London.  Love, love, love, love, love that city!  But for one little issue and no, not the weather.  It is the most outrageously expensive place I've ever been.  5 bucks for a ride on the Underground, $50 for a little trip to the supermarket.  Tiny apartments in decent areas run $1,000 a week!  It is crazy expensive but so worth a visit.  We got there on Wednesday, checking into our hotel at about 1pm.  Though the flight from Italy is only 1.5 hours, the trip door to door took us 9, (taxi, train, bus, plane, train, underground, walk).  It was warm and sunny so we set off for a long walk through Kennsington, past Kennsington Palace where we may or may not have seen Kate the Duchess of Windsor, through Hyde Park then up to "Chinatown" in behind Piccadilly Circus.  We met a friend of Grace's who is studying in London for the semester in front of the Odeon Theater in Leicester Square, famous as having the premier of the Harry Potter films.  We ate dinner in a little Chinese restaurant, very good, then wandered back to our hotel.  On Thursday we walked for hours again.  The city was packed with tourists, mostly French and Italians.  We couldn't get away from them.  Grace and I wanted to go to the Tower of London but GP is not a huge fan of museums so we dumped him on a bench in the surprisingly bright sunshine to people-watch. ( He informed us that Europeans have gotten fat.)  An hour and a half later when we emerged he was sunburned!  We walked back by way of the river and found a wonderful market in Southwark that had imported foods from all over Europe.  We almost fainted when we saw the prices of Parmigiano.  We also walked down Sloane Street, known for being the place where the "posh" people shop.  We saw lots of posh people.  We were not posh.  Thursday we ate in a Lebanese restaurant.  It was fabulous.  The city has a vast variety of ethnic restaurants and as good, traditional English food is hard to come by, we ate "ethnic" most nights.  Friday was dedicated to the Harry Potter Studio Tour.  GP didn't join us.  Grace and I had a wonderful time and would do it again in a heartbeat.  We missed the Duchess and the two princes by only a couple hours as they were at the studios for some commencement or another that same morning.  Dinner was cheddar, smoked mackerel, smoked salmon, and other "British" goodies back in the hotel.  Saturday was cold and rainy but yet again we stayed out all day walking and walking.  We went to Notting Hill and the famous Portobello Road and market.  I could visit that market everyday and never tire of it.  It is antiques, (silver and china mostly), ethnic arts and crafts, used everything, and food, food and more food, (paella, fish and chips, pastries, crepes, Indian, African, Spanish, French, Italian).  There were buskers on every corner and they were really talented.  One kid was an opera singer, another group sang Beatles songs, some old guys played banjos.  The streets were packed with people of every hue and language and dress.  It was so cool.  For dinner Saturday we took the train out to Southall, a suburb to the northwest, that is home to mostly Indian people from the Punjab area of India.  We had the best Indian food I've ever had.  Last comments.  I need to go back without my dear husband, (and maybe daughter),and see all the museums and go to a show.  English coffee really sucks.  Thank God for Starbucks.  (Hey, that rhymes!)  And London drivers make Italians look like little old ladies out for a Sunday spin.  Pics are coming, just have to figure out how to get them from Grace and GP's shared dropbox to the dropbox I share with GP.  Argh.  I hate technology.   xxoo me

Well they've got them.  GP and I have been watching live streaming out of Boston.  Grace was born in Newton, we shopped at a market in the area of Watertown that was closed off, GP worked a mile away, so it feels very personal.  But here, apart from us, there isn't much attention being paid to the situation.  It is as distant as Afghanistan or Iraq.  It is the distance that makes all the difference.  In Turin, people regard the bombings the same way we in the States would have had they been in Milan.  Horrible but impersonal.  Tragic but not affecting anyone we know.  Did you know that in the 1970's, the US government put out a travel advisory for Italy?  Americans were warned not to travel here because of the risks of terrorist attacks.  At that time, the Red Brigade was active here. They were a communist (USSR) backed anarchist organization who wanted to disable the Italian establishment.  They bombed government buildings and killed cops and kidnapped industrialists.  There were constant disruptions in everyday life.  In fact, public schools were closed so often that GP's parents sent him to private school, a 45 minute bus ride into the city (and into the chaos?).  But most Americans know nothing about it.  Just this morning I was listening to BBC and the London marathon is running today.  Apart from heightened security, there will also be a moment of silence for those killed and injured in Boston.  BBC's next announcement was news that 27 people had just been blown to bits in a market in Iraq.  No moments of silence, no international news feeds for hours on end.  Makes you think.

It's rainy today so doing housework.  I've now had 2 lessons with my irritating and smelly driving instructor and he tells me I should be able to take my exam at the end of May.  After vowing sobriety and dieting, yesterday GP and I went to a little wine fair in Chieri, the town where Grace's school is located.  The area produces a very specific wine there, Freisa, that I don't know well, so we thought we had to give it a try.  The fair was small, tucked away under the porticoes or arcades of an old monastery in the center of town.  The town band was playing and they got more raucous every hour and the local police were doing "quality control" of the products, sidling up to all the stands in their bright blue uniforms and red cheeks and noses.  It was fun and we behaved, staying only about 2 hours. 

We have just 2 days of school then off to London for a five day weekend.  Our only scheduled plans are on Friday when Grace and I are going on the "Harry Potter Studio Tour".  We are very excited.  GP has decided to skip it.  xxoo me

Well my first "driving lesson" has come and gone and it is not going to be so much what I have to learn as what I have to unlearn.  Evidently after almost 40 years of driving I have picked up a lot of bad habits.  I arrived at nine and was taken immediately to the car I'm going to be using the next few weeks and in which I'm going to be taking the exam.  It's a red Mini Cooper plastered with huge Ps that stand for "principiante", or "newbie".  The instructor, who does in fact smell like an old ashtray, spent our hour driving telling me what I was doing wrong.  Shall I list them?  I don't use the blinkers when I go around obstacles such a bicyclists.  I don't rest my heel on the floor when I push in the clutch or rest my foot on the floor when not shifting.  I put the car in neutral at red lights.  I don't use the mirrors enough or properly.  I don't shift at the right time or enough or too much.  I speed or drive too slowly.  It was a constant monologue like being with a backseat driver on amphetamines.  I wanted to tell him to shut the hell up but realized he wasn't telling me how to drive but how to pass the test, which is in fact what I'm paying him to do.  I was completely stressed when we had finished.  I have another hour tomorrow morning.

After leaving the driving school I picked up my market buddy and we spent a few hours shopping for produce amongst the hundreds of stands piled high with seasonal goodies.  This market is a real mix of nationalities and languages.  There are Africans and Middle Eastern people.  There are Asians and Gypsies and Romanians, all buying or selling something.  Then I saw my first non-Italian uniformed police officer.  He is undoubtedly an Italian citizen but he is also of Asian descent. I wouldn't think twice about seeing an Asian policeman in the US but it was surprising here because immigration is still relatively new to Italy.  He is probably the son of first generation arrivals.  The human landscape of Italy is changing fast.  xxoo me