Urban Forests, Snow shoes and “Newphews”!

Buongiorno!!!

Well it’s been ages since I’ve written so in addition to buongiorno, I’ll wish you all a very Happy New Year too and I hope for those that celebrate it, you had a great Christmas!

So what’s new here? I had a good Christmas break. I was back in Blighty (I don’t know why England has that nickname?!) for three weeks or so. My favourite things about being back were as follows:

• Seeing family and friends. It was one of my longest stints away so I was ready to go back for a visit.
• Acquisition of a new nephew, a “newphew“ if you will 🙂  He’s less than a fortnight old and he’s my first nephew. I painted a mural for his bedroom which was good fun and very therapeutic.
• Pubs, like proper pubs where I can drink…
• Cider. Why doesn’t Italy have cider?!?!
• English food and by that I mean, culturally diverse food! I’ve had various pub meals (goodness, it sounds like I’m obsessed, I’m really not!), an English breakfast, pie and chips and tacos.

But I did miss Italy. The things I missed most were:

• My friends, neighbours, my cat and the house. Poor Batfink the cat must be used to me going away for long stints by now. Still, he gets the run of the house when I’m away as my neighbour lets him in.
• The weather. When Italy has horrible weather, it’s proper horrible weather and then it goes. When England has horrible weather, it’s horrible for weeks at a time. So even though it’s warmer in the UK, I do not know how anyone can maintain a cheery disposition in what is otherwise a sea of oppressive grey drizzle or unrelenting rain. In fact, the poor North has had some horrible flooding this year.
• Italian festivities… I literally missed them. One Christmas, I would like to experience the culture and traditions here.  They have “presepe” (nativity scenes) in many towns which they put a lot of effort into doing, sometimes using live people. I did get to one cool event before I left though – “Il Bosco Urbino” (The Urban Forest) at San Severino, a local town which I must revisit when it’s daylight as it looks lovely. Il Bosco Urbino consisted of dozens of Christmas trees all lit up in the main piazza which you could wander around and then strings of lights hanging from above. It was lovely. It was also very quaint but impressively so!

This is il Bosco Urbano in San Severino. See how pretty it is?!

I also missed the scenery. A week or so before I came back I went on a guided “ciaspolata”, a snow-shoeing event in the mountains not very far away from my house at all. There’s lots of these events about. If you’re interested check out: Sibillini Web 

Hare tracks… I call this photo “Here Hare Here” and I will give top marks for anyone who knows where that title comes (you’re not allowed to cheat!)

Beautiful scenery…

Part of our Ciaspolata group

And these are the snow shoes. Not at all as I was expecting. I suspect the tennis racket model that I had in mind is a bit out of date!

Anyway, I am now back in my beautiful Sarnano and I have a hundred and one things I want to be getting on with. I shall no doubt be reporting back with progress!

Meanwhile, I hope you’re all having a good January!

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