Thank God January is almost over. It's my least favorite month. January is long and cold and doesn't even have the decency to be followed by Spring. This year has been a bad one too. Cold and gray. No redeeming qualities like bright blue skies over pristine white snow, not even a HOLIDAY! Anywho... Elena is my yoga instructor and she's just what a yoga instructor should be. She's calm and calming. She's very knowledgable having trained for years in the far east. She is a lovely, gentle woman. Her classes are very informative, as much theory as practice. But there is one minor issue. We begin each session with a quiet moment and a prayer for someone to whom we would like to dedicate our "energy". Fine, whatever. BUT THEN. Every week, no exceptions, she chooses a person or persons, (admittedly in dire need of our prayers), and she goes into horrid detail about what they suffered, which I gotta say, sorta spoils the moment! Instead of saying, "Let's send our prayers to the people of Ukraine", she'll say, "to the poor torn and bloodied bodies of the children crushed under the bombed school on Tuesday." or "to the three women raped, beaten and left for dead in an Afghan field" or "to the young people tortured and brutally killed for protesting in Iran." Man, what a downer. Sort of makes practicing yoga in the war, safe comfort of our home seem a little decadent. Last Thursday, my market with MIL day, I had to wait a while at our favorite vegetable stand as evidently I was there at "prime-time". While waiting and chatting, a man beside me mentioned my accent and asked where I was from. When I said The States, he said he had a relative in New York. Well EVERY Italian has a relative in New York so I wasn't particularly interested but out of courtesy said, "Oh yes?". He said "Yes, Giuliani." "Giuliani? THE Giuliani?" "Yes, he's my father's cousin." I told him I wouldn't spread that around. Who woulda thunk it! Of course the term "cousin" here is used rather loosely. May very well be a cousin 5 times removed. Over the past few years I've done some translating and given pronounciation help to my neighbor Diego, the B film actor. His wife, who is a children's performer, has also had me read aloud and translate some books in English. This morning I spent and hour doing the audio for an online ad for a hypnotist, a friend. The ad is both in English and Italian and he wanted the Italian to have a strong English or American accent. I may be offended but I haven't decided yet. xxoo me

Seasons Greetings!

Ain't that pretty? We went for a stroll in the center of Torino the other evening to see the Christmas lights. They were few and far between compared to past years. Communities are tightening their belts with the energy prices as high as they are. Street lights come on an hour later and are off an hour earlier. All public building thermostats are kept at a balmy 64 degrees. Public workers tried striking but they were up against national regulations so it was a no-go from day 1. We are all waiting in fear for our monthly electricty bills. Here at home we keep the heat down under 68, only use the washing machine, vacuum and iron after 7pm when costs are down. I'm using the oven very little. But no complaints. No one is shooting missiles at our homes and I'm not sleeping in the basement.

The daughter is here through the holidays. Sunday we visited a lovely town about an hour and a half north of here called Candelo. It sits within spitting distance of the mountains but strangely is on the edge of Italy's rice growing region. It is from here that the best risotto rices come. The town has a walled medieval center with it's original tiny buildings used as studios and shops for artists and crafters, restaurants and bars. Every Christmas they hold a Christmas fair with food stalls and activities for children. It was very pretty but packed. The older I get the less tolerant I am of crowds. Especially crowds of children. Especially crowds of tired, whiny children. Italian children seem to be particularly whiny. div class="separator" style="clear: both;">

Whoa. I just realized I haven't written anything in 9 months and really, there's not much to report. How sad! Anywho. This is a special post as it's directed at my friend D who will shortly be moving to Portugal. I have just returned from a week visit there and told her I'd give her my opinion. So here goes. The Good the Bad and the Ugly. Plus a little more.

