Lest We Forget

Lest We Forget

Originally uploaded by Kristi Maurer

Today is Remembrance Day in Canada, but I think it doesn’t really matter where you are in the world or what country you are from, it is a day to rememeber the people who have given their lives…in ALL the wars.
Under the photograph is a poem written by John McCrae, a Canadian soldier and doctor in WWI. I remember learning this in elementary school. I still think it is one of the most beautiful pieces written.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

The Big 2000

I was just looking at my blog stats today and realized that my blog has been viewed 2000 times. Now I know that’s not a lot for many people but considering that I’ve only been up for a few months and have done very little to promote myself, I am pretty happy – so THANK YOU to all my readers!! You’ve made me very happy on this gloomy Monday morning!

 

 

The Crisp Autumn Air

This morning I heading out the door into the sunshine and stopped. I was amazed – I could see my breath! I could feel the tingling sensation along my cheeks as the cold air bit into them, and what’s more, in the shady areas I saw frost!

Autumn has finally arrived! It has been along time coming…we’ve been having a lot of warm weather recently with only one week of cold rain then, back to the heat. Incredible, I have hardly had to turn the heat on, but I have a feeling I’ll be doing that tonight. How wonderful.

At last!! Autumn has come! And maybe, just maybe, we might see some snow again this year

I Morti

Today is the Day of the Dead. In this period, Italians travel all over the country visiting their beloved dead. Some travel from one end to the other, just to clean up and put flowers on the graves of deceased friends and family. It is an interesting time of year, where going to the cemetary is not so sad after all. All the graves are covered in colourful flowers, and there are people everywhere. 

You’d think that these people would be sad and that maybe celebrating the dead is a bit morbid, but I think it is a nice thing. Often when people die, they only remain in the hearts of those who remember them, and, even with the best of intentions, sometimes get put aside in the daily battle of life. But on one day, everyone rememebers the dead, and does something to tell them that no, they have not been forgotten afterall.

It is a tradition that is not practiced in Canada, and it’s a shame.  So, I think I will take the time to remember the dead, even though many of my readers don’t know who they are: Zio Guido, Monica, Armando and my Dad. You are all in my thoughts, sempre.

This is Halloween…

Nightmare before Christmas Zero cake

Originally uploaded by debbiedoescakes

Halloween approaches, and besides my yearly craving for The Nightmare Before Christmas, I’m really seeing it happen here in Italy this year.

Halloween is not an Italian tradition, they usually dress up for Carnival in February/March. It has been imported over the years and is considered by many an “Americanism” and to be avoided, but children still like the idea of dressing up any time of the year, and many parents have given in.

This year, for the first time I was able to buy an AFFORDABLE pumpkin in the local supermarket, and Italians are actually excited about dressing up and coming to our Halloween party (amazingly enough, even Andrea is making an effort this year!).

A collegue of mine at work brought a book on how to make Halloween crafts written in Italian and the few costume stores in Italy are chock full of people. I even heard a few people talking about taking their kids trick-or-treating.

It makes me feel like Fall is really here for once, even if it is still 20 degrees outside!

Genova

On Saturday, I went to see the film GENOVA. It is an independent UK produced film about a family suffering a tragic loss and the father’s (Colin Firth) decision to move to Genova, of all places!

I enjoyed the film a lot. It was dramatic, but I enjoyed the imagery and the way Genoa was depicted. It was a much more realistic version of the city and of Italy than others I have seen. The family moves into the Vicoli (where I have also lived, actually my street was filmed multiple times!!), and you can see the decaying opulence that is all over Genoa. It is a beautiful city but you can see it’s been abandoned and left to its own devices. Strangely, Genoa is a perfect reflection of Italy.

If you can find a cinema that plays indie films or a video store that will sell the DVD I highly reccommend it.

Soccer Fever

Italy is famous for many things – food, art, history, the Mafia and a certain obsession with soccer. I never took it seriously before moving here. When I thought of soccer I thought of South America or of England, but Italy just didn’t rate on my soccer scale – when I thought about it at all. But now it has become a constant presence in my life. There is no escaping it – ever.

