5.11 As usual with a gorgeous day, I do laundry first! 65F is not usual for early November in my universe. Got out and walked up the hill a ways and investigated a couple of the side roads, both of which turned out to be very long private driveways, so not very interesting. When the girls got home, we went for a drive up to Iggio, in the opposite direction from where we turn to go to school every morning, then followed the road through the hills until it came out on rt 359, which I happen to know leads to Pellegrino. So though we didn’t know where we were, we knew how to get home. As we approached Pellegrino we decided to take a detour up past the Pellegrino castle (which is still a private house) and see if we could find the 13^th C church that is said to be up in the hills somewhere. Turns out, stay on the road long enough, tada! Pretty little place, lots of 15^th C frescoes on the walls and ceilings. Minor league stuff after all the opulence-overload that is Rome, but for so far out in the country? Very lovely.

Elise gave her presentation about the trip and it seems to have gone well. The teacher was rather confused by the Capuchin crypt, though – she had never heard of it, so she didn’t actually believe El when she said it was decorated with bones! She kept trying to help her find the “correct” word. Elise plans to take the postcards in with her tomorrow. She said she was able to answer most of the kids’ questions about the trip, but the thing she found most interesting about their questions was that none of them had ever been to Rome, and few had ever been farther afield than Parma! They were all fascinated (including the teacher!) that she had been so many places in Italy. It took less than 6 hours door to door to get to one of the most famous cities on earth, and yet it’s unlikely that most of them will ever see it. #villagelife, I guess.

6.11 The internet has been down since yesterday afternoon. It came on again for about 2 hours this evening then died again. I’m going to call Roisin in the morning and see if we can get a new service. This is driving us nuts. The phone has something wrong with it – crackles and won’t get a dial tone. Roisin said to call Gabby and Frank in Fidenza and see if they could help. While I was talking to Gabby, she mentioned that her friends Cinzia and Corrado had said they had met me. The world, he is small. On the plus side, dead web means I can’t get any information about the election, so I can’t be obsessively watching the non-existent returns (it is, after all, only 4 in the afternoon there as I write). xkcd, as usual, was brilliant: “If Obama wins the election Tuesday it’s going to be devastating to Romney’s tracking polls!” “Uh, maybe you should take a break…”

Elise was sick today – didn’t feel good on the trip down to school, so I brought her back up, and just as well, since I had to pull over to let her throw up on the way home. She asked for chicken soup when she woke up at 2 after I returned from The Weekly Errands in Salso. (Today’s Grocery News: culaccia is actually the cheap and sleazy cut of culatello. Do not give me any culatello, I don’t think I could stand the wonderfulness! Or the fact that it’s almost twice as expensive.) Don’t have any chicken soup. But by gosh and by golly I had chicken and noodles and carrots and broccoli and bouillon cubes, so into the pot they went to make chicken noodle soup. And it wasn’t at all bad! I only made 1L at first, but I had more of everything and she liked it so much that I made 3L more! Aurora wouldn’t touch it, of course – she won’t eat anything that’s “mixed” – but Elise and I both liked it a lot. So now add “quick chicken soup” to my repertoire of Things I Make.

7.11 Elise still not feeling good and slept again all day. Gloomy out – same temps as yesterday but feels far colder.

8.11 Took car to mechanic today and hoped to get a ride home with Eleanora. We went for coffee at Bar Sport today – Apennino is closed on Thursdays, who knew. After our coffees (oh get real, I had a cioccolata fondente, extra dark) I went to the farmacia to get Elise’s meds. The 10 mg pill she takes is only available in 20 mgs here, so I had to get a pill cutter as well. Two types of meds AND the cutter not only didn’t require a prescription, they came out to less between them than either would have been WITH insurance at home. I hate the American medical establishment. And don’t start with me on “but socialized medicine takes three months to see a doctor.” For routine wellness stuff it takes SIX months to see a doctor at home, and Eleanora called her pediatrician for me and got us an appointment for tomorrow. Italians pay 43% income tax and they agree that the services they get in exchange are worth it. Americans are idiots. (I say this, naturally, in the wake of the presidential election and all the Republican handwringing on the imminent end of the world. Obama won, thank God, but American culture is still infinitely inferior to Italian.)

Since the car was going to be at the mechanic all day, I decided to walk home. From Eleanora’s it was about 4 miles, plus I took a couple short detours along the way to see some things up close. It was so lovely out that it seemed a shame not to absorb absolutely everything possible. I had music on and most of it was pretty upbeat so I kept up a good pace (timing is everything: “Black Velvet”, with its very slow and thumpy beat, came on just as I came to the steepest part of the hill!) and got home in 1 hour and 12 minutes. Not too shabby! Have to do that again soon. Maybe Monday.

Elise took the postcards of the Bone Crypt to school with her to show her teacher. The kids apparently thought it was way cool, and the teacher was thoroughly creeped out. But at least now they know she actually knew what she was talking about!

9.11 Italian Medicine Continues to Beat American All To Pieces

Elise was ill again last night, crying and in terrible pain with photosensitivity. So this morning off we went to the doctor. She was very nice and Elise liked her. She checked El out and came to the conclusion that the biggest problem at this point was dehydration, so she gave us some VERY nasty juice boxes that Elise has to drink over the next three days and sent us away. When I said, “Whom do I pay?” her response was, “This was so trivial. Don’t worry about it. Call me Monday, or if she gets worse over the weekend, here’s my cell number.” Can you even imagine an American doctor’s office telling you, “eh, this isn’t worth the time to bill it” ?

The web access is still out and has been for 2 days now. Frank finally broke down and decided to change it out. The new guys will be out tomorrow morning if it’s not raining (something has to be installed outside). I have to get down to Pellegrino and get money, since they need 240E cash to install it. It’s very isolating to be without. I keep wondering things and can’t look them up! I feel suddenly underinformed. And of course not being able to read more Republican whining about how real Americans lost the election and have been shouted down by a bunch of minorities and non-citizens means my main source of entertainment at the moment is taken away! So sad for me.

Went over to Ornella’s to see the puppies, which have grown a GREAT deal in the 3 weeks since we saw them last. On the way home I ran into Iole and chatted with her for a few, and managed to remember to ask her about the orange peach-looking fruits on the tree in her yard. She said they were cachi, which I think are persimmons (but I don’t know because I can’t ask the web! Grrr). In any event, she asked if I wanted to try some and I said of course. Her father brought out a whole bucket of the things, only one of which they said was absolutely ready to eat. (Like our friends the medlars, cachi need to blet for days and days before they’re edible.) The others, I’m told, need to sit on a plate with some apples for three days. Somehow sitting with apples makes the process work better. They feel totally gross and squushy when they’re ready, like a tomato that’s WAY old. I tasted one tonight and it was… interesting. Sort of like the most beautiful jello you ever saw.

Shortly after I came back to the house, Marcella turned up. I had completely forgotten we had a lesson today! I had meant to cancel but couldn’t get online (again with the online!) to find her phone number. She’s teaching us an actual choreographed dance. So far so good. Sadly, we can’t have another lesson for a month. She has two conferences on the weekends we have free, and the girls decided they didn’t want to have a lesson while my friend Ron is visiting.

The heat in the house remains an issue. Downstairs is fine with the pellet stove going, but upstairs is an icebox without the electrical heat on. I try to keep it to a minimum – it’s supposed to be SUPER expensive, and lord knows I don’t want to spend any more than I have to. But the pellets, lovely as they are for downstairs, just aren’t cutting it in the whole house.

Reminder to self: you cannot run the pellet stove, the television, the oven, and the dishwasher all at the same time. Oven and dishwasher can only run together if NOTHING else (no lights, no tv, no stufa, NOTHING) else is on. Otherwise, FFFFFFFFT!

Second Major Excursion: Train Trip to Rome

31.10 Took Elise out of school early to go down to Rome. Her teachers were very understanding. She’s so far ahead in some classes, and so far behind in others, that it really doesn’t matter! I had booked late, so the only tickets southbound were first class. First class is awfully nice. Not worth 30E more apiece, mind you, but very nice. The train ride from Bologna to Rome was just under three hours; I spent some of that time making math facts flashcards for Rose. She doesn’t know things like 8+3 or 9+7. So now we can practice those regularly. It took a long time to get through them the first time, but now that we’ve done it once she’s actually kind of excited about doing them more until she can do them fast and in one go. This is progress.

Got in at 7:45. Couldn’t find hotel initially – I was completely turned sideways on the map and went toward the Baths of Diocletian instead of towards Santa Maria Maggiore. Ended up taking us nearly 40 minutes to go what in the end was 3 blocks. Hotel turned out to be part of 2 hotels, and the one I had actually booked had already filled up. (I question how this is possible, but whatever). The room was a standard miniature Roman 2 star hotel room. Clean and three spots to sleep is really all I require, and there it was. Plus, very very close to Termini and its attendant cab stand.

1.11 Leisurely wake-up, breakfast, and walk down to Santa Maria Maggiore, my tied-for-favorite (with San Clemente) church in all Rome. Mass for All Saints’ was in full swing, so we walked around a little in the back and looked at some of the mosaics. Had to take a cab to the Villa Giulia because it's not near ANYTHING public transportation-y. Because the villa is forever away AND it was a holiday, holiday rates were in effect, so it ended up costing 20E instead of 14 to get there. Oh well. Still, the Villa was great. Last time I was there I didn’t really appreciate that this had been someone’s HOUSE. This time I wanted to know what the scoop on the house was. As huge villas go it’s not that huge (cf Villa Borghese or Versailles or whatever), but it’s a fair-sized place. Took pictures of the little Etruscan temple in the garden and of the frescoes in the portico (copied from paintings newly discovered at the time under the Oppian Hill, i.e. the Domus Aurea. Very much Third Style painting), but they wouldn’t let me take pictures inside. It was fun to see inside a lot of the things we had already seen at Cerveteri and Tarquinia, and to show Elise and Rose the typical Etruscan painting styles with all the palmettes. Proof that there were once lions in Italy: The Etruscans can’t decorate enough stuff with lions. Lions lions lions. And palmettes. Got a blank space? Why not palmettes?

