Some bored newspaper reporter had nothing better to do last night so he stood around in Genova's main hospital and counted the elderly folk carted into the emergency room for over-eating.  Really.  Our generation and younger try to abstain from the heavy gluttony of ole but those 70 and up, those who lived through the hard times in the war, go whole hog.  There were 12 pensioners who had eaten to the point of being of semi-comatose at the time of his report.  In just one emergency room.  Imagine how many in the country.  Today I'm putting away all of the signs of Christmas as we are off for our now annual after Christmas family trip.  This year a road trip north through Munich, into Austria, then Hungary etc.  A few nights books but the rest we're winging it.  As I sit our next door neighbor lights are flashing in the window.  He and GP started a conversation about Christmas lights in the US and the next thing you know his front balcony is done up like the disco in Saturday Night Fever.  I told him this means war and next year we are planning something BIG.  Eric has a landscaping business and owns cultivated fields in the farm land up behind the condos.  He will spontaneously lean over the hedge and offer us a crate of cabbage or fresh spinach.  He also provides me with all my annuals every year.  I LOVE him.  Watching the news with alarms of possible attacks around New Years in European cities.  Great.  We'll be in all major cities.  Off to finish packing.  xxoo me

Merry Christmas all!  The cat is outta the bag and Grace has her "big" presa.  Her oldest and dearest is coming to spend February vacation with us.  I wish I'd thought to record it.  There were many tears.  So cute.  For GP I booked a session of rock-climbing lessons.  He's wanted to do mountain climbing for years and has in fact gone with a friend once but I'd rather he knew what he was doing so I hooked him up with these.  He loves the mountains and this should be fun.  Then an hours long lunch with MIL and great Aunt and cousin from across the hall.  As usual I ate/drank too much and am now considering crawling into bed at 7pm.  Ah the holidays.

The Italians

Merry Christmas!!!  xxoo me

News from Italy this holiday season.  52 days and counting with no rain.  Longest drought since some time in the 1800's.  The lack of rain has made this windless place smoggy and grey.  The air quality stinks.  I have constant red, irritated eyes and a stuffy nose.  Can't wait to get away for a while after Christmas.  We really lucked out with the past 3 winters with out-of-the-ordinary wind and clear skies.  Alas it has returned to the climate I remember from 25 years ago and the pollution is bad, bad.

We've had out first terror threat here in lovely downtown Torino.  The Mole Antonelliana, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_Antonelliana, Torino's best know landmark and site of the National Museum of Cinema, was targeted with a bomb scare today at noon.  As far as I know it's still standing but the police did evacuate the area and close down streets.  The terrorists are getting what they want.  After a few attacks, now all they have to do is sit back and make crank calls. 

The Jubilee year has begun.  Sacred church doors are being opened around the globe for sinners to walk through and have all their guilt washed away.  There are 5 churches assigned this duty in Rome alone.  If you ask me they need a lot more than that.

On a cheerier note, I'm home baking cookies today to take to Pilates class tomorrow.  Sort of defeats the purpose doesn't it?  My once annual baking helps me get in the spirit.  We have our little Charlie Brown tree up, presents all bought and wrapped, a few guests for wine and nibbles on Wednesday evening and Christmas dinner with the family.

On an even better note, Grace got her first acceptance letter this week from Simmons College in Boston.  Yeah!  Exciting, scary and bittersweet time for us all. 

