SOME THINGS ARE THE SAME NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE

I realize that most of my recent posts could have been written by someone living in Italy or in Indiana. There just doesn’t seem to have been much uniquely Italian about our lives lately, but maybe it’s just the season. Of course it’s Lent, and here in Italy, that fact may have more impact on the day to day life of it’s citizens than it does in the states. Lent is a somber time for Catholics, a time of reflection and preparation, a time of penance and denial, so it’s only natural that there aren’t many activities scheduled…at least outside of church.

It’s also still winter. Although we’ve been fortunate to have a fairly mild winter, it’s still winter. There are plenty of gray days when the wind blows and just looking out the window can make you reach for another sweater. Occasional sunny days are so welcome that each time we have more than one day of sunshine we start to wonder if spring is really on the way.

But it IS still winter, so we’ve spent more than a few days snuggled in, watching movies, eating something warm and comforting, just enjoying the season….not much differently than what many of you in the states are doing. Let’s face it: there’s not much else to do during this time of year! It’s too cold to work in the garden, even though we see the crocuses and daffodils starting to bloom. It’s still too wet to be outside a lot, but we all know that this rain will help everything burst into bloom after the first few sunny warm days. And so for right now, being in Italy doesn’t feel a whole lot different than being in the states for us. But of course we are in Italy, and I’ll just keep writing about whatever we’re doing. Eventually the weather will break, Easter will arrive, and we’ll start getting out more, enjoying whatever activities we hear about. Hopefully some of those activities will have a uniquely Italian twist. Until then, bear with me.

We saw a few flakes of snow fluttering down the other day, then noticed, way off in the distance, that the mountains had gotten a dusting too…