The good: The people are lovely. They're friendly and helpful and do they all really speak English? Amazing! UNLIKE Italians who work in shops and restaurants, they seemed pleased to see us and tried their utter best to work with our (GP's) basic Portuguese. The daughter and I stuck to English. In Italy the concept that the customer is always right has never really sunk in. Shopkeepers in Italy treat you with indifference at best and contempt at worst depending on the type of shop. The only place I've encountered worse customer service is in Paris where shopkeepers blatantly glare and snarl. There's also quite a bit of smirking in those French shops. They do like a smirk. Enough of that. The countryside in Northern Portugal, where we traveled, is beautiful. Hill after hill covered by olive or orange groves or piney forest. In fact I don't think there's a square inch in the country that's flat. Even the cities are all up hill and down, mostly up it seems, and we got quite the workout every day. (So is that good or bad?) The city centers have some fabulous architecture and many buildings are sided with the famous, colorful Portuguese tiles. The food was good, the prices for said food were terrific. There is a wonderful bakery on every fricking block! Thank God for the hills.

The bad: I haven't seen that much traffic since Marrakesh and I live in ITALY. Just the number of cars on the roads at all hours is astounding. Consequently the air quality is pretty damned bad in urban areas. Even by the sea. Fortunately though the Portuguese are much more polite than Italian drivers and more flexible than American drivers so there is no road rage or contant honking of horns. Another issue is how rundown it is. The cities looked like Italy in the '80s before the economic boom. Grand buildings are falling in upon themselves. There is so much that needs to be cleaned or painted or repaired. It just looks grubby. Though that is mostly in urban areas. The smaller towns were in better shape. And there was surprisingly little litter compared to here. And this leads me to...

Porto's waterfront is vibrant and colorful. The bridge is a walking (yikes) rail bridge crossing the river.

The UGLY. Man did they do a poor job of urban planning when the cities grew after the war. If it wasn't built over a hundred years ago or in the past 10 (even that's iffy), it's (as they say in Boothbay Harbor parlance) SDU. Some Damn Ugly. The resdential areas outside of the centers are blocks after blocks of big plain BLOCKS. These expanses of apartment buildings have no saving graces. And there are hundreds of them.

And now the other stuff. We played tourists and visited Sintra with it's castle and palace. We braved a ferocious rain and wind storm off the atlantic to see the "World's Biggest Waves". We went to Obidos, a charming little walled town where we ate the best dinner of our trip. We went to Tomar for it's history of the Knight's Templar. We saw the Sanctuary of Bon Jesus in Braga and walked up it's gabillion steps. We started in Lisbon and ended in Porto. It was a quick spin through, apart from Lisbon, an area we'd never visited. A good time was had by all!

xx me

This is the Marble Arch Mound. Or was. It's in the process of being dismantled. It was erected in 2021 as a tourist attraction to try to entice people downtown again during/after the pandemic. It was supposed to be an artificial hill with a scenic platform on top for looking out over central London. It was a massive and expensive failure. At first they tried charging people to go up but the view was actually blocked by tall trees across the road and the turf covering the mound dried up and shrank. Anywho. So they stopped charging but people still didn't go up and it ended up being a huge target of jokes and finger pointing. Oh well.

This is a most beautiful bookshop. All bookshops are wonderful and London is packed with them but THIS is something else. It's the first Daunt Bookshop, a chain of stores specializing in travel books but they carry every genre. I could spend much too much time and money in there. I behaved very well and only bought 2 books.

I took a tour of Westminster Abbey today. It was very good. Our guide was hilarious and knew all sorts of wonderful and scandalous stories, none of which I can remember, but I thoroughly enjoyed. I knew it would be a good tour when I saw the above at the entrance to the Abbey. Some priest has a sense of humor. I am soon off to the pub on the corner. Grace has been in this apartment for 3 years but as that coincided with Covid and closures and such I have yet had the chance to try the place out. I love British pubs. xxoo me