Off to get me cookies out of the oven!  xxoo me

The situation has degenerated.  We are making alliances.  This is war!  I'm not talking about the Middle East or Russia and Turkey or anything like that.  This is us against the insane upstairs neighbors!  Either they had been keeping it down a bit or we had simply grown accustomed to the noise of arguing and vacuuming and singing ballads.  Other than some head shaking and the occasional  “Shut up!” yelled at the ceiling, life was relatively calm.  But last week there was a real screaming match one night and GP had to telephone and tell them to cool it.  Then this past weekend there was a first.  A battle WHILE she was vacuuming.  Double whammy.  Then a couple days ago the kid had a friend over.  (They must have paid him, the “friend”, to visit.)  PC, (we call him pig-child), argued with HIM all afternoon, and then started off on his parents.  The arguing intensified though the evening and by the time I got to bed they were screaming.  And I mean SCREAMING.  The kid was hysterically raging around their apartment and his parents were hollering and then they must have tried to subdue him because he started yelling. “Get your hands off me!” and “Help, Help you're suffocating me” and “This place is filled with crazy people!”   The kid was seriously flipping out.  This was now about 11pm.  Grace was trying to sleep and we wanted to go to bed but it was impossible.  GP stomped out to bang on their door, (they wouldn’t hear the phone over the racket).  All of the neighbors had gathered into the hallway and they were discussing what steps to take when there was a huge slamming of doors and then silence.  We heard PC in his room playing with whatever the hell it is he plays with on his carpetless floor til all hours of the night.  The kid doesn’t sleep.  There is obviously some serious issue with him and he’s getting BIG so scary.  The next morning GP wrote a note and taped to the front door of our building where everyone will see it.  It says something along the lines of;

To the inconsiderate neighbors on the 2^nd floor.  Thank you for the circus show last night.  In the future we would appreciate a little more tranquility in the evening.

Then he went to the police.  He didn't files a complaint so much as an official heads-up.  This way in the future if it gets out of hand again all we do is call the cops and they have a file on the family.  Had they even once apologized or acknowledged the issue we wouldn't be so pissed off but nary a word from them.

On another note...I don't know why they even bother to have right of ways and stop signs and traffic lights in this country.  It's a frickin free-for-all!  I practically got myself killed driving home from the supermarket just now when some old fart drove across the road in front of meet with in feet and never even bothered to look.  

Cooking dinner for the MIL tonight.  She is home from knee rehab and doing fine.  She'll probably out live me.  SHE doesn't have to drive here!  xxoo me

Long weekend.  Gray, chilly day.  Grace studying and the shops are closed.  I'm binge watching Broadchurch.  How is it the British are so much better than us at TV?  Soooo good.  No gratuitous blood or violence or sex. 

Who are these gorgeous women!?

Among the issues of living in a small apartment is the fact that we have inside walls in our bathrooms.  No windows.  The steam builds up and mold grows up on the ceiling even though we use the vent.  So once every couple months I put on my special just for this occasion clothes, empty the bathrooms out, and spray the ceilings with a bleach/water mix.  I was doing just that today standing up on the bidet to reach the corner when I made the mistake of looking over my shoulder right at the vanity mirror and a view of my entire backside.  AAAAHHHHHHHHH!  I have Kim Kardasian"s ass!  If I look at myself from the side I can fool me into thinking my jeans really are the same size they were when I was 16.  Alas that clear back view today told me another story.  Damn.  I prefer self delusion.

the crowds!

Govone Castle

Today we went to a Christmas fair in a town called Govone with a castle that's a UNESCO world heritage sight.  The road up to the castle was all lighted and lined with stands selling Christmas food and crafts.  Unfortunately it was VERY crowded.  There were so many people and the upper village is so small we all had to leave our cars below and take a shuttle up.  We had hot chocolate (Grace and GP) and mulled wine (me) and wandered around for a couple hours.  It was fun. We stopped for pizza on the way home so that I could add more inches onto my behind.  Heavy sigh.  xxoo me

Yesterday after school I went into Torino with a friend to see an art exhibition at the GAM, Torino's modern art museum.  It was a Monet exhibition on loan from one of the museums in Paris.  What I love about the Impressionists is that up close, the paintings look like nothing or rather like just a lot of random colors.  But take a few steps back and those dabs of color become people or shadows or buildings.  Either these guys spent a lot of time walking back and forth, to and from their easels or they had some seriously long handled paint brushes.  After we went out for dinner and a walk around the center to see the holiday lights.  Torino is supposed to be a top Italian city when it comes to decorating for Christmas but it's got nuthin' on any small American town this time of year.  The only really outstanding sights are the pastry and chocolate shops.  The windows displays are amazing and very tempting.  We have a four day weekend coming up because the 8th is Immaculate Conception Day.  ( Did you know that when referring to Immaculate Conception they are actually referring to Mary's conception, not Jesus'?   Who knew?)   So Grace and I are going to a Christmas fair in a tiny town with a famous castle out in the wine region.  I have to do something to help us feel more festive in light of all the cheery news we hear every day.  xxoo me