My gosh oh golly, the elixir of bee saliva seems to work!  I've taken two doses and feel better than I've felt in ages.  It may be a psychosomatic cure but who the Hell cares!  The stuff tastes like Jagermeister or one of those horrible, bitter digestive spirits.  Nasty stuff made of herbs that old men drink with an espresso for breakfast, while smoking their 10th cigarette of the morning, mostly in rural areas.  And yet they outlive us.  Hmmm.  And here I've been with a hacking cough and stuffed head for weeks, never having smoked a cigarette in my life.  What the....!

Anywho.  Italy has finally chosen their next President who is more of a diplomat than leader.  The Prime Minister holds the power where the President holds a few vetoing powers and assures that any new laws, (there are 10 a week in this country), represent the constitution.  The new guy was a judge from the south, mafia country, so as he has reached a ripe old age he's probably corrupt.  Just my opinion!  There has been no mention of that on national news.  But in a country where everyone is out for something, a cynic like me has a field-day.  I must say however, non-catholic as I am, I do like this Pope.  He met privately with a transgender Spaniard the other day!  Can you imagine?!  xxoo me

I'm still sick for Chris-sakes!!  It will be two months February 6th exactly.  I remember because it started with a high fever the evening of a Mexican dinner with friends.  The Mexican dinner had nothing to do with it.  I cooked.  I've asked around and have been told to try Propolaid, an extract of honey or bee spit or something.  I guess it tastes terrible and can stain your teeth so one has to put drops down their throat.  I predict gagging.  I stopped today at a "herboristeria"  to buy it as you can't find it in pharmacies.  Herboristarie are pre-pharmacies.  They've been around forever, once run by little old ladies who collected plants in the fields and made their own medicines.  They are shops that sell all-natural, herbal remedies and cosmetics.  When I was first here many years ago, herboristarie were lovely old shops with dark wood shelves and large jars filled with dry leaves and liquids .  But now that "all-natural" has become the rage these shops are almost as common as pharmacies, which are on every corner because Italy is a nation of hypochondriacs.   Every household has a few drawers filled with medicines.  They never finish their overly prescribed prescriptions of antibiotics and keep the left-overs, self medicating for as little as a sniffle.   I'm convinced that Italians are the cause of the super strains of viruses.  So I'm going to try my bee spit and hopefully kick this once and for all.  xxoo me

Yippee ya yay!  Teeth are out, braces on.  We made it through with very little drama and lots of ice cream.  Grace had some too.

There is a little girl at the school, a kindergartener, who I have fallen in love with.  I don't think she's human.  Possibly elfin.  She speaks her own language, all the time, to herself.  Mom is American and Dad is Italian so I know it's not a language issue.  She looks like a cuter version of the trolls we used to play with as kids.  She is all exaggerated features, mischievous grin and fly-away hair.  Her teacher calls her magical and there is something so other-worldly about her.  Her two older brothers are nice kids but just kids, with dark eyes and hair.  She is blond and light-eyed but not at all ethereal or fairy-like.  She's solid and there.  She loves to come stand beside me while I'm checking books in and out for her class.  She just smiles at me and mutters unintelligible things, (I guess they're amusing because she laughs to herself too).  I want to bring her home but I think I'd get in trouble.

We finally got up to the mountains for our first snowshoe outing.  There simply hasn't been the snow.  It was freaking cold!  Maine cold.  Nose hair crinkling cold.  We headed up very early so watched the sun rise over the mountains.  We had a 3 hour hike then made it back in time to meet friends in the city for lunch.  It was a good 30 degrees warmer down here.  xxoo me

purty

There was a break-in of sorts in our apartment building yesterday.  Someone broke the lock on the door leading into the storage areas off the stairs leading to the garage.  They didn't get anything as that would have required then breaking into the individual storage units and that is a little tougher.  Or maybe something scared them away.  GP says it was probably a newbie being trained in an "in and out" procedure.  Whatever it was spooks me.  It's not as though we have much to steal.  I have no silver here, electronics are mostly portable and usually with us, jewelry is in our safe.  It's the idea of someone getting into my safe space that bothers me.  I think I'd have to wash all the linens and rugs because the thieves could have touched them with their nasty sticky fingers!  I must say with all of the terrorist arrests in Europe, (every day a new one), and now this little invasion in our home, I should be feeling ill-at-ease.  But I'm not.  I think we've all become dulled by too much information.  Little shocks us.  Until it happens to me, I'll probably never think, "It could happen to me!".  More profound thoughts to come in the future.   xxoo me

Oh these silly, silly I-talians.  They've come up with yet another way to squeeze money out of their citizens.  In the new economic package they are approving this week is a provision to shorten the time a traffic light is yellow from 4 seconds to 3 seconds thereby catching more people running red lights.  This has nothing to do with safety, just more ways to line someone's pocket.