When we got to the end there was a section on the house itself. Seems Pope Julius III acquired the land from a relative and built the house in 1550. Since it’s not RIDICULOUSLY huge and ornate, and being Pope he had no, er, children to leave it to, when he died apparently no one wanted it! The Papacy took possession of it, but by 1599 it was abandoned, and proceeded to stand empty for the next 300 years! Amazing the frescoes look as good as they do! I never get to read as much about these things as I want to. But a wealthy family with a taste for Etruscan and other early art eventually took the place over, restored it, and started exhibiting things from the various Etruscan finds, some even in the order and arrangement they were found in the tombs, which was neat. One exhibit showed a small chariot which had been buried with the deceased. In the exhibit, the chariot had this cheesy-looking driver in his little toga, so fake…. Until I read the card which announced that said cheesy-looking driver in his little toga had actually been found in said chariot in the tomb! Hilarious.

After the Villa we decided to be Murricans and have lunch at the Hard Rock Rome, which wasn’t far. Knowing that the portions were huge we only ordered 2 lunches, and it was plenty. Our waiter was from Long Island. Elise was very charmed to have an actual American to talk to!

The real reason to have lunch at the Hard Rock was that it’s across the street from the Capuchin Bone Crypt. I had never heard of this thing until a fellow Latin teacher, Kat Braden, told me about it. It seemed like a very Halloweenish sort of thing to do, so we determined to go. Sure enough, across the street and down the block from the Hard Rock (though interestingly, no one at the Hard Rock had ever heard of it. Boy, talk about Americans not knowing or caring. This thing was cool and totally worth seeing, and they had no idea!) was the Church of the Conception, a Capuchin church with a little museum about Capuchin monastic life, and then the bone crypt. Seems some Capuchin monk managed to collect the bones of three or four hundred cartloads of dead monks and then had to figure out what to do with them. Being apparently of an artistic bent and having no other calls on his time (I don’t know this for sure but if you see it you will agree with me!), he decided to use the bones as decoupage for the walls of 6 little chambers under the church. Who knew that you could make flowers out of vertebrae, or a skull and two scapulae make a little angel? Sick, twisted, yet adorable!

Got the train back to Termini. As we walked back to the hotel Elise saw a sweater in a window that she fell immediately in love with, so we went in, tried it, and yes, it was lovely on her. They also had these fluffy scarves that she and I liked (Rosie is still looking for her perfect scarf), so we made some purchases and came on back to the hotel.

Upon our arrival Elise had noticed an “Indian Fast Food” joint across the street, and she’s been dying for Indian, so we went there for supper. Two facts should have been dead giveaways that it was no damn good: 1) BEEF curry 2) golden brown TANDOORI chicken. We ate there anyway. It was terrible. On the plus side, it was only 11E. In trying to decide what we would do tomorrow, Elise discovered “The Dark Side of Rome” walking tour, an evening walk of ghost stories along the Tiber. In keeping with the Halloween theme we decided to book it, and lo and behold they had spaces for tomorrow night! So Hadrian and ghost stories for tomorrow.

2.11 Mausoleum of Hadrian/Castell’Sant’Angelo. Train to Lepanto, then walked down toward the castle. Found a restaurant called Ottimo, decided to eat. Fresh pasta was indeed pretty ottimo. A few blocks further on we found the Castell and a market down one side, complete with merry-go-round, so clearly returning was required. The castle had some amazing views; we got some nice shots of the old city and of San Pietro in the distance, but the Roman part of the tour was very minimal. Somewhat disappointing. However, after the castle we went back down to the market, found Rosie a scarf of her own finally (pink cheetah print with magenta roses, of course!), and Elise some new earrings (coincidentally, also with roses!), then rode on the merry-go-round for a while. From the castle roof we had seen a little playground down in the castle grounds, so the girls played on the swings for a bit before we headed to Campo dei Fiori to try to find the new excavation of the very spot where Caesar was killed. It was about at this point that I started having a stomachache.

We found the Campo easily enough, and tried to find the spot. Half of Rome is under excavation at any given time, so this was not easy. We found a spot that seemed to be it: it fit the description from the ancients and it had been somewhat dug up. There was water main work happening in the next block, but no mains had been pulled up in this spot. I took a picture and we kept going. In the Largo Argentina is the excavation of the Area Sacra (and the cat sanctuary), also some cool ruins, but further down than the Theatre of Pompey is supposed to have been. We decided to catch a bus back, as this was less than half the price of a cab, but at 5:30 in the afternoon this turns out to have been an insane decision. It was cramped, to say the least.

We had tried to arrange to have dinner with Chris Keenan near the Pantheon (Chris is one of my former JCL kids who’s doing a semester in Rome), but didn’t manage to catch him. (The tourist cabs on the south side of Termini tried to tell me that 25E was a good price to the Pantheon. What rubbish. Actual station cab price: 10E.) By this time my stomachache was getting really quite severe. The girls said they weren’t hungry and I certainly wasn’t. We walked over to the meeting place for the ghost stories walk and found it with no trouble, but by the time we got there I could barely stand I was so crampy and faint. I asked one of our fellow tourists to tell the guide that I was sick, hailed a cab, and got home. I was raging with fever by the time I got into the bed, and tummy continued unsatisfactory for several more hours.

3.11 Better this morning, but not significantly. We had planned to do the Palazzo Massimo complex (museum, Crypt of Balbus continuing the Halloween theme, and the Baths of Diocletian) but I just couldn’t do it. We did go down to Upim (Rome’s answer to Macy’s) at the end of the block from the hotel and get a couple outfits for Rosie and some new things for Elise, but this turns out to be all the excursion I could handle. I ended up sleeping most of the afternoon. However, we did catch Chris finally, and arranged for him to come to us. We had dinner in a little trattoria down the street from the hotel, then he took the girls to the walking tour. (Large gratitude to DarkRome Tours, who were within their rights to charge me 56E for cancelling at very nearly the ACTUAL last minute, and who instead rebooked the tour in Chris’s name for no fee and said they hoped I felt better soon.) He told me the excavation for the spot where Caesar was killed is actually UNDER the Largo Argentina, and in fact if you look carefully at the largo itself you can see the curve of theatre in the front of the shops. So we probably stood on the very spot while we were waiting for the bus. I had half a bowl of soup for dinner (the most substantial meal I’d had all day) and went to bed. Stomach did not cooperate fully and I was only able to doze between gettings-up.

When the kids came in they woke me and told me a little about the tour (so glad I didn’t go on a queasy stomach – some of the stories were QUITE gruesome) and were clearly in an excellent frame of mind. So I thanked Chris and shooed everyone into bed quickly, as we needed to be on the train at 9:45.

4.11 Uneventful trip home. Elise made herself flashcards, having seen how well Aurora’s worked, for squares, cubes, and square roots. We came home to chilly and rainy here, but not terrible (it was actually quite mild in Rome and started to rain and get colder just this morning! Such timing). Elise’s homework for the long weekend was to write a summary using the passato prossimo of what she did on her trip – “I left on Wednesday. I went with my mother and sister. We arrived in Rome at 7pm” -level stuff, so I helped her with that. She did fine on it, but getting started was miserable. She has very little confidence in her own ability to put the language together.

Immigration, continued. (More immigration chapters soon! I promise! No really, there are going to be more.)

30.10 Headed off to Parma today for my citizenship class and exam. Thank goodness for Anna the GPS, as she was able to find it for me easily (it was NOT in an obvious government building-type spot, but in fact in a lecture hall in a vocational school). I arrived a minute or two late, as I had gone to pay the doctor bills first. It was very an interesting payment experience: you stick the bill in the ATM, it tells you what to pay, and gives you a cash register receipt. Once I figured out how to use the machine, easy.

The citizenship class was strange. About 50 people were there, almost all African or Asian, and all chatting away in low tones. The video that was playing was in English, a language that was clearly not useful for the majority of the people there. My obsessively A-student self got very annoyed at it all, as the video was TERRIBLE quality, almost inaudible, and the presenters were so obviously Reading. The Material. From A Screen. That it was also almost unwatchable. But I took copious notes and tried to keep up (it also went very fast). There were 6 vids in the series. After the second one, the monitor said we could go get coffee or use the bathroom, so I decided to do that. Bathroom first. Completely scary. Hole in the floor, 4 stalls, only one of which had a door. But, well, desperate times and all (there were still over 90 mins of class plus an hour drive home). The coffee machine chocolate coffee was not completely undrinkable. When I went back to the classroom, the monitor told me (how did she know who I was? I guess from the American accent and being one of only 3 white faces in the room) that while I had to come to both classes (ugh, BOTH?), I don’t have to take the exam. That’s only for people either renewing their permesso or applying for a longer term than one year. For one year they only want to know I’ve been exposed to the information. I also don’t have to take the Italian exam, though I think I will anyway, as I can use it for getting certification to teach Italian when I get home. She told us after the third vid that we could either watch one more or leave early. Unanimous vote to leave early – the next class would only have been a little over 90 mins with only two, but still under 3 hours for all 3, and it’s scheduled for 4. So really, it’s fine. Especially now that I know I don’t have to take insane notes and can in fact nap briefly if I want!

 Got to Eleanora’s about 7:15. They had had pizza for dinner, and my girls had made me a pizza bolognese and a mushroom and olive pizza. They know me well!

27.10 David LeMoine is my hero. He bought our train tickets for us since my card doesn’t work at Trenitalia any more (I tried about once an hour for nearly 15 hours straight). The price had gone up a bit from when I was looking before, but not horribly. The thing I keep running up against: I’ve spent most of my life travelling alone. Small increases in fare that wouldn’t have bothered me alone are more painful when there are three of you!