Day 1 in London I got up early to hit the bakeries(scone, whole grain breads) and the bookstores(english books!). Always my first stops. Before heading out I checked the news which made me cry. It's a blustery sunny coooold day and somehow the sun here is so much brighter than elsewhere, probably because it's so rare. I got back and checked the news again which made me soil my pants so I think I need to stop. Last night we went to the theater to see Come From Away, the musical about the 7000 airline passengers stuck in Newfoundland after 9/11. It was a fabulous show but felt a little too close to home with what is happening in Europe. This morning the news is only worse so I made a donation to CARE and we went for a long walk in Richmond, an area in southern London where Ted Lasso takes place. We're back now and again watching the news. It's not getting better. xxoo me

It's been a cold winter. And dry. Yesterday we hiked in the mountains with our "snowshoe" group. No snowshoeing to do this year as it hasn't significantly rained or snowed in well over 2 months. Very worrisome. The trails are covered in 2 feet of dried leaves that should be nicely rotting and instead are setting up the mountains for some terrible summer fires. We walked up and down for about twelve miles in glorious sunshine. In the more protected and full sun areas the heather, forsythia, primrose and daffodils were in bloom. I can't wait for spring! MIL has given up going to the church rectory to record the week's deaths. But as she must keep up on this vital information, we've had to come up with new outlets. Every Thursday is market day so we make a weekly stop to see the notices on the town's bulletin board but often times, as she always points out, the boards have not been updated. They will still show the same ole dead people from the weeks before. Consequently, GP has begun to check the town's website daily and calls MIL with the names of the newly deceased. She needs to know the name, the age and their origin. She'll then tell us if she knew them and how or if they were not originally from town in which case these poor dead folk were unimportant "outsiders". Good gad. I hope I don't go before her! I sure as Hell don't want her writing my obit. The stories she tells us are hilarious and sad as they show the most unkind sides of humanity including hers! The hugely aging population here has led to an influx of eastern european women to act as care-givers as Italians either can't or won't do it. No longer do extended families live communally. The old bachelor uncle is visited twice a year by relatives waiting for the farm to be handed down. Then he hires a gal from Slovakia who cares for him for years visiting her own 2 children only on Christmas and Easter. When the old guy dies and leaves everything to his carer, everyone here is outraged. I said good for her. She earned it. That opinion didn't go down well. Then there is the Sicilian family, (the older generation is still living a civil war here and sicilians are lesser beings), who found a place in a low income nursing home for their ancient mother even though those are very difficult to get into. But those Sicilians have their wily ways having taken all of the jobs in the civil service where they get decent pay for little work and have "connections". Hmmm. Note MIL would have been thrilled had GP chosen a career in the postal service or city offices instead of something she neither understands nor wants to. On another depressing aging note, with warm weather approaching here, I'm on the look out for a bathingsuit that will not make me LOOK like a 60+ year old woman, tankini's and skirted suits are practically taboo here, but at the same time will not send children off screaming while their parents yell "shield your eyes, shield your eyes!!". Women of all ages and body types wear bikinis to the beach. I am struggling to find one that reaches to my bellybutton thereby holding in that wrinkly flap left over from pregnancy AND that has enough structure up top to keep the boobs from drooping to my knees as gravity intends. I'm having no luck. Leaving for a week in London on Thursday. Yippee! xxoo me

They are changing rules and regulations so quickly here it makes your head spin. Nobody knows what's going on. After SECOND positive test a week after 1st, they've told me to come back in 4 days. According to my pharmacist neighbor I should have to wait another week. I just wanna get out of here! I'm going stir crazy. How much yoga and netflix can 1 person take?! Italy is in the midst of an election for President. The President is chosen by parliament The President ISN"T the head of State. THAT is the Prime Minister, who is chosen by the President. The PM needs to be approved by the Parliament. How the members of Parliament are elected confuses the heck out of me. Some are directly elected, some are installed by parties, some are voted in by non-resident Italians, some are "senators for life". All I know is that there are A LOT of them representing A LOT of parties. In the States we have 441 representatives and 100 senators who make up our congress for a population of just over 334 million. In Italy the parliament is made up of over 1000 people for a population of a bit over 60 million. Think maybe we are a little government heavy here? Just maybe? Anywho. I watch it with a passive eye. No matter how long I live here it still feels like someone else's problem. As though I don't have a stake in the outcome. The hubby has said I live like a tourist. I wish he were right! If I were a tourist I'd be traveling and eating out and enjoying the heck outta this place! Oh well. Back to yoga and netflix. ooxx me