Speaking of being sucked dry, tonight we paid the deposit on Grace's braces.  Somehow they manage to be even more expensive here than in the US.  This is second time around as she has the fortune of having inherited my lovely undersized jaw. (Big teeth, small, downward tilting jaw, 8 teeth out, pallet expander, 2 sets of braces.)  Our dentist, private as one never goes to public dentists, (doctors yes, dentists no),  who was educated in the States, has children at the school and is disgustingly drop dead beautiful at 50+, will put the braces on next Monday.  On Friday she has to extract 2 teeth and fill a cavity.  I predict a tragic weekend with my courageous daughter.  Fortunately I have to oversea SAT exams on Saturday morning so I can avoid much of the whining and complaining.  The dentist office is in one of my favorite parts of the city, on a street closed to traffic, lined with expensive boutiques and across the street from the English cinema.  It's a fabulous old building with 12 foot ceilings and hardwood floors.  One enters through huge, heavy wooden doors and then is buzzed through ornate iron gates, up in the antique elevator, buzzed through two more sets of doors.  I should have known this would cost me a boatload.   Heavy sigh.  Anyone know who would like to buy a nice, healthy kidney?  xxoo me

Another Friday.  Another terrorist scare.  Belgium uncovered a plot against various European nations, France, Holland, Germany amongst others.  Tonight two of the suspected terrorist were caught in France trying to cross into Italy.  We seem to be more a center of refuge than a target.  I suppose that's good and bad.  Good because I don't have to worry much about having my legs blown off whilst drinking my cappuccino.  Bad because there is an enormous number of illegals in this country.  Apart from being an economic weight, it's also scary because you don't who they are.  A few years back they found a big terrorist cell based in Milan.  Their targets were elsewhere but this is where they chose to be based.  I think it's because Italy, and probably Spain, are a half-way point for Middle Eastern folk.  Half-way geographically and half-way culturally.  What is the expression?  You don't shit in your own yard? 

People, meaning the teachers at school, are still talking about the march in Paris.  It's funny but it's sort of like kids in school.  The US was the kid that's too cool to show up.  The French, Italians, Germans and British were the front row center popular ones.  My Canadian friend mentioned that Canada was well represented but that nobody noticed as he was in the back row.  The Saudis and Israelis were the International kids.  They are cool but never really understood nor trusted so kept at a distance.  The Far Easterns, South Americans and Africans are the fringe kids, out of the fray or preoccupied with their own issues and don't get involved in the discussions. 

Talking about crazy fanatics, I watched "The Interview" yesterday to see what all the hype is about.  Obviously no one in North Korea watched the film before proclaiming it an act of war.  It's amazingly stupid.  There is no way it can be taken as more than an example of dumb guys in man caves bad taste in movies.  Really more offensive to the US mentality than to NK. 

Sun is out!  Off for a walk.  xxoo me 

My fear is that it's only just begun.  xxoo me

I try to keep this blog light because, honestly, I'm pretty shallow.  But being so close and hearing so much on the news over here I have to say, sometimes it's embarrassing to be American. 

Read this article.  He is much more articulate than I am.   http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/11/opinion/tapper-paris-march-u-s-leaders-absence/index.html

Really?  What was the administration thinking?  Geesh.  xxoo me

Feel that cold air swirling around your ankles?  Well it's not just the Maine winter.  It's Hell Freezing Over!  GP and I have done the unthinkable, the unimaginable, something I would have never thought possible.  We have purchased ....wine in a box.   I know, I know.  Unfortunately, times have changed.  Not for us, but for the wine industry.  Up until now, vinters sold "bulk wine" in "damigiane" or demijohns, large glass bottles containing 5 to 54 liters.  When I first came to Italy,  GP's parents and grandparents had 6 damigiane of 54 liters each, delivered every spring, (that's about 400 bottles people), and we'd spend an entire weekend in their courtyard, transferring the wine into 3 liters bottles that in turn would be poured into jugs or smaller bottles to serve at meals.  In those long ago days the family went through 300 liters of wine a year as they drank it everyday with lunch and dinner.  It wasn't the refined bottled wines we buy now, but was low-alcohol table wine to be drunk daily with meals, (about 11 percent compared to your average 13 or 14 percent bottled wine).  Most people around here no longer buy "bulk wine" as their work and meal habits have changed so much.  Italians these days drink much less in quantity but tend to expect more in quality.  Those who drink.  I'm always surprised at how many teetotalers there are here where the quality and quantity of wine is so high and the prices are so low.  But back to packaging.  Alas, demigiane are out of style and many winemakers now sell wines in vacuum packed bags, fixed in boxes.  The wine is not exposed to air, it's easier to transport etc.  I hate it.  But there you are.  When we were in Friuli, the eastern area of Italy where we vacationed, we bought 5 liters of a lovely, light Cabernet Franc and they gave it to us in a box.  Apart from my horror, there is another problem.  We now have a overly convenient, large quantity of wine sitting on our window sill outside the kitchen.  Any time I want a little sippy, all I have to do is walk outside with my glass and push the tab.  Too easy.  Will power!