We loafed most of the day, but around 1pm Ornella came by and said that she and Iole were doing torta fritta for dinner, we should come. When I opined that I really wanted to learn to make them, she said that while she had a top secret recipe, since I was going back to America eventually she would teach it to me. So I got to help her make the pastry for the torta and Rose got to come see their new puppies (so adorable, 3 days old, Rose thinks we can take one and keep it this year and then somehow get it home. Uh, no).

The party over at Iole and Gianni’s was lovely. The girls decided they didn’t want to sit through another evening of everyone speaking Italian so they stayed home. Iole has what I am determined to call a summer triclinium in her back yard. Just a big room with a huge table, small stove, stereo, and huge windows looking into her grape arbor and vegetable garden. Really lovely. Ornella made the torta in the electric skillet outside (definitely have to get a pasta machine now, since you have to roll the pastry out to cook it and the machine is just better at it than I am!) and the rest of us laid the table and burned our fingers on hot torta. There was prosciutto and mortadella and culaccia (yum culaccia, my new favorite cold cut) and a thing whose Italian name I forget but which was basically scrapple cut superduper thin. There were Italian cheeses whose names I don’t know, and gorgonzola and parmesan. And there was leftover pastry at the end, so Ornella made… NUTELLA FRITTA! Ravioli with nutella filling. What a happy food this is. I had made them with wonton wrappers before, and this wasn’t that different, but yeah, I liked the torta fritta version better J

I met Carla, Katie (who’s Italian. Try pronouncing Katie with an Italian accent) and Paolo, who have houses in the ghost town at the top of the mountain. I suppose since they live there part-time (they also have apts in Salso) it’s not exactly a ghost town anymore, but it was an 18^th century village that was abandoned and they’ve restored their houses up there. Carla wanted to get something from the house before the nutella torta were served, and invited me to come see it. Her house is just 2 biggish rooms on top of one another, with two more similar rooms still to be restored. She said she ended up knocking a lot of the original house down and then rebuilding it with the same stones on a similar plan, but the insides were so terrible that there just was no fixing them. It’s basically just a big kitchen with a bedroom and bath on top.

Next time the weather is nice (it rained non-stop today except for one 15 minute period where the clouds broke and the full moon was visible. By the time I got inside to tell the girls to come see how beautiful and they came out, the fog had come up again and the drizzle had started) I propose to walk up there. Carla says it’s about a 20 minute walk, and definitely boots required – a long stretch of the “road” is unmetalled dirt track. She cut her headlights at one point as we were going up – even in the overcast dark I could see that the view was impressive.

Everyone is so nice to me here. “Don’t go back to America! Get a job and stay with us!” Like it’s that simple for a teacher with no European credentials and a custody agreement, alas. But it’s a happy place to be.

23.10 I had a very successful shopping day in Salso. At one of the clothes stalls I found 2 more of the currently fashionable lace tunic outfits (but no more after this! From now on, only things that one can wear to school or are winter-warm!), but when I was trying them on I dropped my sunglasses behind one of the boxes. Didn’t notice I’d lost them until nearly an hour later. SCOURED the market (naturally by then I’d been to about 12 different stalls), but happily on returning to the clothes stall they had them. WHEW. No interest in losing prescription sunglasses abroad!

Next, regular grocery store shopping, where I discovered: ciobar lava cakes. Oh the humanity! Elise made them up for dinner. They are serious about the not more than 8 mins part – after 8 minutes it cooks through and becomes just cake. Enough food in house now not to get more than milk before we go to Rome next week.

24.10 Gorgeous out – laundry to soak up sun! We were almost out of eggs so Rosie and I walked up to the farm at Berzieri and hung out with Rosana for a bit (Aurora got low so we intruded to get her a little juice). The henhouse produced a total of one egg and it was too early in the afternoon for milk, but we had a nice visit and coffee (mistake. Writing this at 1 am. Very bad). When Elise got home, we took advantage of the sunshine and drove to the top of the hill (not QUITE to Pietra Nera, the very top, though we could see it from where we were, about ¼ mile away) – Mirella is crazy, that is not a short walk. 4km. (She had recommended that Mark and I walk up there since it was a great view and “not too far”.) Great view, such a beautiful day for it. We hiked around the ridge and took some very nice pictures, though they’d have been better if there had been less haze.

We had the fresh salmon from the Salso fishmonger for dinner but the girls didn’t eat it – very picky about bones. I’m just not getting fish again here. Too much drama. Made me a ciobar to cheer up. At the veg market in Pellegrino on Monday I bought another set of mystery leaves– the man in the stall said it was like spinach, and it was, a little milder, but tasty. Next time I’m at the Pellegrino market I’ll have to ask him what it was so we can get it again. Catalogna turns out to be chicory – poor man’s arugula, basically, just not as peppery but a tad more bitter. I don’t mind it, but it’s a little strong for the girls. I’ll have to try sauteeing it with garlic sometime, since that’s a way I really like arugula.

25.10 Gorgeous day – likely to be the last for a long time if TheWeatherChannel.com is to be believed. Since I didn’t have anything pressing at home, I decided to follow the other side of the fork on the way to school and drove up to Iggio, about 2 km up the hill on the other side of the little valley where Pellegrino is.  Now, it might have been the sunrise breaking up the mist, or it might just be that Iggio is prettier than Besozzola. It’s certainly more prosperous, with lots of big houses on large plots. Before heading home I took another detour to what turns out to be called Stuzzano, my Brigadoon. (I call it that because it is only visible from certain parts of the road at certain angles because of a spur of the hill, so it disappears.) Kinda creepy, actually – the town seemed totally empty and still, and most of the buildings had lots of broken windows. A couple houses had laundry out or blooming flowers in window boxes, so it’s not COMPLETELY abandoned, but it did look awfully forlorn.

Did laundry, because, well, sunshine. Alessandra called and asked if I could pick up the girls because she had to go to Salso directly after the parent meeting. I panicked. What parent meeting? Why do I not know this? Then when I got down there I realized I had intended to MISS said parent meeting, as it was elections for the school site council. There are supposed to be 4 board members from each school (elementary and middle), and though 15 parents showed up for the elementary meeting, only 4 did for the middle school meeting. The upshot of which is, I got myself elected to the school site council – argh! But Alessandra confused me. I blame her. Trying now at 1 am to make train reservations for Rome, but stupid Cap One decided midnight train reservations were a scam and blocked my card. Now I can’t get through and I’m afraid the prices are going to go through the roof by morning (currently 173, will be up to 225 each way soon L )

26.10 Gloomy rainy colder (though admittedly not COLD yet). Without web access all day – Alice box died. Marcella (bellydance teacher) told me I have the perfect shape for bellydance: “you cannot do bellydance if you have no belly!” After the lesson we went down to Salso in hopes of replacing Alice. The elettrodomestici said they do, in fact, carry that brand, and expect a new shipment next Friday. ARGH! However, upon returning home it occurred to me to plug it back in, just in case… and voila! Works again. Just needed to be jostled around for 2 hours I guess. While in Salso we hit the grocery store for a few things just to keep from having to go back before we got to Rome (IF we go – still can’t get Trenitalia to take my card), and we found not only more Ciobar lava cakes but Pan de Stelle mooncakes! Life on chocolate, here we are.

Elise dropped her iPod in a puddle in the midst of our shopping. Arivu told me to put my bepuddled phone into a bowl of rice for 24 hours to save it, and iPod has been duly entombed in rice. Keeping good thoughts for its eventual resuscitation.

The drive home would have been unremarkable except for one thing (well, actually, a bunch of things): FROGS! WTH, frogs? As we came across the valley toward our mountain, we were all but assaulted by frogs in the road. I know I hit at least one. Leaping, and staring at me from the road. At first I thought they were leaves, but then we saw their eyes. And suddenly realized they were EVERYWHERE. All crossing the road from right to left as we were traveling. I had to keep swerving to avoid more and more and more frogs. They finally disappeared as we started to climb toward our road home. Now we get all jumpy (ha ha, jumpy) every time we see leaves bouncing across the road.

Pizza weekend!

 20.10 Francesco and Emanuele fired up pizza oven tonight, so I hung out there till about 10. The girls were invited, but there aren’t any other kids over there, and they get tired of listening to a lot of Italian they don’t understand, so they were content to let me bring them a couple pieces of pizza and stayed home. Francesco’s brother Alberto and his fiancee Cinzia, momndad Eva and Maurizio, and friend Anna, who lives near Florence, with her boyfriend Paolo, were all in attendance, so lots of new people to talk to. Anna has invited us to stay with her when we go to Firenze again. She lives about 30 minutes out of town but says the bus goes right by her house so it’s easy to get into town. She was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to seeing her again. Must ask Francesco what kind of sausages his mother brought – they were YUM.

21.10 Festa d’Otonno in Pellegrino – complete with a bouncy house! Bought some flea market books for girls to work on – a Mickey Mouse graphic novel, the Italian translation of the Disney adaption of the Sword in the Stone (Whew! Say THAT three times fast), a book about animals who build their own houses, a Pooh story, and a Richard Scarry story. Elise didn’t feel well and stayed home. While Ro played with the big kids in the bouncy house, I bought jewelry and discovered crema di marrone, chestnut cream. The lady making the crepes was kind enough to impart the recipe: 2 parts marrone from grocery store (apparently comes in a bottle) 1 part mascarpone, and choc chips. Basically the insides of cannoli, only better. Use for crepes, frosting for cakes or cooking, or frankly eat with spoon.

