, but after London I think I'm an obsessed Anglo-Saxon.  London gardens and landscaping were impeccable.  The grass borders looked as though they had been trimmed by hand with scissors.   Not so much here.  Everything green is overgrown except trees that they prune down to stumps.  Personally, I like my grass short and my trees big and bushy.  I mowed our little yard Saturday.  Evidently . seeing me out there made our "landscaper" neighbor feel guilty because he finally mowed his lawn that was about a foot long.  Now if he'd only do the front.....

Tomorrow Grace is away in Milan for a volleyball tournament with her school team.  It's rather a joke because there isn't really a school team.  Just a few girls who get together once a week to play.  To have enough kids for a team they had to recruit and have a one time 2 hour practice today.  They will be playing against teams that meet 3 times a week.  Well, they should have fun and it will be an opportunity to see another International School.  I'm going to a friend's house for drinks at 6 while waiting for the girls to get back, then we'll all go out for pizza.  If it stops raining long enough I may mow again.  xxoo me

Stupenigi, Hunting "Lodge"

Grace poking the stag

This morning we went to Stupenigi, one of the  hunting palaces of the "House of Savoy", Italy's royal dynasty.  It was built in 1729 and was once surrounded by a huge park and woods stocked with deer and birds for hunting.  The park is now a nature preserve.  The palace is only half renovated so we couldn't see it all but what we did see was amazing.  Unfortunately no pics.   xxoo me                                                       

Since we came here last fall, I've bought all sorts of unknown or untried food at the markets.  Purple carrots that stained my hands the color of raspberries for a week; what I thought were giant parsnips, simply called "Roots", that turned out to be inedibly bitter; Fava beans, (Hello Clarice), that proved rather tasteless; long, flat beans that were really tender and tasty that I haven't been able to find again;  and yesterday, Loquats.  Loquats look like skinny Apricots with black belly buttons but they taste like oranges.  Every week we try a new type of cheese.  There are over 400 in Italy.  I avoid anything with blue or black lines through it or that moves on it's own.  This morning it was duck eggs, a gift from our neighbor whose parents have a little farm.  They're sort of "super eggs", bigger and stronger tasting than chicken eggs.  Have I talked about these neighbors?  They live next door, to the right of us when sitting on our patio.  As I mentioned, there is little to no privacy here.  Our gardens are divided by 6 foot hedges but the patio area only has large pots with evergreens in them.  We can hear everything that goes on all around us and vice-verse.  Thankfully, our neighbors on either side are very nice and respect our privacy.  However, these particular neighbors, generous duck egg sharers, have two very talkative children.  Sophia is about 7 and Stefano is 4.  They are really cute and generally well behaved but they're also precocious and chatter incessantly.  When I'm outside gardening they follow me up and down on their side of the hedge, peeking through the leaves and asking me questions.  Lots and lots of questions.  Their mom works in a pharmacy and dad used to own a bunch of photo shops until everyone went digital.  Now he has just one shop and works as a landscaper-gardener.  Two years ago he saw me playing in the dirt out here and decided to change careers, so he took a course in tree pruning and bought a truck.  Now he's an expert.  He gives me free stuff so I'm not complaining.  Today we are going to see one of the numerous royal hunting lodges outside of Torino.  These royals liked their hunting.  Hopefully it will be open.  xxoo me

When we came back from London, we came back to rain and a green so green it's like being in an Irish Spring commercial.  We are having daily thundershowers and everything is soaked.  I had my forth driving "lesson" today and that man is really pissing me off.  He speaks to me like I'm an idiot child (no comments here).  I am a paying customer!  I deserve some respect I say!  Two more lessons and then the practical exam.  If I don't pass I'm going to throw myself into the Po River.  If I don't drown the toxicity will kill me.  This weekend are the birthdays of both grandparents and their anniversary.  Sunday we are having them here for lunch so tomorrow will be spent shopping, cooking and cleaning.  Undoubtedly it will be raining in any case...  xxoo me

Kate in dress and boots outside Kennsington Palace

Grace at gates of K. Palace

The original shop!  Gorgeous.

The Tower of London

Grace with a Beefeater

In front of The Shard

Damned kids....

End of school day.  Look at those boys!

Self-explanatory

The Knight Bus