Covid here! Covid there! Covid everywhere! Sweeping through like wildfire. 2 weeks ago, first MIL then the hubby, came down with flu-like symptoms. They tested and retested but came up negative for Covid. I carried on with my lessons as I assumed they simply had seasonal flu. Then last Sunday I got a message from a student saying that she had tested positive along with her classmates. I booked a test for Monday and VOILA! Positive. I had, and still have, minor cold symptoms. In Italy if you have Covid you are given a 6 month reprieve on vaccines so no booster for me. GP should have gone in for his booster today but on a whim he went for yet another test last night. Positive. He feels fine. He has completely recovered from his "flu". Huh. Our nextdoor neighbors had their boosters the other day and were sick as dogs. THEN their kids tested positive. NOW THEY ARE POSITIVE AND STILL ILL FROM BOOSTER! Nuts. We can't get a straight answer on quarantining either. The pharmacist where I had my test gave me an appointment for 5 days later (tomorrow) to have a second test. She said if it's negative I'm good to go. BUT various government sites say 7 to 10 days depending (on who the Hell knows what) and 21 days if I continue to test positive after all symptoms are gone! Our neighbor, 3 vaccines, positive, sick as a dog, is a pharmacist and she says 10 days of quarantine for us as it's been 6 months since our 2nd vaccines. This is complete madness. I am bored silly AND dieting so can't even cook and drink! I have binge watched the last season of After Life and the latest of Queer Eye and bawled through all of it. I've read so many books the past 2 years I can't keep them apart in me wee brain. AHHHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHHHH! Well that feels better. Be well. xxoo, me

My hubby's paranoid fears of a totalitarian government are being realized! The state of emergency that was (anti-constitutionally) extended means that no elections will be held this year. The government has now made vaccines obligatory for all citizens over 50 BUT one has to sign a waiver releasing the authorities from responsibilty should there be any side effects. What's THAT about? I'm certainly no anti-vaxer but I do believe in individual choice. There is a fine for those who do not comply of 100 euros and a big fat fine of 1000 - 1600 if you try to enter any establishment. What's more, the business is fined for not having checked the green pass. But all of this doesn't mean people are actually complying. This IS Italy mind you.

Last Sunday we spent the day with our neighbors who have a charming little apartment in the mountains. For a big lunch of course. There were 9 of us around a long rustic table covered in local cheeses, sausages cooks in a spicy tomato sauce, polenta, risotto and of course wine. It was a fabulous way to see out the holidays. The above photo is the view from their balcony. Not too shabby. Monday the diet starts. Every year we do this. "Vaccare" (to pig-out though literally translates into "To Cow") for weeks and then repent for a month or so. Let's see how long it will last this time. Happy 2022! xxoo me

On Christmas Eve we went up to the little center plaza in our burb. They did a fabulous light show on the surrounding buildings. It was quite impressive. But there was NO ONE around! This flippin' Covid is keeping everyone inside yet again. Christmas was here with MIL and an American friend of mine trapped here for the holidays. If I must say so myself it was a mighty fine dinner. The 26th the three of us took the train up to Aosta, a city of about 35,000 under Mont Blanc. Cross those mountains and you find yourself in France. Chamonix to be exact. We were hoping for more snow but alas times they are a changing. There is a small Christmas market near the Roman ruins and a lovely old pedestrian shopping center. When the sun dropped behing the mountains, the lights came on. It was charming.

