Today was our last day of school and the last of our good-byes.  Sadly our German friends are heading back north after a two year stint here.  We'll miss them.  We had dinner with the grandparents and then came home to another soccer match on TV.  We've seen someone from our school in almost every match as the players from Juventus are from all over the world.  Tonight it was a player on the Uruguayan team.  His daughter is in kindergarten.  We fly home tomorrow so this is my last entry till September.  Strange but leaving is a little bittersweet this time.  It must be because many good friends won't be here when we return.  Next year will be very different.  Ah well.  Soon home.  I can't wait for that fresh sea air.  Till later!  xxoo me

One more good-bye party today and really - at this point my liver is shot.  Today's fest was a good-bye to the teachers heading off to foreign shores.  There was sparkling wine accompanying trifle, cookies, cake and ice-cream.  This was after school, before the official dinner, (which I skipped).   I need a diet vacation.  I want water and lettuce for a month.  After a season or three in Italy, without a break, I am up to my gills in food and wine and and and.  Tomorrow is my last day of work.  Tomorrow night is a good-bye dinner with the grandparents.  Then blessedly summer, where if I behave, I can control my in-take without too much temptation.  It is dangerous being in Italy and having so little self control.  Damn.  Two days and we head home.  Hope I make it....  xxoo me

Three cheers!  Italy won against England the other night.  I actually stayed up to watch it live on regular TV from 12 - 2 a.m..  As Italy won, we now have 20 euro discount at the supermarket.  Yup, they do that. Then the US won last night!  Who woulda thunk it?  Down to our last couple days before summer vacation.  GP went to the supermarket to spend our World Cup discount by buying us our favorites before we leave.  For me it's Tomino, a creamy spreadable cheese you drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with herbs.  For Grace it's salami and breads.  There are certain things you just can't get at home.  But at the same time I can't wait for my first lobster and peanut butter ice-cream!  The supermarket was a whirlwind of activity because everyone has to use their World Cup discounts.  They were buying stuff up like it's Armageddon.  People were fighting over the last pieces of bread.

Sunday, we had a BBQ at friends who live in the next town over.  I always find the house thing surprising.  Italians, maybe all Europeans, simply require so much less space than Americans.  The friends we went to are unimaginably wealthy.  I know no one even vaguely in the same ballpark in the US.  But they live in a two bedroom place most of the year.  ( Mind you it's one hell of a place but still.....)  I think this fixation with space is ours alone.  I can't wait to get home to my little house that seems so spacious right now.  xxoo me

FRICKIN' TRAGEDY!  Goalkeeper Buffon has injured his ankle and likely won't play tonight.  Waves of moaning are rolling across the nation.  On the bright side, his kids were still in school yesterday so won't be missing seeing him play!  Honestly, it's difficult to believe the attention this is getting.  Back to my ironing.  xxoo me

Craziness abounds!  The World Cup has started and there is nothing more important than soccer for the vast majority of Italian men.  Tonight Italy plays against England.  The betting rooms are packed, the old guys are gathered at all the bars and spilling out onto the sidewalks arguing, at the gas station the two attendants were discussing averages.  At school, 3 players on the Italian National Team have children attending and multiple people somehow involved with the sport have kids there too.  The talk during lessons is all about who is heading to Brazil once school is out.  Some have already left, as evidently watching Dad play "football" is more important than education.  The game is only televised on Sky TV, a pay channel, so we won't get it, but I predict little sleep tonight as it begins at midnight.  It is hot so all windows will be open and every house and apartment from here to Sicily will be watching.  Ho Hum.  xxoo me

Last night we were talking about luck.  I was at dinner in an Indian restaurant , (very good and nice change), in the city center with the group from school that does yoga on Thursday afternoons.  There were 3 Americans, an Italian, a German and a French gal.  When we say "touch wood", Italians say "touch iron" and the french touch both.  The German gal didn't think the Germans touch anything.  But what else do Italians touch?  Testicles!  What does this tell us?  The funny thing is what Italians find unlucky.  Principally nuns, hearses and broken olive oil bottles.  Just imagine the funeral procession of a nun clonked on the head by a bottle of oil!

Tonight Grace is celebrating her birthday with 5 friends.  GP and I are off to sleep at the grandparents and leaving them to their own devices.  I have no fear.  And I'll get some sleep.  xxoo me

The architect who designed our school should be drawn and quartered.  The school is beautiful to look at.  The original building is an old "Noble House", probably from the late 1700's with high vaulted ceilings and frescoes on the walls.  This building, with it's 2 foot thick walls,  is warm in the winter and remains blissfully cool in the summer.  It houses the administrative offices and meeting rooms.  The large "U" shaped addition was completed 4 years ago and houses the classrooms, gym, cafeteria, kitchens and library.  It's very modern and colorful in design but it makes no sense, especially with the climate in Italy.  Much of it is open-concept so impossible to heat in the winter.  The roofs in the hallways are all glass panels, sunny and bright and hotter than hell these days.  They're also tough to clean as are all of the weird architectural additions like sky-high cubicles and shelving, (for decorations?), and little space-wasting alcoves and hallways.  I don't think any real planning went into it.  Like so much in Italy, it's esthetically pleasing but it doesn't work.  I had a meeting today to discuss what to do with the library situation.  It's present location is in the lower part of a two story space that echos and carries noise.  It's impossible to have quiet time as the upstairs balcony-like part holds the technology classes.  We are trying to find a location to move the 18,000 books and their shelving.  Good luck with that.  I put in my 2 cents worth and left it at that.  I don't plan to help with the relocation.  They definitely don't pay me enough. 

