Snow & Chocolate

I was thinking last night while I couldn’t go to sleep… last year when I got home from Florence I was sleeping one night and suddenly in the morning I was awoken.  My immediate response was ‘What the f*%k is that noise?!?’ I came to realize that it was nature outside my window- birds and crickets.  I had gotten used to the sound of cars and scooters buzzing in the street below along and occasionally my rude neighbor that enjoyed the late night phone call and sharing the conversation with the neighborhood by  standing in the street while talking, but birds and crickets I hadn’t heard in over 6 months.  Where on earth did this come from you ask.. well I may live in the country here-- it smelled like cows this morning when I went out side, but there aren’t birds chirping in the morning or crickets talking all night (thank God).  There is a rooster that i occasionally hear in the afternoon (I think he might be from the States and still hasn’t grown accustomed to the time difference), but at night it is silent except for the very random car driving by.  It’s kind of strange… so I came to the realization I am ok with traffic noise or no noise.

Mattia playing with my luggage stickers

Wow all of that and I haven’t even told you what I have been up to.  I left last time ending with my trip to Florence.  I will skip a couple of days.  Saturday the 14th Mattia and I spent most of the day together playing.  He has gotten in a pretty good habit of taking a nap.. oh excuse me .. going camping after his afternoon cartoons.  Camping seemed like a much better way to take a nap in the afternoon.  We climb in his igloo and bundle up on pillows and under blankets and sometimes tell stories or just lay there until finally he falls asleep and I am about to.  Since there are several other things occupying space in the igloo I generally am only half of the way inside and with the sheet over the top to make a door over the front i think it is a pretty strange sight from anyone coming into the house.

The ski lift, lights for night skiing, and the snowy mountain. - Mattia trying on a new hat at the store

On Sunday we went to PratoNevoso - the ski instructors went skiing for some photos for the website.  It was fun to see the villages.  We went to Gian’s parent’s for lunch (they have a tiny flat above the shop in Prato for the winter)-- lunch was great and I saved the garlic.  Apparently none one likes to eat cooked garlic so they keep it in whole cloves and just take it out of the dish when they are serving.  They eat it raw, which I have never tried, but not cooked..  so it works out well b/c I don’t have to share! 

The fog in PratoNevoso. - A very happy 'juice box' for grownups!- espresso and chocolate with a straw

Monday I took a walk into town since sadly hadn’t been before.  Cute and tiny- most shops were closed b/c it was Monday but I got to take a few photos.

ivy on the wall in beautiful fall colors. - I really like this door/balcony- both from my walk into town

Tuesday I finished the hat I was knitting- it’s too small, but it looks good!  At least now I know I can knit a hat.  Simona took me to a yarn shop in Mondovi so that I could get some supplies for my next project.  (this next portion of the story is taken from another message I sent please bare with me) I had the most awful time at the yarn shop. I didn’t know all of the words but tried to use the ones that I did know and pointing. Well the lady apparently didn't appreciate me trying. A girl walked in and she was like 'you know some english right? this girl only speaks english and I can't understand her.' I only used like 2 english words while I was in there and I understood exactly what she was telling everyone else! Which is how I can tell you what she said. So I tried to talk to her again and by now I am nervous then another lady comes in and she asks her if she can help b/c she took an english class once. Ok if you take an english class you probably didn't learn knitting terms if you did then I would probably know them in Italian by now and we wouldn't be in this mess!!!! Finally after I got my needles (which i don't need half of them now and the other isn't quite right which I told her I needed a longer circle needle but she didn't believe me) I asked about some cotton yarn and asked in Italian.. she showed me where it was but it was behind the counter so I didn't think I could go back there. She went to help someone else. I just bought some wool/lama yarn instead.  Next time I will take a list with me and make sure everything is right in advance.  It was good for me to try.  The lady at the pharmacy the day before was much more helpful- patient and understanding.  Oh well everyone is different. 

beautiful mounds of chocolate and all the wonderful flavor-creamy goodness but at a discounted price!

Wednesday I went to a wonderful place called Mondovicino-- vicino= close, Modovi is a the town near by and this place is near Modovi.  Also if you don’t know that it is near Mondovi- mondo= world so the world is close.  The place is a shopping outlet!  Very clever people made the name I think although they had a good base to start with.  They have all kinds of shops (not high end designers but that is fine b/c this is more affordable), nike, puma, bialetti, lindt!, and many more.  There were piles PILES of chocolate in the Lindt shop-- don’t worry I included a photo for your enjoyment.  OO speaking of chocolate we now have a 5 kilo jar of Nutella, that equals about 11 pounds of chocolately goodness.  The date on the top says we have less than a year to eat all of it but I was told that it won’t be a problem. 

5 kilos of Nutella- please keep in mind that the fork is the average adult size and I think the jar looks smaller on here.

The lifts at in Prato opened this weekend so I picked up Mattia from school yesterday and we walked home (he wanted to walk!! we were offered a ride from a friend going in our direction)-- we talked about how it smelled like cows, and there was a big tractor that drove by, and we made sure to stand really close to the buildings when a car came near.  It was a good walk.  While he was camping Simona’s parents got here-- they are helping out this weekend since she and Gian are busy with work-- opening weekend means Prato goes from 30 people to probably a few hundred… I hear it gets into the thousands during the holidays.  Anyway they brought focaccia from Genova (since that’s where the good stuff is) which made me quite happy!
Thanksgiving is this coming week and it generally isn’t celebrated here for obvious reasons.  I actually am not a big fan of Thanksgiving dinner- I like the theatrics that go along with it (from the family all being together) a bit more.  I am, however, going to try to bake an apple pie.  I really hope it works-- it’s my favorite part of the meal anyway.  OH… humm I got called away and now I have forgotten what I was going to say.  What are your holiday plans?  Anyone have a favorite dish they want to share?  I hope this finds you doing well and I love hearing from all of you!