When you turn on the news, it’s there, when you open the newspaper, there is an entire section dedicated to sports, no sorry I meant soccer. Let’s not forget the distinctive pink  La Gazzetta dello Sport, which talks about…you guessed it! Soccer!

People here live and breathe soccer. They are “born” into soccer teams, which they stick to like glue to for the rest of their lives. They harass and cajole each other about them at work or on holiday, no matter where in the world they are, and sometimes, when things don’t go their way they are willing to beat each other up and battle with the police, sometimes, risking death. Some policemen have lost their lives, and so have some fans.

A couple years back, I was home in Mission and I thought I had escaped the Italian soccer phenomenon for a few weeks at least, but I was wrong. Shortly before I had left Genoa, one of the city teamed, had been promoted to Serie A (the highest level – qualification for World and European Leagues), and the city celebrated. While I was home, apparently a scandal broke out and it came out the the match had been bought – so instead of punishing the people who had exchanged the money (that isn’t done here) the whole team was punished and sent into Serie C1 (two levels down). I was sitting on my couch in Mission with a friend of mine and we turned on the news, the announcer says, “And now news from Genova, Italy”. My ears perk up and I raise the volume as images of flaming cars and garbage bins flickered across the screen. Reason: the team’s “unjust punishment”. My friend looked at me and raised an eyebrow - I shrugged my shoulders.

Every weekend, there are matches, and sometimes every second Wednesday (as of this year, even Thursdays!). I work downtown and live after the stadium. There is only one way home – blocked by traffic every time. After a long days’ work all you want to do is get home, not wait for an hour in a line while the soccer fans walk in the middle of the road singing songs and waving their flags.

But the most amazing thing happened to me this weekend: I took the car to go for dinner at a friend’s who lives downtown. I calculated the times very carefully to make it at a time when most of the fans would already be in the stadium, and not on the road. Traffic wasn’t so bad and I was already proud of my perfect calculation when I heard sirens blaring behind me – blue sirens: the Carabinieri. Me and the other hundred cars try and get to the right as much as possible and the car passes – I start to go back into my lane and hear a bus honking at me furiously – I let it pass and it races to catch up to the Carabinieri. On the side was written GENOA. The players were late for the game, and it was clearly an emergency since they were escorted. Indeed it was a matter of life or death, was it not? I sent out a lot of bad vibes (what a waste of resources!). They worked: the final score: Genoa 0, Inter 5.

In Which I Ramble

Hi everyone. Sorry I have been AWOL for the last few days, but I managed to get myself a really bad cold. So much so that I spent the last week in bed, reading and watching old Star Trek reruns and a Lord of the Rings marathon worthy of the best of them.

But now I am back…sort of. I have returned to work and am still coughing every, say thrity, thrity-five seconds or so. But other than that, all is well and should return to normal.

I am sure I will be posting some tasty new complaints regarding the buses (Guess what? While I was sick, they went on strike…AGAIN!), bureaucrats and other such interesting Italian every day living. I might also be posting some nice things about Italy…you never know (that should  keep you on the edge of your seats!).

I have also noticed, that since I locked myself up in the Ivory Tower, summer has disappeared and fall has finally come to take its place (I know, it’s almost November people, just in Genoa summer lasts longer ), and that makes me happy and sad at the same time. Each season has its beautiful aspects, but I am always sad when it changes, because, although I am looking forward to brisk temperatures and the occasional thunderstorm, I am also sad to have to pull out the first sweaters of the season.

Oh well, one good thing is that Hallowe’en is coming, and I get to dress up. This is always good!

Well, I do believe I have rambled sufficiently about nothing and everything at once. Oh I have made a 2010 Calendar, and it is available on my Zazzle store..just in case you are interested!

Don’t Touch that Pencil!

This morning saw me amazed and confused…As per usual I was on the bus coming to work and the ticket checkers came on to check tickets. I dutifully pulled out my monthly bus pass and the checker looked at it, and exclaimed incredulously, “But this is written in PENCIL!!” My answer, “Yes, when I asked the salesman for a pen this was all he had, so rather than leave it blank I wrote my name and the month in pencil.” It seemed logical to me. The conversation, however, did not end there and continued thusly:

CHECKER [ haughtily]: “Well, I could give you a fine for this!”