Last night we went into Torino to see the Christmas lights with Grace. Again it was very pretty and finally we saw people. But then we felt paranoid and started walking the smaller side streets to avoid the crowds. Geesh.

Next on the list of artery blocking meals is New Years Eve. We'll be going to our friend Riccardo's place in the wine region. I'm stuffing my pjs in my bag just in case. We are together and healthy. No complaints. Happy New Year all! xxoo me

Check out this guy! We took MIL out for lunch last Sunday to celebrate her Saint's Day. This cheery gentleman was playing out front of the restaurant. The food and drink were superior but I can no longer imbibe during the day. Went to bed at 5pm and stayed there until the next morning.... xxoo me

Once upon a time there were 3 old friends. They had know each other for more than 30 years and had matured together from bright young lasses to retired gals. Many jokes about aging were made along the way with the exchange of funny greeting cards at every birthday and silly videos on group chats. One evening the 3 gals got together to celebrate yet another birthday. There was much cheer and all went well until the hour of dessert. The hostess of this particular evening had made a lovely seasonal spice cake in honor of the occasion. She presented the cake, generously covered with a layer of white as snow powered sugar. Or so she thought. After the first mouthful all 3 gals stopped and 2 looked at the hostess with a question in their, now watering, eyes. WTF? An investigation was made and revealed that the cook had erroneously used powered yeast instead of powered sugar to ice her lovely cake. Much hilarity ensued. The 2 guests stepped out onto the terrace to have a smoke while the hostess picked up the pieces of her broken heart and tried unsuccessfully to remover the top layer of the cake for future consumption. An hour or so later, the evening came to an end and the guests prepared to leave. Guest #1 said, "where did I leave my cigarettes? ", Guest #2 said "where is my other tupperware?". All 3 wandered in and out and around for some time until the cigarettes were discovered on the terrace where #1 had checked and rechecked and the tupperware was found inside the bag that #2 had held in her hand the whole time. A sad but true story. The Italian government has just extended the "State of Emergency" that we have been under since Covid hit. They have now taken it past the constitutionally permitted 2 years. Many Italians, the hubby included, are up in arms and saying we are heading into a dictatorship. There are many elderly still alive who lived through Mussolini's realm. But those were other times when Italy was a country of impoverished and uneducated people. I think the likelihood of the folks I know putting up with too much enforcement on the goverment's part is slim to nil. They already forge fake test results, fake Green Passes, many don't wear masks. Who hasn't read about the guy with the fake arm trying to get his vaccine? Italians are not rule followers. But it's a scary thought none the less. It's almost Christmas and another lockdown is looming but at least we are all together here this year. On Christmas Eve we're taking the train up to Aosta at the base of Mont Blanc to visit it's famous Christmas market and to see some snow. (Our once a year snowfall is now a mere frozen lump conveniently right outside the terrace door, well places for slipping and sliding whilst trying to feed the GD birds). xxoo me