As we were coming home from the festa we ran into Emanuele – more pizza! And a gerzillion people! Francesco’s birthday is this week, so it was effectively his birthday party. Didn’t get to actually meet fully half the people there, but I did chat with another Angela, another Cinzia and her husband Corrado, and got to hang out with Stefania and Federica and Gianluca for a bit (inasmuch as anyone ever hangs out with Gianluca, who seems a pleasant enough, if somewhat antisocial, sort. Federica more than makes up for him!). Emanuele bought a bottle of fragolino for me to taste – strawberry and grape liqueur. Very satisfactory. Took a little margherita and focaccia home, and got Rose a small swish of zucchero filato (cotton candy). Sat up WAY too late talking to Eric Rapp, and remembered that as miserable as working at Paramount was, some very good people came into my life as a result. Even when life was sucky there were some amazingly good times. Eric also did me the supreme disservice of introducing me to David Foster Wallace via the review of Garner’s Dictionary. I remember seeing on Slate that he had committed suicide, and frankly not thinking much of it. I had, after all, never heard of the man. But it turns out he and his family are responsible for this little gem:

When idiots in this world appear
And fail to be concise or clear
And solecisms rend the ear
The cry goes up both far and near
For Blunder Dog
Blunder Dog!

 Oh David Foster Wallace, I didn't even KNOW I would miss you. Now I have to find his books and read them. I’m told they’re on the dense side, but at least from the dictionary review and from “Consider the Lobster,” this was a man after my own heart.

17.10 Mark continues on to Rome today, so I took him back to the station (via the new-found faster route!) and managed to find the Fidenza Lidl for groceries, which was more complicated than it looked – it was cunningly hidden. But now I am master of the Secret Way Under The Station, so it’s all good.

18.10 Mamma had been scheduled to go home on November 6, but life here is very stressful for her – she’s very aware of not speaking any Italian and she gets very afraid that something will happen while I’m out and she’ll be stuck, so I changed her tickets to today and got her up to Linate. Naturally nothing’s simple and the tickets are screwed up. How on EARTH does anyone think an international ticket is going to be “no baggage”? So of course she was a mess by the time we got it all straightened out, and I was 70E poorer because they Just. Wouldn’t. Let her. Check the ffffffine bags. But we were able to get her a wheelchair, which meant she got expedited through security and onto the plane (ooh Freudian slip: I typed “pain” instead of “plane” initially. No kidding!) and she got home ok. The customs people in Atlanta even commended her for having bleached her shoes before leaving here. (Many years ago when I was coming home from Scotland I had just been at my friend Ruth’s farm, and I almost got stuck in customs because of farm dirt on my shoes. We remember these things.) Yes, the house is less tidy but more calm now.

Vitale and Puppe have gone to Salso for the winter. Vitale gave Mamma a kiss goodbye but not me: “You don’t get a kiss, you’re a besozzolese.” Happy!

19.10 Our bellydance careers continue to progress: We now have hip scarves, a copy of Marcella’s music cd, and some video to practice with.

Mark Margolin visits

13.10 A nice day out today, so Aurora and I walked up to Berzieri for eggs. We found a mushroom that smelled like regular white button mushrooms, but wanted to ask someone more knowledgeable. Rosana Berzieri didn’t know, but she said that the other Rosana in the village was very good with mushrooms and would know if it was any good. We found the other Rosana, met her son Michele, and showed her the shroom. She said it was not deadly, but it tasted terrible. We chatted for a few minutes, and then she said, “Will you accept a bottle of marmelata di prugne?” How nice! Sure! She took us back to her storage shed, which was floor to ceiling with her home canned veggies and fruit. She pulled out about 2.5L of marmelata, then asked me if I liked tomato sauce. Well, uh, yeah! So she got out about 2L of her homemade tomato sauce as well. Only condition: I have to take the bottles back! J She also had a rabbit named Camiglia (which is funny in Italian: una coniglia chiamata Camiglia), which she let Rose play with for a bit. Big bunny. Aurora was very charmed until bunny nipped her finger a little on the hard side.

We had the last of the capelli d’angeli with homemade tomato sauce for dinner. Yeah, homemade/home-grown is better. #villagelife

14.10 Mark arrived safely at Malpensa and managed to get himself in one piece to Fidenza. He had offered to take us on a tour of Milan, but the combination of timing and knowing just how exhausted he’d be after coming straight from California put the kibosh on that plan. Just as well. I went to the station to pick him up and as usual, got mildly lost, then realized not only where I was, but that I had found a quicker way to get to the station, yay. Since it was such a gorgeous afternoon, Mark and Rose and I walked up hill a ways. Mirella had said that the Pietra Nera was a nice walk, so we started out that way. We passed a hunter on the way up with a walkie-talkie, who told us tersely that he and his team were after cinghiale (wild boar), so we left him to it. Rosie got tired of walking not too far past the Allelujah, so we turned around. On our way back down we met our hunter again, who in the meantime had indeed bagged a boar. He showed us the carcass and his dogs, Polka and Foxtrot. All his dogs are named after ballroom dances. He apparently loves to dance so much that his wife divorced him. In the course of our conversation (which he contributed way more to, just because it was all Mark and I could do to keep up!) we learned all about bag limits for boar (relatively high, as they have few natural predators and are fairly destructive) and deer (relatively low because they are pretty nearly in balance with the local wolf population). Also, smart people hunt boar with dogs and stupid people hunt with only guns, fyi. He recounted the tale of a stupid hunter who went out without dogs and thus had no warning when he surprised a boar at close range. With no time to fire his gun, the boar ripped his thigh open from knee to groin, and he was lucky to survive the encounter. So be warned, kids: hunt cinghiale with dogs AND guns!

On the way back to Besozzola we stopped at the bar and had bargnolini with Emanuele. Angela promised to give me her recipe for cheesecake and for apple tart with prugna marmelata inside – particularly important now that I have 2 litres of marmelata that I need to use!

15.10 Rain on and off all day today, so we just did errands in Pellegrino and Salso. We started with the veg market in the village. We were interested in one of the kinds of greens they had, and Meg asked the vendor what it was. He called it "Catalogna." I asked what it was like...how bitter it was. He replied that he'd never eaten it. I laughed and said that wasn't very helpful. He laughed and said we’d have to come back and tell him what it's like. We saw it later at the supermarket where the sign indicated it is a type of chicory. We also stopped at the ferramenta to order pellets for the heating stove in the kitchen. I asked how much they would be, and the man said he'd have to figure it out. I asked if I could pay with Visa and he said yes but we’d have to wait until they were delivered and he figured the cost. Can I pay with Visa when they’re delivered? No, you have to come back after they are delivered, when he would know what they cost. #villagelife

On the way back we stopped at San Nicomede (which I’ve come to feel very proprietary about – must be the two little Roman columns in the crypt), and I found the lights for crypt so we could actually see it. Longobard columns are very pretty. Not really knowing who the Longobards were, apart from the fact that their name corrupts to Lombardy and they were of more or less Germanic origin, I looked them up. Their name literally means “Long beards”, though it’s not clear if that was a general description, a reference to their primary god, Odin Grey-Beard, or a reference to an outnumbered Longobard army having their women tie their hair under their chins and stand in the ranks to make their numbers appear scarier to the enemy.

I had heard that the pizza down at Caserma Vecchia in Pellegrino was outstanding, so we decided on that for dinner. On our way in, we met Enzo, an old guy who was having a birthday party, according to the cashier. He was difficult to understand – more than a few teeth missing – but he seemed very happy to meet the famous American (yeah, I’m famous), and announced we needed a bottle of wine to celebrate his birthday with. We said we would absolutely toast his birthday when we had our pizza.

We ordered capriciosa and tonno pizzas (margherita for the girls, naturally) and a bottle of red wine to go with it. Next thing we know, the waiter is appearing with our half carafe of red, followed by a bottle of white. Eh? We only ordered the red. But no, it seems Enzo was absolutely serious about our having a bottle of wine, and had sent us up a bottle of Malvisia, a relatively sweet, slightly bubbly white. I liked it a lot. The pizzas were delicious but huge – we had each ordered one, and had almost a whole one left over. In future  pizzas = people – 1.

16.10 Mark needed to see a castle, naturally, so he, Mamma and I drove over the hill (the crazy way, with the vertical vineyards, because everyone needs to see crazy Italian hill roads and vertical vineyards!) to Castell’Arquato. Mamma had a look in the gift shop while Mark and I paid for the tour of tower. It wasn’t really a tour, just admission to the castle keep and grounds proper, but it did mean we got to go up inside and see the amazing views (we didn’t even get to the top), and we got the watch The Video. I have to go back in the spring when my Italian is better, because this video was clearly awesome. The conceit was that some monk was writing the history of castle in his diary over the course of about 400 years. Each new entry had a Monty-Pythonesque prop appear, appropriate to the entry: snowball during a terrible winter, bloody knife for riots or assassinations, Turkish hats when foreigners were involved. We were deeply annoyed that we couldn’t understand the Italian fast enough to follow it better. (We looked everyone on the web for a copy of it but no luck. Next time I go I’m totally asking if it’s possible to buy a copy.)

Afterwards we came back over the hill and had lovely lunch at Trattoria Trinita. Mark had stuff guinea fowl (nice), Mamma had beef with arugula (very nice), and I had cinghiale casserole (and kids stole my leftovers!!! Must remember to put lock on leftovers in future.) We decided to try the experiment and find out what nougat semifreddo was for dessert. It turns out to be Snickers mousse. Mark has been to Italy a number of times, but he said this hanging around in the countryside with a “local” (yeah, that’s me, a local) was a whole new experience. I have to admit, much as I love the cities, I’m so happy to come back to my little mountain every time.

6.10 Being Italian Lessons

Today was our cooking lesson with Giovanna, Frank’s cousin, in Borla. Easy enough to find – it’s just beyond Trinita, where we had the wonderful lunch the other day. Mamma was concerned that we’d get lost and not find it since my directions were “2km past Trinita”, but I’m starting to get used to these rural roads: there are VERY few forks where the two branches are equally well-travelled and well-maintained, so just stay with the main road and you’re pretty nearly always right. (When Steffi showed me the “quick way” to the river beach last summer, THAT was a route to get lost on, since you had to know whether to take the main road or the squiddly road three separate times.)

