12 mar

Snow is all gone - been raining nonstop the last few days. My neighbor Ornella is very, very sick. She can't even sit up in the bed for more than a few minutes anymore. It's very scary. She was in the hospital for nearly two weeks.

I’ve decided on Paestum, Salerno and Orvieto over the Easter break, just a day or two in each. I’d thought possibly the spa in Saturno, but they don't let little kids into the pools so we'll skip it. Not fair to Baby not to be able to go (though she couldn’t go much in any event - she sat in the hot jacuzzi at the hotel in Verona for just ten minutes and it made her very woozy).

18 mar

Aurora invited her art teacher, Patrizia, to tea for St Patrick's Day. (Ro is pretty convinced that everyone with any sort of British accent is Irish. I think this is Roisin's fault!) We had a lovely set-up of prosciutto, fresh bread, deviled eggs, and strawberries and cream, with peppermint tea to supply the green. They folded origami shapes while I did a little spinning, and we generally had a groovy time. When it came time for Pat to leave, we saw that it was starting to snow. I was disapproving, but Pat pointed out that it wasn't sticking.

Yet.

A mere 16 hours later, we have nearly 2 feet on the ground and it's still falling. So much for getting groceries today, but it's supposed to go up to 50F tomorrow so I'm sure the roads will be clear then. We have plenty to eat in the house so it's not a real issue, but we'll have to do without milk. Oh well. We have plenty of firewood and stove pellets. I am not concerned. Just bored with snow in March!

I had planned to go to the Questura tomorrow in one last vain attempt to get Rosie's paperwork regularized, but I doubt the streets will be clear early enough for it to be worth the effort (we would have to leave at 6:30 am. I anticipate the roads will be beautifully drivable by 10:30 or so. Not attempting them at 6:30). Ro is of course extra delighted to be off school today, as tomorrow is a local holiday (the feast of St Joseph, Pellegrino's patron saint), so now she has the whole 4 days off.

20 mar

It was snowing when we went to bed Sunday. It was still snowing until mid-afternoon Monday and we had over 60 cms. This morning we got up late and the sun was shining so brightly that I barely had to shovel anything, so much had melted. The plow has been by and the strada is clear and dry. It had to have been at least 15 degrees (59 F) today, probably warmer in the sun.

Aurora and I walked up to Berzieri and ran into Rosana (Farolsi) and Giancarlo, who took us to see their rabbits, gave us 4 fresh-out-of-the-chicken eggs, and let us borrow their sled for the day! (Well, we can keep it as long as we're here, but I don't think it'll be useful after today.) So when we got home, Aurora went sledding for a while, then I made us the world's most marvelous scrambled eggs. They weren't even yellow. They were orange. I fantasize about being able to keep chickens and have eggs this good all the time. I even turned the heat off during the day, as it was just too warm in the house!

Tomorrow it's back to school, and it's supposed to rain buckets, ugh, but at least it will take down the rest of the snow. Rose and I spent our snow day yesterday doing origami -- she has Elise's book, but there aren't many patterns in it and some of them are very poorly explained, so we went out to the web and found really a gazillion different things to fold. We have four different kinds of origami hearts!

Hoping to get to Parma next week for one last try at the permesso. If it doesn't go through this time, I'm giving up. Hell, it's only 4 more months at this point -- I'm only at all interested in doing it to prevent Rose's passport from getting a black mark on it, but given that Elise seems to have sailed through with no problem, it may not be worth the effort. Still considering.

22.3

I have a bad cold and am going to bed. Had to cancel my party tomorrow night -- just can't manage it.

Stopped by to visit Ornella this afternoon -- she seemed better, and was able to sit up in the bed and talk for a while. We are hoping she will continue to improve. Her cat will be having kittens soon so we may get to see that. I asked her why they don’t neuter all their animals, since they keep getting more kittens and puppies. Her horrified response: “But if we neuter them, we won’t get any more kittens or puppies!” Well, all righty then.

Beautiful days these past two -- supposed to rain and be cold again this weekend, just what my cold and I need. Was able to do laundry and hang it out instead of relying on the pellet stove.

Not much else going on -- looking forward to our trip to Magna Graecia (the Greek part of southern Italy) after Easter.

Time for Nyquil and bed!

25.3

What the hell, snow? It’s been warm out. It’s been sunny out. It’s clearly been TRYING to be, y’know, Mediterranean out. And now more snow? I mean, it’s not a ton compared to previous dumps – barely six inches – but really? Can we stop now? I want real spring! You keep freezing all my wildflowers!

Update: ok, it is now 2 pm and the snow is all gone. The plow didn’t even come all the way up the hill. But still. Feeling resentful.

27.3

Weather has continued gray and gloomy and that damp cold that feels so much colder than it really is. However, we are headed for warmer climes soon. Aurora and I will be leaving Monday early to go south to Paestum and Salerno, which are south of Naples, thence to Orvieto, just a little north of Rome. Paestum is one of the best preserved sites of Magna Graecia, the section of southern Italy that was almost completely colonized by Greeks by the 7^th c BCE and not fully taken over by the Romans until the 2^nd c BCE. It was this area of Greek culture that brought writing to the Italian peninsula. Paestum in ancient days wasn't THAT big of a deal -- places like Naples and Tarrentum were much more important -- but probably precisely because it was less important, it changed less over the years and was abandoned in the early medieval period, so it hasn't been built over/around/through like others have. It's actually in better shape than many sites on the Greek mainland, and certainly this part of Italy had more Greeks in it than Greece did -- I can nearly truthfully say I've been to Greece by going there!

After Greeks in Paestum we'll be going to visit one last group of Etruscans in Orvieto, and to see the striped cathedral. The first time I saw the striped cathedral ten years ago I thought it was ugly, but it's grown on me, so I'll have lots of pictures of that. Also, Orvieto is where I got my little Italica ware milk jug, and I really want to get a few more pieces to match it. Most of the ceramics produced in Orvieto are the “classic” bright yellow and deep blue, but the one I have is green and white. They're harder to find. We'll see.

We're having Easter dinner with Ornella and her family. She is well enough now to sit up at the table and eat, but certainly not well enough to cook dinner. I'll do everything here and then carry it over there (her oven doesn't work). I've ordered my lamb roast and will pick it up from the butcher on Friday afternoon. I'm going to do the roast with a blackberry gastrique sauce, polenta, salad, and chocolate bunny cake for dessert.

Rose has invited friends over for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Not sure yet if the Friday and Saturday friends can come, but likely to be lots of little girls running around loose for the next few days. Meanwhile I'm cleaning up and getting ready to leave -- our train goes at 9 am Monday so we have to be out of the house by 7:45 to be sure of getting it. Happily we only have to change once, in Bologna -- the Frecciarossa (fast train) goes straight from Bologna to Salerno, the closest real city to Paestum, in just 4 hours, so it'll be an easy trip. Charging up all those electronics to keep us entertained!