The 200 pound mass of palid teenaged flesh that lives above us is clomping around in cleats as he prepares to go play rugby. For some strange reason, his mother tells him put on his shoes at home as opposed to the field. Consequently every time he has practice we hear him upstairs, coming down the stairs, going back up the stairs because he forgot something, coming back down the stairs, possibly going back up the stairs because he likes the sound the cleats make on the marble floors, back down the stairs and into the underground garages. Then a few hours later we hear him clop back up again. It sounds like a well shod horse going up and down. Speaking of our wacko neighbors, the other day when he was heading out his mother made this comment about his outfit. "Why do you continue to perpetrate these chromatic errors in your dressing style?" They are the most well spoken weirdos. I'm on a diet to control my acid reflux. The no-nos are basically my weekly shopping list. Wine, tomatoes, spice, chocolate, cheese... Does my body not realise that it lives in ITALY for chrissakes? I'm supposed to keep this up for a couple weeks and then slowly reintroduce stuff one at a time to see what really gives me problems. A couple weeks! AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Looking into meds. More cheery news. We had booked a few days in the Alto Adige for after Christmas. We wanted to visit the famous Christmas markets, drink some mulled wine, eat a lot. The Alto Adige is the German speaking region of Italy that borders Austria. Well Austria just went into lockdown and the Alto Adige is on high alert. We cancelled our plans. Weeks later... I never finished this nor posted it. Oh well. We are having our first snow! It's very pretty but won't last long. The flakes are already the size of quarters and will soon be rain. Italy is in pandemic mood. We've already been obliged to have a green pass (proff of vaccine or negative tests) to enter in a multitude of places. Masks are required indoors and many shops are limiting the number of customers at one time. Now that numbers are climbing in other parts of Europe, tho here not, the government is inforcing a "Super Green Pass". Now the pass is only for the vaccinated, (no more negative tests), and the vaccines are valid for only 9 months. I recieved notification this morning that my Green Pass will expire February 11th. This is getting ridiculous. Boosters are out there and available but I'm going to wait til after the holidays. Maybe they'll have discovered a cure by then... I went to a Steve McCurry show called "Animals" on Sunday with friends. He is amazing. It was doubly wonderful because it was located in one of the royal palaces outside of the city called Stupinigi. It was one a "hunting lodge". The enitre population of Boothbay Harbour could easily be housed in there. It's massive.

Here I am with me Santy mask. Life goes plodding on in these "on-hold" times. Dinner tonight with MIL. Always a good excuse to eat!!! xxoo me

I've been slogging through the quagmire of my life as a broad abroad. Since I arrived a month ago I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to get my American passport renewed. After two methods of payment refused, (the consulate doesn't accept personal checks except their website says THEY DO), (the bank check was written out incorrectly - I didn't specify the MILAN consulate), and two trips to UPS to mail said bad checks, and endless emails back and forth, I'm heading up to Milan on the 8th to do this in person. I am taking a trunk load of documents with me so they cannot send me away. Wish me luck.

Autumn is upon us. Days are cool, gray and gloomy but there is a bit of rain after many, many months of drought. I've started my hibernation. I've dug out the woolies, started making soups, and have the desire to sleep for 12 hours when I'm not cuddled up under a blankie on the sofa. It takes a lot to get me outta the house in this weather. Food and wine work. GP has to bribe me with promises of a good bottle to get me to take a walk. It has to be a GOOD bottle. I'm not THAT easy.

MIL is beginning to lose her buttons. She's starting to fib. She was always the most truthful of people. She never had cause to lie as she has always believed herself to be right in all things. She is now starting, at 90, to doubt herself in some small matters and so fabricates stories as cover-ups. She shouldn't eat much cheese, denies she does, then buys (not exaggerating) 10+ varieties every time she goes to the supermarket. WE TAKE HER TO THE SUPERMARKET. WE SEE THE CHEESE! MIL enjoys the attention she gets when she goes to the doctor for check ups and blood tests so she invents reasons to go. She calls to order a range of blood tests she doesn't need beacause she just had them a month ago and tells us the doctor ordered them.. He did not. GP is contacted for all of her medical events. She waited til GP was in Germany on business to do it. As if he wouldn't find out. WE TAKE HER TO HER DOCTOR'S APPOINTMENTS! Tomorrow is market day. Let's see how it goes.

