Fog

Fog. This is a foggy winter, not too cold, but with often a dull grey sky.

Typical parking sign

Typical sign that indicates when and how you can park in this place. In this case, from Monday to Saturday from 8 AM to 8 PM, you must show at what time you have arrived with your parking disc and you may stay only 30 minutes. It is free (costless). On Sunday, no rules and you can park how long you want to!

Natural power

Fuel and gasoline in Italy cost a lot. Alternatives to fuel are LPG and methane. My car runs with both unleaded fuel and methane: it uses fuel to start and immediately ti switches automatically to methane. When methane is finished (I run about 350 km with full gas bottles), it automatically switches back to unleaded fuel (another 350 km). I usually try not to use fuel: a full tank of fuel costs me abotu 55 euros, while a full supply of methane gas costs me 22 euros...In this picture, my car, a FIAT Multipla, is at the methane station.

Security through video

This sign says that in the town of Concordia Sagittaria that area is being video watched; this happens more and more often in our towns and cities, and many times authors of car accidents (that run away), thefts and robberies have been caught thanks to these kind of videos.

Does this happen in your country too?

Allied with me

My pressure cooker at work: a big help, my ally! Thanks to it, I cook for the family in half the time normally required.

This kind of pot is used normally in Italian cuisine. Do you use it?

From the 6th January on

Traditionally, sales start after the 6th of January in all Italy. But in the last years, while officially they do start in that date, shops anticipate and make strong discounts also before: sign of the (hard) times.

Natural heating

Almost all houses here have heating based on methane gas, but often they also have an open fireplace or a stove. This is why you see firewood stacked up in almost every backyard (this one is ours).

What remains (III)

Super empty parking lot at the biggest shopping center we have here near by: empty after the big Christmas rush.

We want the sun!

It keeps raining. And when it stops, there comes the fog. It's time for some sun!

What remains (II)

What remains after the Christmas period?...a Santa still climbing the wall, but he lost his hat in the effort!

What remains (I)

This is leftover from this long period of Christmas' and New Year's days...a switched off sign saying "wishes".

Ice, ice

We live in the countryside. Along every road, before the grass fields waiting for the next season, runs a ditch, that fills up with water when it rains preventing flooding. Now all the water is frozen.

One coin a day

Three children, three piggy banks. Every evening, daddy gives each kid a coin (one euro cent, 5 euro cents!) and they run to put it in their one.

A frozen drop

This winter hasn't been very cold up to now. The coldest days never went under -3°C (26°F) and we did have some snow, but it melted away pretty fast. Anyway, in some places ice doesn't melt away...as the drop falling from this faucet in the garden.

It's cold...for everyone

It's cold. Looking out of the window, I see a robin hopping closer and closer to the house...till it stops on some cable that lies there outside. I can almost seeing him (or her?) smiling to me!

In Italian, this bird is called pettirosso, that literally means red chest...nice name, don't you think?

New Year...time for a new start

Happy New Year. And Happy New Start! I'm back again after a long time. Now happily mother of three (ages 7, 5 and 2), I might say busily mother of three, I still keep taking lots of pictures...so I really feel as coming back to my blog.

To start, a picture taken yesterday evening. The night before Epiphany (today, 6th January) traditionally the casera is being burn on the river. A very tall stack of wood and hay is put at the center of the river Lemene (on floating metal barrels) and is given fire. According to how the smoke and sparks move, elder people make a prevision on how the harvest will be in summer.