Am now planning Grace's 16th birthday!  (aaaaahhhhh)  Somehow we are going to squeeze 6 girls in this place Friday night.  GP and I plan on sleeping at the grandfolks and leaving the apartment to the young'ins.  Thursday and Sunday other good-bye parties then we're on the final stretch!  I've started packing.  xxoo me

I'm melting!  I'm meeeeelting!  Why do I think I've said that before?  It is hotter than Hades now.  There is little escape as most places don't have air conditioners.  At the school today, all the foreign teachers were flushed and sweaty.  I looked like I'd been caught in a rainstorm, all damp and sticky.  Somehow the Italian teachers are immune.  The were just as fresh and attractive as always.  I hate them.  xxoo me

Summer has come.  It's hot and sticky, 90 degrees in the shade, and GP has gone into his annual hibernation.  He's closed in our bedroom with the air conditioner on, the metal blinds down and the lights off.  We won't see him till evening.  We've started our rounds of good-byes and last night went to a party at our German friend's place.  They head home mid-summer.  Grace also said a sad farewell to her Dutch friend who's going to finish school in Wales at a boarding school.  There were many tears.  On Friday GP and I went to dinner in a restaurant we used to frequent when we lived here over twenty years ago.  We wanted to see if it would live up to our fond memories.  It did.  Dinner was excellent and the two bottles of white wine went down way too easily.  Last night I stuck to water.  My hair has now taken on a salmon-ish tint and I have a strange desire to swim up river.  xxoo me

3 frickin' hours later and I'm finally out of the hair salon.  No wonder Italian women are always late!  This is my third hairdresser and obviously there are some communication problems because I never get it just right.  I asked for highlights to cover my gray.  "Natural", I said, "like the sun!".  I looked like a White Tiger when he was done!  I actually screamed.  He said he could darken it up a bit and I said, "Duh, yeah!".  He didn't understand the words but I think he got the tone.  I'm now a bit less blinding though Grace says that it is still too light and kinda orange.  Hmmm.  xxoo me

I have finally re-booked my hair appointment that I had cancelled as it fell on the day after "The Accident".  I stopped in today after work and spoke to the owner.  I told her that I hadn't been to the hairdresser since autumn and she was horrified.  She said, and I quote, "Madam!  In Italy that simply will not do!".  I said yes, I knew, and that I had to cover my gray as it makes me look much older than my 39 years.  She cocked a perfectly plucked brow at me.  Well then!  I should have pulled up my trousers and showed her my unshaven legs or taken off my shoes to reveal my callouses and, horrors, unpainted toe nails!

Damn, this is NOT a good look.

The view from the top

Melting snow created hundreds of waterfalls

Yesterday I went for a hike in Parco Paradiso with B, my German friend, and her 9 year old son.  Parco Paradiso, the oldest national park in Italy, is in the mountains towards Switzerland.  We had a lovely, though very steep walk, up past the tree line to see the last of the remaining snow because that is what our youngest hiker requested.  He also wanted to see an "Alpine ibex" and we did!  Or we saw a mountain goat which is in the same family but smaller.  The ibex have the long curved horns.  The little one we saw had short straight horns.  He was much friskier up there than I was.  By the time we spotted him, my calves were throbbing and I was short of breath.

Less than 3 weeks and we're home!  xxoo me

Today we went on a family pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Oropa.  It is a huge Catholic complex that draws thousands of pilgrims from all over the world every year, especially from Africa, South America and India.  Possibly because it is home to the "Black Madonna"?  Not very PC but very accurate.  I read that the statue of the Madonna was carved in the 13th century, brought from the Holy Lands in the 4th century, and brought over the mountains in the 1800's.  Who knows?  Whatever the story, it is a beautiful statue with it's own alter in the oldest chapel in the complex.  She looks like she's made of onyx but evidently is made of highly polished, painted pine.  She is dressed in a bright blue cloak and dangles gorgeous jewels the size of my thumb from her hands.  The complex is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  (http://www.santuariodioropa.it)  What was particularly interesting were all of the groups from the southern continents who were playing music, dancing, singing and praying together.  It was a regular Tower of Babel with all of the languages spoken.  Some pilgrims were housed on the premises and they were cooking and eating their native foods and many were dressed in traditional costumes.  It was a little like Pope-Disneyland as there are shops and restaurants, a fun-park and a botanical garden.  But what do I know?  I guess parents need something to convince the kids to travel half way around the world to see a church.  xxoo me

The entrance to the main piazza

Looking up at the largest Chapel with the mountains in clouds behind

Grace watching dancers below

Women in Polish dress dancing to South American musicians

A group from Africa dancing