What the...?  Who the...??  The temps have shot back up into the 70's though it is still grey.  Flowers are starting to bloom again while the trees are finally losing their leaves, from sheer exhaustion I'm thinking.  Today is our first day of autumn vacation.  Grace is in the city with friends for a sushi lunch, then off to spend the night at one of the girls' places.  This friend's grandfather was the designer of the original Fiat 500!  How cool is that!  Big bucks but they seem to be very normal people, a rarity with the monied crowd at the school.   One of the girls with them is newly arrived from Zambia where her father, an Italian "businessman" and Zambian National, is under investigation for government corruption and fraud.  I guess he decided it was a good time to repatriate the family.  Curiouser and curiouser.  I'm home packing and cleaning before we leave early Wednesday morning for Dublin.  I'm so excited!  We're back on Sunday, so no news till then.  Happy Halloween!       xxoo me

I wish I could work up some enthusiasm for pro soccer.  If I could I'd be in heaven here.  I just passed Vidal, a young Chilean player for Juventus, (Torino's #1 pro team), who lives in a townhouse behind us.  The only reason I recognized him is because he wears a Mohawk, not very popular with Italian fashion conscious men.  Grace is having conniptions because a new player for Juventas, Tevez from Argentina, has just enrolled his kids at the school and I start teaching his daughter one on one after the vacation.  Grace is still angry that I didn't get an autograph from the team's goalie when he came into the library with his sons.  This time around I am expected to give Tevez her name for babysitting.  I think she's under the impression that some of their fame and fortune might rub off.  I actually enjoy soccer as a game but pro sports don't do a thing for me.  The amount of money thrown at these young athletes is ridiculous but for them it really is a dream come true.  So many of the pro players here in Europe are south Americans or Africans whose only hope of getting out of poverty was soccer.  Evidently this new guy Tevez pours huge money back into the ghetto outside of Buenos Aries where he's from.  Our neighbor Vidal, brought half of Chile with him when he came here and hosts huge family parties at his place.  We hear Latin music blasting and children squealing till the wee hours of the morning.  Living here has brought out a side of GP that I'd never seen.  That little "futbol" loving Italian boy has emerged.  I never imagined I'd see him sitting on the sofa yelling at tiny men in shorts on the T.V..  He and Grace follow the games together.  I can't say "watch" because Grace has decided that she brings bad luck to the team if she watches the game, so she sits in her bedroom and listens to it from there.  GP acts as a sports announcer and calls the plays for her which she then watches on her laptop.  The one occasion where having a tiny apartment comes in handy.  It's ridiculous.  I have to close myself in our room and read.  
It's Saturday so housework day, then off this afternoon to Le Langhe, the wine region, for some tasting and local food fairs and then dinner.  I should probably have a nap before leaving....xxoo me

Homesick!  It's grey, it's drizzly, it's foggy, but mostly it's just grey.  I feel like I'm hibernating.  This definitely isn't the place to be a claustrophobic.  The sky is lower, the houses smaller, the people are closer.  We leave home in the morning for school where I work non-stop surrounded by students and teachers and parents from 9 to 3:30 or 5, depending on the day, without ever stepping outside.  By the time we finish with after-school activities and errands, we're home between 5 and 6.  It's now getting dark early so we don't open the curtains and often don't even bother to open the metal shutters that keep the bad guys out.  Though it's the same darkening, turning to winter, in Maine it feels very different.  For one thing we have so many windows there that let light in and allow the eye to travel far and wide.  Even on a bright day it's shady in here with the overhang of the building, the other apartment buildings blocking the sun and the heavens.  Plus here in the land of the populated, you have to close everything up at night so the neighbors don't spy on you.  I also find that outside at home is so much more outside-y with it's clean air and those big open spaces and lots of sky.  Heavy sigh.  I need to get away for a while.  Fortunately next week is school autumn break so as mentioned we're off to Dublin.  It will still be city, it will still be grey and rainy no doubt, but it will be different.