I've booked our flights home for the summer.  We'll be there the 28th of June.  We will have a short summer in Maine in 2015 but once Grace is in college, we'll be back each year in May.  My gardens will be very happy!  xxoo  me

This weather is freaking me out!  Do you know how warm it was today?  72 degrees!  And it's windy and clear with a gorgeous view of the Alps, with no snow!  In January!  OK.  Must stop now.  I've gone over my limit of exclamation marks.  Grace and I went into the city in sneakers and T's and ate ice-cream.  The Italians of course were still dressed in their winter finery because fashion stands down to no weather.

view over city today

 My bladder problem has returned and my doctor is sending me to "Bladder physical therapy."  Apart from being very odd, it's also at a clinic about 45 minutes away.  As GP pointed out, the location is due to the high number of elderly in that area.  Nice. xxoo me

From 18 to 64 degrees.  I'm happy as a clam.  Today was perfect.  Blue sky, soft breeze, birds singing and field flowers blooming.  Silly them.  The Fohn wind has come through bringing this respite from winter as well as a soft coating of powdery sand.  It won't last long and then it will be grey and damp again.  But for today I'm soaking in my vitamin D.

This is about 20 feet high.

Wine dealer making deliveries.

Driving through Slovenia we stopped for a visit at the Postojna Caves, (http://www.postojnska-jama.eu/en/).  None of my photos can possibly do them justice so check out the website.  Every surface seems made of melting candles or sculpted marble.  It's amazing what a bit of calcium rich water dripping for thousands of years can do.

 To finish our trip we spent our last day in Venice as it was on the way back here.  I'll never get enough of that city.  Heavy sigh.  xxoo me

On our way to Slovenia we stayed in Gorizia for three days to see the far eastern part of Italy that none of us had ever visited.  Gorizia is a city divided in two, one part in Italy and the other in Slovenia.  It's a small, very quiet, civilized place.  Everyone is exceedingly well dressed and polite and it has a feel of the genteel to it.  We loved dining there as the food is wonderful, the wines amazing, the service great, (unlike the "doing-you-a-favor" service one gets here), and it costs much less than this area.   The only problem is finding a restaurant that is open.  Evidently, Gorizians don't go out much in the evenings.  The streets were deserted after dark, everything was closed and dining establishments were hard to come by.  But each dinnertime we managed to track down something and each place was lovelier than the last.  Nice little city, that Gorizia. 

One day we drove to Trieste, a huge port on the Adriatic.  It has the largest seaside square in Europe.  Apart from that and some very nice shopping areas the city didn't thrill me.  It has the feel of a port, grey and industrial.  In Trieste we walked up to the city's castle (as they all have at least one) to get the lay of the land.  There was some sort of military ceremony going on at the large chapel attached to the castle.  Dozens of old men in matching uniforms milled around in groups.  The Alpini, (mountain troupes), who are famous for their drinking, were passing a bottle in the parking lot.  GP wouldn't let me join them.

 Next Caves and Venice.  xxoo me

Alpini

Gorizia

Every holiday with my parents there are these @#%! stairs!

Gorizia's main square

I love this fountain in Trieste!  So do the birds.

Happy 2015 one and all!  We have returned from The Land that Vowels Forgot.  Seriously.  Have you ever seen Slovanian?  Trg is square or pedestrian road, Vrt is garden.  Aside from that Ljubiana is gorgeous.  I'm am slightly in love with the city were it not so damned cold!  On the 31st it was 18 degrees and the lovely and obviously thick-skinned Slovenians were out in force, eating and drinking at all of the outside venues that stay up all winter.  Every bar and restaurant has outside space, the squares are filled with stalls selling drink and sausages and sweets, there are markets all along the riverbanks that are open till all hours.  Ljubiana is crowned, and I use that word literally, by it's castle that sits above the city center covered in mutli-colored lights.  The walking paths up to the castle are all alight, every tree in the parks, every bridge across the river, is awash in lights.  It was like wandering into a fairy tale.  We arrived on the 30th in the evening and I can't say enough about how lovely that first sight was.  But it really was flippin' cold!  I have adjusted much too quickly to Italian mild winters.  When we went out for New Years Eve I wore tights and leggings under my jeans, an undershirt, long-sleeved shirt, 2 wool sweaters under my wool coat and I was still a mite chilly.  Grace, who now lives in skin-tight pants, couldn't bend her legs after squeezing into tights and leggings first.  She walked like Frankenstein.  We saw all of the center in the 2 days we were there.  It's a small city of about 300 thousand with a wild ride through history.  At one time or another, everyone owned a piece of it.  There is still a strong connection to communism from their days of being part of Yugoslavia but the city seems very Austrian in architecture.  The restaurants are wonderful, heavily influenced by Italian cuisine, and most everyone speaks English, German or Italian.  I highly recommend a visit! (but maybe in the summer...)  more later!  xxoo me

view along the river Ljubijanica

fireworks over the castle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

by day