We started with sauce Bolognese. These seemed a little dumb to me as I, and americans generally, thought Bolognese was just tomato sauce with ground beef in it. Oh no no no! Onions, carrots and garlic must be sauteed first, then the meat (she recommends a 2:1 mix of beef and pork) must be browned until dry, then the tomato sauce, then the WATER, then the simmering for 90 minutes or more to get the flavors to come together. Not difficult, certainly, but not what I was expecting. The porcini sauce was also easy, though I had never used porcini mushrooms before. They only show up in the US dried, so you have to soak them overnight, then keep the water, being sure to pour it off slowly since a lot of gunk from the shrooms will be in the bottom. Recipe calls for panna di cucina, a little box of cream the consistency of yogurt (sliiiiideSMUSH), which I’m not sure how to duplicate at home. Oh well, for the next ten months I don’t have to. We also made tagliatelle and capelli d’angeli. She has a restaurant-sized pasta machine, so rolling it out went really fast – much faster than my little tiny machine from days of yore. We also made ravioli with ham and ricotta filling. She showed us how to fill, fold, and cut the ravioli very evenly, and the girls did very well making it. When it came to be my turn, I started up doing exactly what she’d said…and she yelled at me. “Not that way! What are you, left-handed or something? THIS way!” “Er, uh, actually, I AM left-handed.” Pause. “Well, okay, then do it that way.” Awkward. But hilarious.

Once everything was made up we had a typical Italian family lunch. It was just going to be the four of us and Giovanna and her husband, but then her twenty-year-old grandson turned up demanding to be fed, and then one of her sons. Fresh pasta is better than dried, in case you were wondering. All the vegetable ingredients for the sauces (including the mushrooms!) came from their farm. Now, with lunch, we drank their homemade wines, one white, one red. They asked the girls if they would like wine. Aurora was a little horrified at the thought, but Elise was excited to be among the grownups. I said she couldn’t have much, as alcohol is hard on diabetics, but a small glass with a big meal is not a problem. We were offered coffee with smabuca after lunch, but not being a big licorice fan I did not partake. In the end we at all the tagliatelle that we had made, but brought home 2 trays of ravioli, one of capelli d’angeli, and 2 bottles of the white wine. Need a pasta maker now, sigh.

But the groovy day was not over yet. Emanuele invited us to go to Castell’Arquato for a bit, then to a festa near Piacenza. I didn’t fully understand what he had in mind, but hey, festa, we’re all invited, he’s driving, sounds good to me. We hadn’t gotten up to the castle when we came before, so it was definitely a thing on our list to do. We walked up to the piazza of the castle, which he told me had been the castle set for the movie Ladyhawke. The festa was starting soon so we didn’t go inside, but he said the inside was very interesting.

The festa turned out to be a pirate themed thing. Lots of people dressed in terrible pirate costumes, and one guy dressed as Jack Sparrow who was amazing – had all of Johnny Depp’s body language DOWN. Unfortunately, Elise starting having panic attacks in crowds, and Aurora got all bent out of shape that we were only giving Elise any love and not her. Ugh.But once we got some food in them (Emanuele was SO forbearing – I was completely embarrassed by their behavior!) they improved. We went down the the field where there was music, and the girls danced together so sweetly. Then there was a re-enacting of Pirates of the Caribbean II, which was a little weird but entertaining. I went to one of the pirate/gypsy fortune tellers, who told me that getting a PhD from UMassBoston was a bad idea, and that I should get a new job instead. Okeydokey.

The date of the festa is to commemorate Aloisa, a Visconti princess, whose husband went off to war and betrayed her. She killed herself out of grief on this day, and her ghost supposedly shows up sometimes. But she only appears to people who are in terrible trouble. Her appearance is supposed to signify an improvement in the situation of those who see her. Odd little thing: there’s a statue of her in one corner of the garden, and she looks to be about 4.5 feet tall, positively cartoonish. But maybe that’s why the captain husband blew her off – thought she was weird-looking.

7.10 Since Elise is in dire need of winter clothes, we decided to have a look at the Fidenza outlet mall, where all the top brands have stores. Yes, excellent prices on Dolce and Gabbana, Ferragamo, etc. 40, 50, 60% off. But nothing humans can ACTUALLY afford, since all that stuff starts life at about 800E anyway. Then we wanted to take a peek at the Armani shop, just to look, and the BOUNCER told us there were already seven people in the shop, we could wait until they came out. Way to ensure that I never buy anything from Armani, dude. The Italian versions of Target and Kmart were just about ½ mile away (including H&M), and we found things. For decent prices. That she liked. This was better. I tried on a few things, but definitely need to get skinny – Italian sizes generally don’t go up to as fat as I am, sigh.

8.10 Second and fourth Mondays are market days in Pellegrino. I always go for vegetables and mortadella and whatnot, but today I stopped in at one of the clothes stalls, and found some very cute things for me at decent prices, unlike at outlets! Got a purple lace T-shirt-and-sweater, an orange sweater dress, and a navy blue sweater with flower embroidery. Since I finally know how to pronounce caciotta and my Italian is getting better, I asked the cheese man his name. It’s Aldo. He had some frozen fish in a tub and I asked what it was. Merluzzo (cod). I’m willing to try a new fish, but cod we’re pretty tired of J Aldo said, “This guy is the one to ask about fish!” and introduced me to the fishmonger, Ianni. Ianni opined that it was time for coffee and since he and Aldo were going, I should go too. So they bought me coffee, and I’m pretty sure Ianni asked me out. He might be as much 35 but I don’t think so. Seems there’s a festa in Fidenza tomorrow, and he said it’s a big deal since it’s San Donnino, Fidenza’s patron saint. So obviously he said I should go. And if it hadn’t been a school night I totally would have. They say I paid too much for a house in Beso. Probably right, but what do I know.

Week of 1.10

I'm so behind that I don't remember if anything particularly interesting happened 1.10 or 2.10. So I'm going with "no."

3.10 Not All Passport Photographs Are Created Equal

My appointment with the Questura is tomorrow, and I needed passport pictures of me and the girls for the permesso. We asked Vitale where one could get same, and he directed me to a photographer in Salso that he said was very good and not too expensive. The studio was easy to find (across the street from the Terme, makes life easy) and indeed, only slightly more expensive at 10E per set than getting them from CVS at home. Plus, this guy was an actual professional photographer, so he made us pose for them and made sure they looked good, instead of just doing the mug shot thing. End result: pictures that came out so well that I’m going to order additional copies for the girls’ “school pictures” this year.

4.10 Italian Medicine Beats American All To Pieces, But Immigration Is…Whatever.

I had another visit with the endocrinologist to go over the girls’ numbers, which have been terrible. I’m hoping now that school has started they’ll settle down some as we get into more of a routine. Dr Chiari informed me, regretfully, that I had to pay for the last two visits and that he had been unable to get me a reduced rate, so I would have to pay the full price. Then he presented me with the bills, one for Rose, one for Elise. I was braced, though I knew it wouldn’t be anything like as high as an uninsured American doctor visit. Hell, it wasn’t as high as an INSURED American doctor visit! 18E each. Italy is teaching me to have a VERY poor opinion of American poilitics.

After the doctor it was off to Immigration. Serious anticlimax. I arrived about 15 minutes before my appointment time. There was nowhere to check in or anything, so I wasn’t even sure they would call me. 20 minutes after my time, I got the courage up to ask someone who was leaving, “Excuse me, what time was your appointment?” She said 45 minutes ago, so at least I knew I wasn’t NECESSARILY being ignored. Finally the syllables that pass for Margaret Miller came over the PA. (I never knew Margaret Miller was a difficult name to pronounce J .) The little man had my file for the permesso sitting next to him, so he had to know that it was incomplete. I was relatively panicked knowing that the didn’t have the original birth certs, let alone the apostilles, that I was told I had to have. He stamped a bunch of stuff, made me sign a bunch of stuff that basically said “all the info I have provided is true and correct,” took a set of electronic fingerprints, then told me I’d have to do another set in a few minutes, not sure why. Finally, he asked if I knew that I have to take a citizenship exam. This was news. He gave me the packet about it in English, and I had to sign a promise to actually go and take it (the promise also had a date and place on it, very helpful). Upon reading the exam packet, I realized I should have asked for the Italian version, as that would have been significantly clearer. I asked if getting the permesso would enable me to get national health. He looked at me as if I were stupid. “Certo.” But they wouldn’t give me national health on the strength of my visa – will the permesso make a difference? Ok, now I’m slow AND stupid. “Si, certo” in that “maybe if I say it slowly your tiny brain will have time to process it” voice. Ok, yay. Next I had to go into another room to give not only all ten fingers, but 4 fingers at a go plus palms to the electronic fingerprinter. Naturally half-way through the machine hiccuped and lost all the prints so far, so we had to do them again. I joked a little with the cop about how he LUUUUVED his computer, at which he glared at me (in a friendly way) and said curtly, “Odio.” Once all 14 prints were done, I made the cop laugh when I said, “And now, FEET!” and pretended to untie my shoes. They’ll call me sometime in November about when to pick up the completed permesso with all our lovely pictures. Once I have the permesso, I can apply for national health in January – no point in applying in December, as I would have to pay the full year’s tax quota for only a couple weeks of coverage. In the end, no one cared about translations, apostilles, visas, nuthin. That’s Italian bureaucracy for ya. I’d be pissed off if I weren’t so relieved.

5.10 2^nd bellydance lesson was today. I can’t really afford to do this once a week (I can’t REALLY afford to do it twice a month, but we love it) so we asked Marcella if we could video parts of the lesson so we have something to practice during the time off. She didn’t really want to, but finally agreed on the condition that we don’t publish the video, and that it’s not longer than about 10 minutes. Totally fair. We did 20 minutes of yoga to warm up, then the bellydancing. I am old and stiff.  Marcella, Aurora and Elise bend over flat on everything, while I’m in an unflexible little ball. Very sad for me. But, as we say, pian piano.