After years of thinking about it, I've joined The International Women's Club of Turin. So far I've only signed up for one activity, Mindfulness. How long has Mindfulness been on our radar? 5 years? 10 years? I have no idea. I thought I'd give it a try. After 2 weeks I have come to the conclusion that there is either NO POINT in my doing this or that I really, REALLY need it. There is no middle ground. Trying to control my thoughts is like playing pinball. My attention bounces all the hell all over the place and I'm trying to get it into a teeny hole and keep it there. The gal who runs the sessions is a German doctor with a PHD in something or another. I wasn't paying attention. She assigns us Mindfulness practice exercises that we should do every day. HA! Whether I am pondering the raisin I'm about to eat or contemplating my toes during my full body scan, I am fighting a full out battle in my head. I have the attention span of a gnat. I'm off to do my homework. Sob. xxoo me

I am not a happy camper. My garden did not fare well this summer. With temps over 100 for long stretches and rain a no show, only desert plants seem to thrive. Anyone who doesn't believe in global warming need only come here and see what has happened in Northern Italy. The heat and drought have literally cooked the landscape. Leaves are blackened or have already fallen from trees and bushes, plants that should grow well here have shrivelled up. The soil is like baby powder. I've cleared out the weeds, a grass referred to as couch grass but is like crab grass that is unkillable, and am assessing the damage. What has survived: The lavender in the ground but not in pots, The palms, 1 miserable broom eaten by snails, The virginia creeper because it thrives anywhere, My unfruitful olives, The groundcover referred to as creeping thyme but it's no creeping time I have ever seen. However it's fragrant, prolific and covered in small purple blooms in the spring. A keeper. What died: My clematis, 3 brooms even tho they are weed plants here, covering every hilltop in a profusion of yellow in May and June. An indigenous rose I searched high and low for as it's found only on old farmsteads and along ancient walls. It's almost impossible to kill once it settles in. Huh. Potted everything. And ferns and hellebores in my one deep shady, wet area. So sad. I'm going to the garden center to buy frickin' cactus. Oh and by they way, I had put down beautiful strips of thick grass sod this spring only to return to a patch of brown crab grass. Nope, not a happy camper at all. xxoo me

So our friend and neighbor Diego, actor of 3rd class horror films and highbrow theater that nobody sees, is doing a film in Torino with Franco Nero! He of Spaghetti Western fame! But what's more interesting is that Nero's long-time wife is Vanessa Redgrave, who is also in the film. But what is most surprising of all is that making an appearance is KEVIN SPACEY! Yes HIM! Well I never! Good thing Diego is large and hairy and looks more like Grizzly Adams than a pre-pubescent boy.

We spent the day at the sea again last Monday. Here is my new boat. Notice the SV on the side. Mine! Actually these are the fishing boats taken out at night to fish by lantern light. They return at dawn and set up their catch at a tiny beachside market. You have to be there early or it's all over. Even after all these years we have never managed to get to the beach early enough. The boats are registered in the largest community nearby, Savona. Thus the SV. Covid has come very close to home. MIL's upstairs neighbor, an 83 year old man she has known well for 12 years, died today. He took ill and was taken to the hospital a couple of weeks ago. No one knows how or where he became infected as he has spent the past year and a half closed in at home. MIL freaked a bit. The other 126,000 Italian deaths weren't worrying but when the parish priest tested positive she panicked and now with a neighbor it finally hits home. Geesh. After much drama I have my flights home scheduled and will be leaving here the 9th. Test before flying, 2 in London, quarantine, test before departure for the US, test once there. And I am fully vaccinated. This is absurd. xxoo me

My big gardening project from just a year ago has come to somewhat fruition. Some plants didn't make it. Others are taking their time about thriving. But still others are happy and healthy and it looks quite lovely in it's mini urban garden way.

I planned the garden all around spring and autumn bloomers as I am gone in the summer. Gian Piero shouldn't have to do more than a evening water to keep it going til I get back. Speaking of which, the EU is opening up. Travel should be available this summer with relatively little hassle. If you plan on visiting this side of the pond, bring your masks however. I don't see those going away for a looooong while. Meanwhile, MIL turned 89 a few days ago and we took her out for lunch. We had a lovely fish grill and a bottle of dry Rose'. I had to go home and sleep for 2 hours. She went to the supermarket. They are made of strong stuff the people of that generation.

