We had our first snowfall last Thursday afternoon.  It started while school was still in session so the kids were pretty much uncontrollable by the day’s end.  It was one of those autumn storms that came so fast the roads were covered in no time.  Even Northern Italy is completely useless in snow.  The buses that made it up the hill to the school got stuck on the way back to the city.  Some took hours to deliver kids, not arriving till 8 or 9 at night!  Many buses didn’t even get that far and a load of students and teachers were stranded at school.  I had a full carload heading out.  There were big, heavy, wet flakes that slap the windshield and get the roads greasy and sloppy.  In Maine a sprinkle of sand and salt and some good snow tires would have been enough, but here you’d think it was Armageddon.  There were cars abandoned on hills.   Roads higher up were completely closed.  I saw no plows, no sand nor salt.  Our apartment is just below the snow line so though leaving school I drove through it, at certain point the snow turned to rain.  The Italians were a mess.  They drive like Floridians.  Because the roads weren’t plowed and the higher up in the hills the heavier the snow and the steeper the climb, I have two friends who had to leave their cars beside the road and walk home.  Friday it rained on and off all day and it had all melted by evening.  What an adventure!  They're still talking about it.  These are the same people who drive an hour up into the mountains and ski all weekend, but evidently snow up there is very different than snow down here.  Go figure.  xxoo me