The First Major Excursion: Train Trip to Florence

28.9 Friday afternoon we all gobbled down sandwiches as soon as the girls got home then headed out to Fidenza. The train left 15 minutes earlier than I remembered (I had confused the outbound with the inbound, erk) but fortunately we got there just as it was pulling in and managed to scramble aboard. Mamma was really frightened by the speed of the train, though it was just an interregionale, a local basically, and never went all that fast. I’d be surprised if we ever got above 80 mph. The Frecciarossa fast train from Bologna to Florence was MUCH nicer – and frankly went way faster, but because it was more of a Mercedes to the interregionale’s Ford Fiesta, Mamma was much calmer about it. We actually experienced a minor miracle on the Frecciarossa: I didn’t realize that we had assigned seats in an assigned coach, yet somehow we managed to get on at our coach next to our seats! Mirabile dictu.

Got a cab from the station to our little hotel. It apparently used to be a hostel and is still pretty bare bones, but the room was clean and big enough for 4, which is all that mattered. Added advantage of being 2 blocks from the Duomo and 4 from the Uffizi, our primary points of interest, and in the middle of the pedonale shopping area. This is a new development since I was last there – before you had cars racing around the Duomo piazza all the time. Now it’s just the occasional cab.

Mark Margolin had recommended a pizza place so we sought it out, and lo and behold it was, in fact, very good and not horribly expensive, so yay! This being Italy and us being Americans, we went out way too early for dinner so all the shops were still open, so we did a lot of window-shopping as well. May have to look for some clothes in Firenze – both Elise and I are kinda diggin’ Italian fashion.

29.9 Got up betimes today to head to the Uffizi. The lines were CRAZY. This weekend is Patrimonio, a weekend when all museums in the country are open for free. You still have to pay if you want to reserve a time, but the actual admission is zero. I had reserved, and a good thing too: the RESERVATION line was over an hour. Free admission/no reservation line was over FIVE hours. (You can usually anticipate at least 2.) I want to see the stuff in the Uffizi but damn, five hours in line is so not worth it. Mamma had made a list of the things we especially wanted to see, and we got to all of them: the Duke & Duchess of Urbino, the Botticelli room, the Pearl room, a comparison of a Giotto Madonna triptych panel and an earlier one to see the jump in perspective and color usage, the Bronzino portraits of Eleanora di Toledo and Princess Bia, and the Titians. The place really is overwhelming. You need about 4 days to take it all in. And a guide. And possibly a wheelchair. We were exhausted after 2.5 hours. I had thought about trying to get to David at the Accademia in the afternoon, but I didn’t actually make reservations and now I’m glad. We couldn’t do it.

We found a pizzeria to have lunch in just off the square by the Palazzo Vecchio, a lunch of pizza and fresh pasta which was quite delicious, then went back to the hotel and napped. After an hour or so we went out to look at the Duomo piazza and at the Baptistery doors though we couldn’t go in as they were already shut. There are 3 sets of doors, just no one ever talks about the other two sets. Admittedly, they’re not as impressive (and as such, not as well cared for either – the Bernini doors are polished like gold, where the others are left to turn black with pollution and tarnish).

 Marcello Napolitano had recommended a place just a couple blocks from the hotel for dinner, but it was reserved until after 10, and we went out at about 7. Uh, no. So we ended up back at the Osteria dei Peccatori (whose name I actually took note of this time!) for dinner, and had another great meal. I hadn’t really looked at the tab all that closely at lunch, but at dinner I realized that they didn’t charge a coperta, and I hadn’t left a tip. Very bad. We had the same waitress for dinner, so I got up at one point and went to her and put a 20E note in her hand, which for the two meals together was not even 20%, not at all unreasonable for someone who remembered that Rose wanted ketchup with her fries and brought it without our asking, and that Mamma liked red wine and asked right away if she’d like another glass. Seems Italians don’t tip much: she all but started crying, and hugged and kissed me and made me promise we would come back again. When huge amounts of food and awesome service for four people and two meals costs less than 130E, yeah, I’m good with planning to go back there!

After dinner we walked up to the Duomo just to see it lit up. Even at 9:30 at night it was still thronged with people. Rose went to look at one of the vendors who had one of those LED toys. This one was a little slingshot that shot an LED-equipped arrow really high in the air (if you can do it without chopping off your thumb, which I can’t). She watched him for a long time, then he showed her how to do it. She fired it a couple times, and then I said, time to go. She wanted one, of course, but I have enough junk in my life so I said no. We walked away. Then the vendor (Indian? Pakistani?) ran up to us and handed Rose the toy. I said no again, but he said, “No. Regalo.” (It’s a gift.) Sigh. Okay, fine. I pulled out 2E to give to him, but he wouldn’t even take it. “No. Regalo.” He sort of bowed and walked away. The Power of the Rose.

Elise got annoyed at something (she and Rosie fight a lot) and decided to walk ahead of us back to the hotel. Only she didn’t. We got to the hotel and she wasn’t there. She didn’t turn up after about 15 minutes, so I went out to look for her. After marching around the shopping area for about another 20 minutes, I went back down toward the Duomo. I knew she wouldn’t have left the immediate area, and indeed, having realized we were gone, she had returned to the Duomo steps and just watched the eddies and swirls of humanity go by. Mamma was convinced she was kidnapped, raped and killed, but as I walked around I knew she wasn’t: there were loads of kids not a lot older than El sitting around chatting, eating ice cream, window-shopping, alone or in pairs. She was safe. She was scared, which was good, but nothing worse. Maybe now she won’t take off without us.

30.9 Had hoped to see the inside of the Duomo today, but it was not to be. However, Elise and I did get up early enough to make it to the top of the Campanile next to the Duomo. She was really excited about that. She kept pointing to things: “What is that? What’s over there?” No idea. Clearly, we have to come back! We found a graffito under one of the telescopes, “The Millers 2012.” So kind of someone to have graffito’ed for us so we didn’t have to! (Took a picture of it, naturally.)

After breakfast we walked to the Perfume Museum, a tiny little (one room) museum near the station, which has been in business since 1550 and made the first to-order perfume, for Catherine de Medici. I smelled it and it wasn’t very nice in the bottle (though they had a wide variety of things that were lovely in the bottle), but after a few minutes on it was beautiful. It was also 65E a bottle, which I wasn’t willing to pay at the time, but now wish I had. We walked by Sta Maria Novella but couldn’t go in (again, Sunday morning).

By this time it was nearly noon. We went back to the hotel and asked for a nearby lunch recommendation. The concierge sent us around the corner to a place that was PACKED and had no space for at least 3 hours. Since we had to leave in 3 hours this would not do. But the beauty of Italy is that there’s another trattoria of some sort next door, no matter where you are! So we went to the next place and had a really amazing lunch of sautéed spinach and mutton cooked in some sort of sauce. Mutton turns up a lot on restaurant menus but is very difficult to find in the grocery store. Not sure why that is.

 On the way back to the hotel we saw a little clothing shop that had some lovely things in the window. Stopped in and found a blouse for me and 2 sweaters for Elise (who continues to need winter clothes). Then quick march back to the train and home. Car was in the station parking lot, unticketed. Life is good.

Settling in

24.9 Woke up this morning with a bad cold. Stayed in bed all day and was very grateful to have Mamma here to run things while I just hibernated. Sadly, without supervision she did something, who knows what, and the washing machine seems to have, er, exploded. Roisin told me who to call for the repair, but he can’t come until Wednesday (today is Monday). Mamma does a load of laundry every day, so this makes her very nervous.

Our neighbors at the back of the house, Claudio and Ornella, lent me books to photocopy while we wait for Rose’s books to come in. Their son, Ricardo, is in first grade and at the moment is effectively in Rosie’s class since she is doing all first grade stuff just now.  I don’t have the books yet because it was only explained to me today that I had to order them myself since they weren’t ordered with the regular class order. This was extra confusing because when I hear “you must order them” that sounds like “you must pay for them.” So I was confused. No, it turns out that I only had to order them; the Comune pays for them. This makes no sense to me, but okay. When I took the books back over I mentioned something about the washer being broken. Seems Claudio is a mechanic of sorts and has some knowledge of these things, so he came over and had a look, but it was more complicated than he could do. However, they did look at Mamma’s “broken” window – the multifunction hinge had come loose at the top and we couldn’t figure out how to reattach it. Claudio showed me how the handle control works. New bit of knowledge for the data banks: do not turn the handle UP. Horizontal or down only. Up releases the hinge.

25.9 Still miserable with cold but errands have to be run, so I went to Salso anyway. Roisin had told me about Acqua e Sapone, a store right behind the Coop – every kind and usage of soap you can think of, plus various housewares, cosmetics, etc. Of course, with all that soap you get LOTS of perfumes floating through the place, gack. It’s pretty overpowering. Still, everything bathroom-y, kitchen-y, and cleaning-y you could want, and generally for a lot less than the market charges, with way more selection. I even found Elise's favorite shampoo!

I managed to find the cartoleria at which to buy Elise’s tech drawing materials. (Have I mentioned how jealous I am that an 8^th grader gets to take tech drawing and I never have? Pooh!) 70E later, ugh. Art supplies am expensive. The excursion not only sapped all my money, it sapped all my energy for the day, so I ended up sleeping for much of afternoon. My only other “excursion” was to Amazon.it to see if they have SPQRisiko. Forty euros including shipping isn’t TOO bad, but I have time. I’ll continue to look in toy stores.

Since I have local friends on FB now, I used FB in Italian to find out where free parking in Fidenza for Firenze trip was. I was, frankly, thrilled at the response, because Francesco and Stefania both described a spot to me that I could actually find all by myself! They offered to pay my ticket if I got one :)

School last week was all short days, so no lunch at school. Today was the first day they stayed till 4, and Elise is of the opinion that 6E is totally fair. Lunch was three courses, pasta, main dish and dessert, and because it’s served by the kitchen ladies to a mere 50 kids, they bring around seconds and even thirds if there’s enough. It’s all fresh cooked on site (microwave? What means this word microwave?) and apparently just delicious. And so way easier than going down to get them, coming up, rushing through lunch, and going back down again. Fine, I’ll pay it.