Last week we spent a day at the sea. We took a 14 kilometer walk along the coast on sidewalks built above the beaches and connecting many of the towns along the Italian riviera. Oh how I've missed the water! Speaking of which, I'm beginning to look into returning to the States. As per my usual route, I want to pass through London to see the daughter but the UK is not being very cooperative! Apart from a test before entering and a test before leaving, one has to buy a 200 pound self-test packet to test oneself on the 4th and 8th day of your stay in the UK. Obviously during this time you have to quarantine. They make no exceptions for people who have been fully vaccinated! What's the point?! So if I DO go through London I'll be adding 200 Pounds onto my trip. Child.....$$$$$.....????? Sheeeeet. When will we return to "normal"? Ugh. xxoo me

We've just had a week of spring rains and all mother nature is bursting forth. Today was beautiful and sunny and we took a three hour walk up into the hills. There are so many roads and trails to explore. Farms are cheek by jowl with magnificient old houses surrounded by high stone walls with massive gates and big growly dogs. There is so much money in the real estate of these hills I wonder where all these folks come from. Torino is a city of a little over a million and there are hundreds, no thousands, of amazing properties. A lot is old money and the families do not necessarily even live here. Torino is the base of Italy's "nobility" so there are all sorts of mini castles and elegant hill homes that at one time were considered country houses for the hot summers. Now they are a mere 10 to 20 minutes from the city center.

The yellow fields are canola, the wildflowers wild salvia and daisies, the view the alps. On another note, I've gotten my first vaccine! I was called in on Friday for the 60-69 group and as am on the "cusp" got Pfiser instead of Astra Zeneca which they are giving most of the oldies. The site was hilarious. They've converted an old livestock market into a vaccination site. We all walked in under a sign that read "Mercato Bestiame". Seemed appropriate as we marched in obediently, masked and standing on painted lines on the floor. Just like sheep we were! I celebrated by stopping in the nearest greenhouse and buying some much not needed plants. After a long period of lethargy, this has instigated me and I am looking into flights home via London. This winter and spring have been truely a blur of too many hours on-line, too many bottles of wine. Oh my God I rhymed! I did it again! Geesh. xxoo me

As there is such a thing as spring in this here place, I have been enjoying it as best one can when you can't go any farther than your town line. Fortunately we've discovered our town line is much farther than we'd thought. What we had always assumed was a separate community, a lovely little hamlet in the hills, we've realized falls under our city's territory. We've been walking up through farmland and woods and bucolic residential areas we've never before visited. Up and down all those small roads and paths we just drove by without a thought back in our pre-covid days. Vaccines are still far off in the future for us here. They've just opened up to the over 70 crowd and that is a very big crowd indeedy in this old, old country. Italy is now considering buying vaccines from Russia. There is no way that I am getting a vaccine called Sputnik V for Chrissakes! Nuh uh. Not gonna happen. Americans are flying back to the States to get vaccinated. I'll probably do the same.

So the only exciting news we have around here is the change in status of the upstairs neighbors. Dad (the singer) has taken an apartment elsewhere and mom (the vacuumer) and son (the irritating arguer) are alone above us. Except they aren't. Dad still comes by late every afternoon, watches TV and has dinner with them. But he no longer sleeps on the fold-out couch. He left and took the bedroom furniture with him. Now she sleeps on the fold out couch. Her old bedroom seems to be empty. I think the parents are stealthily moving out and leaving their gruesome kid behind. They're hoping he won't notice. Easter has come and gone with a quiet little lunch here with MIL. She's still thriving and at 89 is just getting her second shot tomorrow. We have had to stop her from cooking for us. Her concept of well-done is shot and we can't eat another dish of charred green beans. Easter Monday, called "little Easter", is traditionally a day for picnics. We made do with a cook-out and lunch on the terrace with our neighbors in covid fashion. Separate tables. Waving distance. That's about as social as we get. Should anything happen I'll be back. If not, it means restrictions still in place and I ain't doing nuthin! xxoo me

Happy Valentine's Day!