I've been here a week.  Technically I am still in quarantine but I have been getting out almost every day for a walk.  As there are so few people on the streets in this area I have no problem avoiding "contact".  Many evenings we've gone out to peek in windows as G's place is easy walking distance to some fabulous neighborhoods.  London is globally the city with the highest number of wealthy citizens and there are so many extraordinary residential areas.  I wish I could press my face up against their windows and have a looksy around their enclosed gardens!  But G won't let me so I have to behave myself.  Damned sense of propriety.   Wonder where she gets it.  G starts work again on Tuesday so I am going to begin with my explorations.  Though everything is shut up tight I can still wander around parks and look at the architecture.  Still don't have a return ticket and as Italy even more locked down than here, no reason to go back yet.  I'm lucky to have that option.  Stay safe!  xxoo me

 So here is this WET country, (hasn't stopped raining since I got here), and where there is a new virulent strain of the virus, maybe they would have fewer cases if they actually WORE MASKS!  It's insane to see most people bare faced including ALL of the cops and firefighters!  There was an incident of some sort across the road today and the fire department was called.  2 trucks, 6 firemen, no masks.  I've seen various policemen and traffic cops on my 2 trips out to grab food.  Not a mask among them!  I'd say maybe 1/3 of the people out and about wear them.  Max.  It's nuts.  

We are hoping to go see Christmas lights tonight.  The place to go is Oxford Street down to Piccadilly Circus.  There shouldn't be crowds as nothing is open but probably will be.  And the rain is still coming down.  Wow.....

xxoo me

 Holy Toledo!  What a harrowing day yesterday.  Just as I was zipping up my suitcase for my trip to London, the news reported that Italy, like Holland and Belgium before them, was cancelling all flights to and from the UK due to the new and more virulent strain of the virus.  Up until my plump behind was firmly planted in that airplane seat I was sweating bullets, not sure if I'd be getting out or not.  Our flight was the last flight before the shut down.  I flew into a scarily quiet London.  It was only 9:30 pm and the streets were empty.  There was a long line of empty taxis outside of Paddington Station, all hoping for a fare.  I was the only person in sight.  There was so little traffic, the cab made it to Grace's in record time and cost me half what I usually pay.  Now I'm hunkered down on the sofa looking out at a typically gray, rainy day and grateful to be here.  The coffee's good, there are two kinds of Babka in the kitchen, cinnamon and chocolate, and BBC on the telly!  All is good.  xxoo me

 From the sea to the mountains!  Today was our first snowshoeing excursion.  Who knows when we'll have our next as we are due to go into complete lock down again as of Monday the 21st.  It's for this reason I have changed my flight to London and will leave the 20th.  When will this all end one wonders.

 

 

We started out early morning and it was COLD.  The advantage was that there was NO ONE to be seen.  

 

It was another glorious day.  At least in the mountains.  Torino and surrounds were brown with smog even after the months of limited traffic. 

On these, the shortest days of the year, the valley below is all in shadow shortly after noon.  The temperatures dropped and I practically ran all the way to the car.  Going down is SO much easier!

xxoo me

 Here's Noli in shadows as the sun was setting last Sunday.  What a beautiful day.  It was the first day we were out of lock down and could leave our communities.  Unfortunately we weren't the only people who thought of going to the sea.  The town and hiking trails were packed.  We scooted off the trail up into the hills and sunbathed for a couple of hours.  The weather was gorgeous; warm, sunny and dry.  Now it looks like we'll be locked down again because it seems that after 6 weeks of no liberty, strangely, people went out in mass when the flood gates opened!  Who woulda thunk?  I got in a walk today with a friend and hope to get a day in the mountains before the gates close again. 

 

And here I am with my enormous backside.  Thank you Covid for all of the beer, the wine, the baking and cooking.  Thank you for the lack of exercise, the hours of netflix, the frequent naps.  Thank for the 20 pounds that will take me fricking YEARS to drop! 

 Whatta year.  xxoo me

 

 

 

There are two really traditional Christmas cakes here; Panettone and Pandoro.  Panettone originated in Milan, Pandoro in Verona.  A good Panettone is nothing like the boxed stale cakes we find in the States.  They are yellow from the dozen eggs used to bake them, fluffy, soft with a wonderful toasted top and dotted with tangy, sweet dried fruits.  Pandoro is somewhere between a basic yellow cake and an angle cake.  Very light and covered with powdered sugar.  This is Racca, a wholesale pastry-bakery that caters to bars, restaurants and folks off the street.  I wish I could post the perfume walking into this place.  Because it IS perfume.  So so GOOD.  We buy our annual Panettone from places like this, fresh out of the oven.   It is still wrapped and sitting on our table.  I am trying to resist ripping into it as tomorrow is MIL's "saint's day" and we'll be having a big dinner with her.  We've given ourselves until Sunday.  I shall persevere!

xxoo me

 It has been gray and overcast since I got here a month ago.  Either the smog or the clouds have kept the Alps hidden from view.  But last night we had a long hard rain and today under black clouds the mountains are bright and white.  Sometimes it seems as if they crowd in on us, huge and and higher than Torino's few tall structures, spanning the entire horizon.  It's always a surprise to see them after an absence.  They take up so much space.  

 

a back road church

the mountains after a rain

I took these picture on my way to have lunch with MIL.  I have made it a habit to visit once a week, just we two, for lunch and a chat.  Mitch Albom had Tuesdays with Morrie.  I have Wednesdays with Amalia.  I'm recording the recounting of her life.  GP is little interested in his family's past so I've taken on the role of Story Keeper.  Maybe someday the daughter will be interested.  Maybe someday I'll write it down.  But in the mean time she loves to tell me how she was the winner of the Miss Carignano contest when she was 16 or how she had a bit part in a docu-film made in town.  We eat a little lunch, have an expresso and a chocolate.  It's nice.

Stay well, xxoo me