26.9 Repairman fail. I’m gone first thing in the morning to take the kids to school and OF COURSE he showed up looking for us in the 20 mins that we were gone. Now he can’t come again till Monday. So I bit the bullet and took laundry to the lavanderia in Salso that Vitale recommended. Probably 100E worth, but whatever. Olga, the laundry lady is very nice. Only problem is, it won’t be ready till next Tuesday. Well, if we have to do undies by hand for a day or two we won’t die, and the sun is still pretty hot so things dry fast. Mamma considers it a disaster. I think it’s pretty darned annoying, but disaster? If the house had been rendered uninhabitable by a water main breaking, THAT’s a disaster. This is a bore.

27.9 Ornella came by today and asked if Aurora wanted to come up to the farm in Berzieri, then added, “well, if all of you want to come.” Why would all of us come? Why, to getfresh eggs and raw milk, of course! Lorenzo, Stefania’s dad and Emanuele’s uncle-by-marriage, owns damn near everything we can see. “I have 13 tractors, but only one driver. ME!” There were no eggs in the henhouse, but Lorenzo knew where a secret nest was and pulled up 7 for us! Ornella advised that we boil the milk before drinking it. “I’ve been drinking it all my life, I’m used to it, but maybe you aren’t.” So, in the interests of food safety and whatnot, we boiled it. And what do you make with boiled milk? Best. Hot chocolate. Ever.

Sunny September weekend!

22.9 We decided to investigate Castello Vigoleno, since it’s just a few miles from home, but first, lunch at Trattoria Trinita, as recommended by Roisin and others. Torta fritta! Yummy tiramisu! Pasta with truffle sauce! Delicious, close and not horribly expensive. Clearly the place to take out-of-towners for the nice meal. We had failed to charge all the camera batteries, so only Mamma’s Nikon still worked, but got some excellent pictures. The castles of this area mostly have merlini ghibellini, swallowtail merlons, which announce that castle supports the Ghibellines, or the Holy Roman Empire party. Guelfs are Papal. The tour was in Italian so it was hard to follow all of it (Mamma and Rose declined, but El and I went). The last stop was the castle Church of San Giorgio, a Romanesque building with barely discernible frescoes but a great story about the capitals of the columns in the nave: of the 8 columns, 7 have plain vegetal motifs in the capitals. The eighth (which is the 3^rd one along on the right side) has various carvings of men having sex with geese, other men, and godknowswhat. This is apparently to remind you as you sit in church that you are fallen and sinful and dependent on God’s grace. Who thinks these things up? Nifty architectural detail: the door has two sad little men in the corners of the doorway. They are sad because they’re holding the whole thing up! The front passageway into the castle turns sharply just after you get in past the first portcullis so that the defenders can have ballistae and arrows ready to fire at you as you come unsuspecting around the corner.

23.9 Mamma, Aurora and I went for walk up the hill toward the Besozzola Trattoria, where Angela, the owner, opens when she feels like it and not when she doesn’t. (Sometimes she has a dog obedience show to take her Australian shepherd, Kim, to. Priorities!) Emanuele Berzieri, whom I had met at his cousin Federica’s wedding, was on his way down the hill in his large black BMW, so we chatted for a while and learned that the weird fruits on the tree at the bridge are called nespoli. (I looked these up later. Turns out they are medlars. This was not an improvement. Medlars need to be bletted before you can eat them. Happy now?) We got most of the way to Berzieri before Mamma and Aurora decided they needed to rest, so we decided to go back to the bar and get some water. Emanuele was at the bar when we got there (which struck me as odd given he was going away from it when we ran into him, but he was with friends so maybe they all went back together). He invited us for gelato. Aurora took him up on it; Mamma and I just had water, but he opined that water was insufficient and introduced me to bargnolino, a locally-made liqueur (where do I get this? Here. People make it. Not commercially available), then introduced friends Francesco and Alessandro, and announced pizza party at the communal oven tonight. Seems that once upon a time someone built a pizza oven on a little veranda that doesn’t seem to belong to anyone. It fell to ruins over time. Recently Emanuele, Francesco and Alessandro decided to rebuild it. Tonight was the christening party. I didn’t know what to bring but did have shrooms and onions in the fridge, so I offered to bring those for topping. Stefania, Emanuele’s cousin, who had shown up by this time, was very enthusiastic about the possibility of onions and mushrooms, so that settled it.

However, when the time came, Mamma refused to go. “It’s a family party, we’re not really invited.” I told her that they had told me all the village was invited, as it was a village oven. She still wouldn’t go and was adamant that it would be rude for us to go. So I went alone and had a blast. (Note to self: Alice are anchovies and they are way too salty for humans to eat. Do not accept alice on pizza.) Emanuele and Alessandra wanted to know where Mamma and the girls were. I explained their objections and the boys said, effectively, “Excuse not valid. We will go get them.” So they dragged them all over and everyone ended up having a great time. I am now FB friends with 6 Italians: the three boys, Stefania and Federica Andreoni (Federica is the bride) and their sister-in-law Elisa. (Elise fits right in being called Elisa here – it’s a fairly common name.) Though Mamma thought it was rude to “crash” their party, when the village has a party and you live in the village, the rude thing to do is NOT go. She doesn’t really get this. I’m all for it, myself!

First week of school!

17.9 School starts today. Both girls pretty excited. I am personally completely terrified about leaving my non –Italian speaking babies to the tender mercies of a tiny village school, but it is what it is. There’s a parent-teacher meeting on Wednesday. Mamma and Elise are getting haircuts while I go. I hope my Italian is up to it.

19.9 Actually did some reading for the book today, my English language book about Etruscans. It wasn’t TERRIBLY helpful. Had a look at the Italian language book, sigh, much more material there. But got some notes. It’s a start.

Elise got a beautiful haircut from Elisabetta, the parucchiere, but she came home in an odd mood. I was afraid she didn’t like the cut (it wasn’t exactly what she had described as being what she wanted), but she said no, she loved the cut. She was actually very happy: the other kids in her class had made a small poster for her that said “We’re glad you’re in our class!” and all signed it. SUCH a difference from those horrible kids in Milton.

I spent the afternoon at the parent-teacher meeting. Elise’s teachers are all pretty excited to have her, especially her English teacher, as he doesn’t actually get to teach more than the most basic English; he’s working on getting her some more advanced reading and writing to do, since she can. Not sure how Aurora’s going to do – the teachers are not at all warm and fuzzy, and are not particularly thrilled to have a non-Italian speaker in class, but there it is. I asked about the lunches, since lunch is 6E a day, gack! But it seems they’re not allowed to bring lunch to school – what if the other children got jealous of what is in the home lunch? Dissatisfaction in the ranks, can’t have that. Some kids do, in fact, bring lunch, but they have to leave the school building to eat it!

On Friday we will have our first bellydance lesson.  Delighted beyond measure that we can do this and she will come to us. It’s good exercise and it’s fun (I always want to get my exercise via dance classes, and working at BLS it’s all but impossible to do). A week from Friday we’re going to Florence. It’s only for a long weekend but we’ll get a taste. If the girls like it we can go back. Mark Margolin arrives on 14 October and will take us on tour of Milan, so we’re getting a lot of touring stuff in these days.

I helped E with her Italian homework tonight. She had to read this very weird little story, that as far as we could tell was about Kid A making a horrible joke about Kid B’s newly deceased grandfather, and somehow the two kids become best friends because of it. I remember reading some odd things in English class when I was smaller, but this is uncomfortably weird. “You were cruel to me when I was at my lowest, so now I can’t live without you.” Uh, ewww.

We have really good brown rice and brown rice pilaf here (Tre Cereali, pearl barley, brown rice, and orzo). Tonight I assayed brown rice risotto with onions, carrots and of course lovely fresh parmesan, and it came out pretty well! It helps that the rice is partially pre-cooked. Usually I hate brown rice because it takes forever to cook and then it’s STILL crunchy. This comes out firm and chewy but not crunchy. I foresee shipping many boxes of Integrale and Tre Cereali home.

 21.9 I headed up to Rosetti, the local equivalent of Home Depot and Bed Bath and Beyond combined in one giant building. The clothespins that were here were all old and sun-damaged, and most have already fallen apart, making hanging up laundry more challenging than is strictly necessary. So I have acquired many new clothespins. I also got a new plastic tablecloth for the kitchen, because yesterday Elise made cookies and put the hot sheet onto the table. VZZT! Welcome to the giant hole in the tablecloth. I also increased the population of coat hangers in the house (we have a lot more clothes here than I think the standard summer visitors ever bring), and light bulbs. Roisin has about 15 different types of light bulbs and of course about 6 of them have burned out at this point. She has some replacement bulbs, but naturally not of the ones that are out. Equally naturally, not of the expensive halogen ones. Grrr. However, I did also discover that very cheap gas is right next to Rosetti, so it’s fill the tank whenever I go that way. (1.65E/L as opposed to 1.89E/L here. Not worth going to Alseno just to get gas, but at what works out to over a dollar a gallon cheaper there, ABSOLUTELY worth getting anytime I have to be out in that direction.)

First bellydance lesson today, and it totally rocked. We’re all tired and sore and feel really good about it! Aurora of course is all enthusiasm and no attention span, but Marcella, the teacher, thinks she’s adorable so it’s ok. I’ve ordered us bellydance hip scarves from a vendor in Germany that should be here in a few days, so we can all jingle appropriately. Elise really enjoyed it. It’s a little on the expensive side, so we’re only doing it once every 2 weeks. But dance is my favorite kind of exercise, and this is a good thing for us to do together. Have to keep an eye on the budget, though.

