I have learned to live without a lot of VITAL things here in Italy.  Good natural peanut butter, hummus, tortilla chips, sweet gherkins, to name just a few.  But something I CANNOT live without is coffee.  I am one of those rare people who prefers American coffee to Italian coffee.  I've never been able to get used to espresso and even the "longer" coffee is too bitter for me.  The toasting is different, the grind is different.  Italian coffee is a different animal altogether.  So usually I fill my suitcase with enough vacuum-packed bags of joe to get me thru the year.  Somehow last September I miscalculated.  I will run out in 2 weeks!!!!  This would be very bad.  In any other country it would not be a problem.  Any other country.  Even in Istanbul, land of the famous Turkish coffee, (Not that I recommend it.  Imagine drinking silty tar), there was a Starbucks on every corner.  Starbucks are flippin'  everywhere!  Except Italy.  The first is set to open in Milan sometime later this year.  That does me no good.  There are shops that sell American products including things like coffee-mate and poptarts, but no coffee.  I've considered having Grace ship some from London, but I can't trust the postal service.  I have been distraught I tell you!  But then!  Amazon!  Three pound cans of Kirkland coffee, (for those of you not in the know, that is Costco's brand, and quite good I might add), shipped to my door at the same price I'd pay there!  I ordered two.  They arrived at school on Wednesday.  Happy happy.  I can remain my hypo caffeinated self.  xxoo me

After the snows that we encountered on our adventurous trip over the Alps into France, the white stuff just kept on coming.  We went up today to snowshoe and man, was there snow.  Half of the parking areas in our usual place were still under huge mounds and the town was in no hurry to clear them out even though the people utilizing them bring in big bucks because there is also a ski resort.  Typically Italian style, with the reduced parking, people had to get creative and equally typical, the parking nazis were out in force to ticket them.  Here is a tiny village that lives on tourism.  They are in the Alps.  It snows.  But as mentioned before, plowing is not a strong suit here.  So they don't plow the parking lots for the skiers and hikers and snowshoers.  Then they ticket them for parking in the "out of bounds" areas!  Nuts.  You'd think I'd be used to it.  But I digress.  Back to our day and my decision once and for all that I HATE THE COLD, I HATE ALTITUDES.  I've tried.  I've given it my all but it is f@#%ing torture for me to climb mountains in the snow.  It's bad enough when it's warm and I can at least take a break, lie in the sun, pull out a book and say, "Nope.  Not going on.".  But when it's fricking 10 degrees that is simply not an option.   I'm a lowlander.  Keep me at sea level.  And preferably 60 degrees and over.  It has snowed so much that the trails were indecipherable.  GP and I started out on our own but ended up banded together with a couple in front of us and one that came up behind because the going was so slow.   There have been small avalanches that brought down piles of trees and then covered them with new snow.  We thought we were crossing hills when in fact there were large voids just under us.  I stepped in one and had a good tumble.  I had to take an alternative track to catch up with the group.   It was also damned cold.  I lost feeling in my fingers and toes and was thinking I'd end up like one of those frostbite victims you see on the news with no digits saying, "I'm just so lucky to be alive!".   The going was so tough I was praying the hut would be closed so we could turn back before the final 1/3 that is all steeply uphill.  We had heard rumors that it was and my frozen fingers were crossed.  But no such luck as we passed a guy coming down that said all was clear.  Ya, right.  When we did finally arrive, the lone employee, a sad Romanian, said we were the first people he'd seen in a week.  It was at this point that GP chose to tell me that the avalanche warning system was a 3 out of 5.  Grounds for divorce?  Me thinks so.  Stomping back down, freezing, fearing for my life, I decided I'm done.  I'm sticking to long walks along the sea.

These are the tops of trees that usually tower over us!

That, my friends is a footbridge.

These trail markets are 6.5 feet tall.

Ok.  So it's pretty.

Back on Terra Firma.  Woolly socks and a bottle of Barbaresco.  Off to watch McMafia.   xxoo me

I'm telling everyone that I'm Canadian.  Really.  I'm wondering if with one Canadian grandparent I can get my citizenship or whether I'll be banned because the US has become a shit hole country.  Not like Norway.  It's beyond belief.  At school we American teachers spend our time distancing ourselves from our government.  How sad is that?  That American sense of pride and privilege, of global goodwill, has gone down the drain in less than a year.   We are snicked at by South Africans!  "Welcome to the club",  they say.  How much longer will this vile ignoramus torture us?  Sorry.  Had to vent.