ME [heat rising to my face]: “Why exactly, what is wrong with it? This is my name and the month is the same as the month stamped on the validated end of the ticket.”

CHECKER: “It doesn’t prove anything! They are two different things. This could be someone else’s pass!”

ME [very ticked off now, and holding myself back]:  “It could be someone else’s pass even if it was written in pen, you never ask for ID when you check the bus passes, I could have taken it from anyone, pen or pencil.”

CHECKER [flustered]: “It’s not the same!” [clearly his little bureaucratic brain could not make this logical conclusion] “I should give you the fine!”

ME [utterly furious and seriously tempted to punch his little face]: “Here is my ID card, to prove I am the same person, go ahead and give me the fine but I refuse to pay it and will challenge it on the grounds of being illogical.”

CHECKER [grabs card, and compares data - impeccably correct] “Fine but write it in pen as soon as you can.”

ME [satisfied]: “As soon as I get to the office I will.”

I was furious for over two hours. I spend €36.00 a month for those bus passes and at least once a month I also spend an additional €15.00 on a taxi to get to work since the bus people are on strike. And the peabrain harasses me because all I had was a pencil? I mean seriously, if I wanted to cheat them I wouldn’t have offered my bus pass. When the guy asked if I had been checked already, I could have simply said NO. The simpleton did not quite get that however…oh well the moral of this story is: STAY AWAY FROM PENCILS!

Lago Maggiore

Last weekend my fiancé took me to my birthday gift – a weekend trip to Lago Maggiore! It was amazing. Believe it or not, I have never seen any of the lakes before so this was a completely new experience for me and it was a wonderful one too.

After a two hour drive and a close call with rain, we got to Intra and got lost trying to find our B&B. After asking multiple people we found the B&B and checked in. It is a cute little place tucked in between the trees and close to a little brook, which gurgled all through the night and helped me sleep wonderfully.

After checking in, we ran to the Imbarcadero and jumped onto the ferry at the last second…and our exploration of the Isole Borromeo began. The Isole Borromeo are three islands that used to belong to the Borromeo family and have now become incredible tourist attractions.

Our first stop was Isola Madre – Mother Island – and mother she was – of botanical gardens. Poor Andrea suffered through my multiple ooos and ahhhhs for the entire day. The entire Isola Madre is a giant botanical garden, and must be visited in every season I think…spring, summer and fall (all the islands “close” in October) each season has its flowers. I was in hibiscus season…there were so many different colours and sizes. There was also an aviary with a lot of different types of birds, including peacocks and golden pheasants. The villa itself was beautiful, and there was this one room with vines painted all along the walls (it’s a shame that no photos were allowed ).

We then took the ferry to Isola Bella, another lovely place, with a small town surrounding the villa (much more majestic than the one on Isola Madre). We explored the villa, which at first seemed like one of the many villas of the Italian nobility: rich, majestic, more or less the same….until we got to the “basement”. It had a whole “under the sea” theme and the walls were made to look like you were in a sea cavern. Absolutely amazing!

This “basement” then opened out to the garden, which continued the under-the-sea theme. Here too were many white peacocks; these ones were more domesticated than the ones on Isola Madre, so much so that they even begged for food!

Our next stop was Isola dei Pescatori, which as its name suggests was an island of fishermen, and as such had lots of little houses all stacked on top of each other, and CATS! Lots of cats, one in particular happened to fall in love with Andrea, and spent over half an hour being pet by him.

After our mini exploration of the island, we took the last ferry back to the mainland and sought out a place for dinner. Wandering the vicoli, we found a small Osteria, and stuffed ourselves with lake fish and the mysterious sorbet flambé. Yum!

The next morning saw us in Stresa and Villa Pallavicino – another Villa turned….zoo! yes! It was chock full of interesting animals like Tibetan goats, lopopu (bird), llamas, fallow deer, Nandù, beavers(!!!), prarie dogs, birds of about a million different types, zebras and much more (including copulating dragonflies…I kid you not, I guess it was the season!).

All in all a wonderful experience, with wonderful weather, and especially wonderful company!