For dinner we had mystery meat. At least, it was a mystery to the girls, and deliberately so, because I am unsure of their reaction to it: it’s horse. I mixed it 50/50 with regular 80% beef because it’s pretty rich. I had one little hamburger of it for myself just to get an unadulterated taste, and it was LOVELY. Made very nice hamburgers. I actually managed to get the grill hot enough to cook things on, so we cooked out. Quite delicious. Yet another grocery item I don’t anticipate seeing in the US. Not quite ready to try horse steaks yet, but they’re cheaper than beef, so maybe sooner than later!

15.9 Parma Palio

As expected, Elise didn’t make it to the Palio. I found parking quickly but discovered that it was 90 minutes only, so we trundled down to where the event was and had a bit of explore before coming back to look for longer term. Happily, the street out of the little lot was one way… right into underground long-term city parking! Yay! Even better, one of the exits came up right at the entrance to the event! So that was handy.

They had an excellent flag tossing team. Can’t tell you why, but I love that stuff. One guy was able to swirl two flags with his hands while hulahooping one around his waist and one around one foot. Crazy. There were numerous demo booth of various medieval crafts. We chatted with the weaver for a little, then went over to look at a woman working a handmill. She asked Aurora if she would like to try. I said, “This is all very appropriate as her last name is Miller too!” Very entertaining. Rose ground very diligently for about 5 minutes and got maybe a tablespoon of flour. Gives you an appreciation for handwork. Rose got to ride on the horses that were being led around the center lawn, while I chatted with man who was herding a group of small medieval farm animals: chickens, ducks, rabbits, miniature goats, a small sheep. He wondered why an American would choose to live in Parma, since it’s not one of the big industrial or economic or even tourist centers and I was forced to correct him. I said, “Well, we don’t live in the CITY of Parma, just in the province. In a village called Besozzola. His response: “Besozzola? Nelle montagne? Sei pazzo?” (In the mountains? Are you crazy?) Ro had her face painted with a pink rose and glitter, and drew the attention of the Parma paper’s “Style Section” (or whatever they may call it here) photographer. I have no idea how to get hold of a Parma paper, but she may well be in it as part of the puff piece on the Palio. It is, after all, an annual event and drew a pretty significant crowd. Who knows, baby may be famous by Monday! I have the photographer’s card and can email him for a copy of the pic, though I also have a bunch I took myself.

14.9 All Dressed Up and Not Going

Since we’ve gone to two medioevale rivivio events now, Elise has been bugging me to make her a T-tunic. Greater love than this hath no mom who can’t sew well, but that she make a T-tunic entirely by hand for her daughter. (Though I can’t take all the credit – Mamma did the side seams. I cut, hemmed, inset underarm gussets, and embroidered.) I had asked the SCA Garb group on fb for help with it, and so posted pictures once it was done. They were very supportive of my effort! Rose wants one now, in lavender, of course. But it’s done in time for her to wear it to the Palio in Parma tomorrow. Not that I think she’s going to – she hasn’t felt good all day, which is unsatisfactory since school finally starts on Monday. But Rosie and I are still planning to go (even though we won’t get to see the actual Palio, the race, since that’s not till Sunday, and I’m just not spending an afternoon out an hour’s drive away on the last day before new school!).

12.9 A good day. Yesterday I was supposed to have a meeting with the school admin to finalize the girls’ registrations. The school department called me and told me to meet them at school at 9:30. Unfortunately, it seems they neglected to mention I needed to be, not at MY school 10 minutes from home, but at THEIR school in Bardi, an hour away. WHAT?! NO. The secretary/custodian at Pellegrino (yeah, it’s a small place, why do you ask) made a bunch of calls and finally figured it out for me. The department person said, not a problem, you can come to Bardi tomorrow. BUT I’M NOT COMING TO @#$%^ BARDI! Happily, it seems the president of the school committee was scheduled to be in Varone today – a mere 25 mins away. This I can manage.

Met with her this morning and got everything finalized. I have to order 80E worth of books for Elise – gack – and that’s not even all of them, but the president said that music and art don’t meet very often and their books are all for 3 years, so it doesn’t make sense to invest. The lit, history and math books, on the other hand, are pretty important. I had a look at the history book, and if I’m going to take the Italian MTEL when I get home, I’ll need it, so that’s no problem. We’ll have to see if we can borrow or photocopy Gabriele’s book as needed.

Was back in Pellegrino by 10. Went to the market and got some gorgeous pluots and plums. Was walking back to my car feeling very satisfied with my morning when I ran into Rosana Berzieri (her son & family live a block from the school). She had invited me up for coffee “sometime” (I hate “sometime” invitations – I never know when to go) and I told her I was hoping to come today. She said absolutely, come at 2. So I motored home, asked the famille if any of them wanting to come calling on the “prince’s” family, and when they said no, I waited impatiently for 2 pm so I could walk up there.

She was making plum preserves when I arrived and informed me that I could not leave until they were ready so she could give me some. Darn, say I. We had a lovely afternoon just chatting about nothings until she needed to take her 2-year-old grandson home. Sadly, the plum preserves had not cooked down enough by then, so I didn’t get any. I did, however, get loads of good flower pictures, some of which are up on the flickr page. And I had my own plums and pluots waiting when I got home!

All in all, an excellent day.

8.9 Another Castle, Another Show

(I'm so behind that I've missed some days. Trying to catch up a little. Will post anything else I have interesting from the previous week if I find it again.)

How did we function before the web? Just cruising around looking at local castles, I discovered that one about 12 miles from here, Castell-Arquato, is having a rivivio medioevale today, a sort of Medieval Life Demo. So we decided to go.

As usual, we asked the redoubtable Anna for directions, and she gave us the shortest there were. As usual, over mountains and along roads that goats would find sketchy. Some amazing views, and at one point we discovered the idea for the next hot reality show: Extreme Agriculture, Italy Edition. We passed a hillside that was not altogether straight down, but close – and it was completely covered in vineyard. I swear the posts for the vines were at a 140 degree angle to the ground. Completely insane.

The event was a pretty big one, on two terraces of a hillside plus an open field across the river, at the bottom of the hill from the eponymous Castello. Archery, falconry, flag tossing, music, a live steel fighting demo (I missed it but Elise got to see it and said it was pretty intense), and a bellydancer. Interestingly enough, the same bellydancer that we saw at the festa in Pellegrino back in August! So after her show we went up to talk to her and tell her we were already fans.

She was very pleased and then said some magic words: “I give private lessons, would you like to learn?” Elise and Aurora were thrilled at the prospect, then immediately horrified that I proposed to have a lesson too. I opined that it was my money and if I didn’t get a lesson, no one did. So we scheduled a lesson for Friday 21.10. Should be fascinating.

One of the vendors there made keychains with little bronze Roman legionary shields and gladiator helmets on them. I bought ten of the things for prezzies back home. BLS friends, don’t read this part :) He also made lovely earrings and charms. Since I bought so many keychains, plus a pair of earrings for Elise, he made Rose and me necklaces with the charms, for free. Very sweet.

We never did get up to the actual castle. The day was pleasant enough but on the warm side, and Mamma tired out quickly. Around 3pm there was a weaving demo for the kids, so we stayed for that but then loaded up to come home. Much to Mamma’s relief, I figured out a less twisty route home – about 30% longer, but mostly straight. She’s not a fan of the mountain shortcuts. Can’t say I am either, but I am perforce getting used to them!

3.9 Yesterday Gabriele and Mathilde appeared in the early afternoon (a gorgeous day after all the rain at the wedding) and hung out to play. It remains odd because no one speaks anything anyone else does, but the four of them managed to work a puzzle for a while then play Uno. Presently Thomas, the boy whose family owns the house next door, appeared and got out his bow and arrow and his Matchbox racer tracks and suddenly everyone had plenty to do! Elise has conceived a passion for archery. Have to see what we can do (if anything) to get her more involved in it. I’ve been working on her tunic for the event in Parma on the 14th but am nowhere near finished yet. The kids had a great time in the end – Thomas is quite the facilitator! It’s too bad he and his family live in Milan. I tried to get Gabriele and Elise to teach each other vocab, but they are hopeless. Aurora’s idea of Italian remains speaking English with a pronounced Italian accent. Appalling, really. Hope I can make her stop before school starts!

 Last night was a bit of an adventure. Thank the Lord for circuit breakers, since I wouldn’t be telling you this otherwise. We have a bunch of American -> Italian electrical adapters. The one in my room was charging my phone. About 11:30pm I went to unplug it to put the more muscular computer adapter in, and the outer plastic came off in my hand. I tried to put the plastic back on so I could get it out of the wall and it bit me, OW, but note, only OW, not DEAD. I tried again to get it out of the wall and there was a BOOM and then there was DARK. And remember, I live in a place without any sort of street lights. It was DARK.

I know where the circuit panel is. But it’s locked. And outside. And has 4 different spots you have to push to make it go. Hell with it, I said, tomorrow morning. Nothing in the freezer will melt by then. Elise mocked me (she was also still up) and we went to bed. At 4 Mamma got up to go to the bathroom and panicked when no lights came on, but went back to bed and managed to go back to sleep.

Me, I got up at 7:30 and went down to find the key to the panel. Found it. Unlocked said panel. Figured out which things to move to reset everything. Did that.

Nothing.

Ok, NOW I’ll consider panicking.

Happily, our neighbor Vitale was already up and dressed at this point (I could see him eating breakfast through his dining room window), so I knocked on the door. (I was delighted to see that he was eating breakfast under a fully-lit chandelier. I had not, as I had feared, knocked out the entire village. Only my house. Whew.) I explained to him as best I could what had happened. He came over and looked at the panel, then said, “Permesso?” (May I?) and went into the house. Turns out, when you pull back the front door curtain, there’s another circuit box behind it, with still more breakers that flip when you decide to blow up your house! He reset them all and POOF! Lights everywhere you look. When I just about fainted with relief, he laughed and said, “Zomtimes it is good to have a man in z’’ouse. Even a zmall one.” Learning! It happens every day!