Umm..spring time is back

Why could my birthday not have been today? It was 20 degrees and I even enjoyed my breakfast sitting outside on the balcony! The weather here really has got to make up its mind, but I hope, really, really hope that the cold, nasty wintry weather doesn't come back. I am not used to winter. This is my first full winter in...I can't remember how many years.

For half of last winter bel fidanzato and I were in Australia enjoying half a summer. The winter before I was also in Australia for half a summer, and then I went to visit bel fidanzato in the warm Canary Islands. The winter before saw me working in Portugal which was not cold at all. The year before that bel fidanzato and I exchanged winter for yet another Australian summer. The year before that I think was a full winter, and a British winter at that. Well, almost a full winter. I hadn't moved to Italy yet, was living in London and did fly back to Australia for my twin sisters wedding before moving to live in Italy, but I would say that I experienced a full winter. That was the European winter of 2005/2006. So yes, it has been a long time since I've had an entire winter and I am not at all used to it...it's going to take me some time to get used to these cold European winters. All I can say is thank god I live in Calabria, in the south of Italy where at least we have random 20 degree days thrown into the equation.

A frozen birthday

Yesterday my twin and I turned 32. Whilst she was enjoying a glass a champagne in the 24 degree, Australian summer weather, I was freezing - literally - in the sub-zero temperatures of snow covered Malito.



I have never been so cold in my entire life, I couldn't get warm all day. It didn't help that we were without water - and still are. Bel fidanzato and I are the only people in the entire village without water. When we moved into our apartment, the comune had to give us an independent water supply by attaching some tubes to the internal water system and link it up to our house. We live quite high up in the village, by a church. To reach our apartment you have to walk up a rather steep incline. See that church in the centre of the photo? Well - we live right up there.

The tubes that bring water to our apartment are above the ground and therefore frozen. The tubes should be 40cm under ground so that they don't freeze, but they aren't and the comune has no money to pay for the work which will be quite a big job, given the location of our place, and the length of the tubes which loop all the way from ground level, up around the back of the church. So now, we just have to wait for the sun to shine, for the water to flow once more and in the mean time we will continue to live like those many years ago - collecting buckets full of snow to use as the toilet flush, and going to the fountains to fill our bottles of water (and going to the in-laws if we want to have a shower!)

It's nice sitting by the open fire whilst your partner cooks you a romantic dinner, but I must say that I prefer a summer birthday!

12 days of Christmas - Malito style

Last Tuesday it was 24 degrees...today it is snowing in Malito. There was even a little snow in Cosenza which is most odd.

Christmas time is full of superstition and tradition, especially here in the south of Italy. I used to think that 'the 12 days of Christmas' was just a song, but bel fidanzato told me that people here say the 12 days of Christmas are a forecast of the weather for the following year. The 13th of December (yesterday) is representative of January, today - February, tomorrow March and so forth. Today snow came to Calabria and driving home at 4.30pm it was already -1 degree, so according to superstition February will be a cold month with a little bit of snow. Apparently last year the 24th of December was quite warm and sunny here in Calabria and that goes to prove this superstition true, since last week we had 4 days or so of unusual, warm, sunny weather.

I am not sure if this weather prediction tradition comes from Malito, Calabria or other parts of Italy. I couldn't find any information on the internet about this, and I have never heard of it before so perhaps it is just a tradition of these parts? If you have heard of this before then please let me know. Here's to hoping that tomorrow or should I say March, brings us better weather.

Autumn in Italy

Crisp days, blue skies, the trees are shedding their leaves dusting the ground in brilliant shades of gold and red. Autumn has arrived in Italy and you can really see it when you live in the mountains. The smell of fireplaces burning fills the small, near deserted streets of Malito. The population here has dropped, all of the summer residents have returned to Rome, Milan, or the nearby city of Cosenza.

Autumn in Calabria, in Italy, is not always a beautiful thing. When the skies aren't blue, they are grey with fierce storm clouds showering us in torrents of non-stop rain. When it rains in Italy, it really rains. At the beginning of the week, the streets of Cosenza had been turned into dirty rivers that reached halfway up the car. I wished I had a 4 wheel drive. I was scared my car was going to conk out with the amount of water I was driving through. I had left bel fidaznato at work and was on my way to the hospital for some blood tests and my diabetes visit. I made it, in one very wet piece. But autumn being autumn meant the next day was hot once again and the road/rivers were a thing of the past.

Lately I have been busy with working a few days, my never ending visits to the hospital, meetings with bilingual priests and buying things for the baby. My diabetes can no longer be controlled by diet, so I have started on insulin which was to be expected. We are at the 7 month mark now, and on Monday I have another ultrasound appointment to check babies growth. He's not ready to come yet though and I am sure this time next autumn he'll be crawling around trying to eat all of the fallen leaves...I can't wait!

Winter again...

Winter has returned to Malito - snow and all. A freezing wind blew through the village last night and we woke up to a soft layer of snow covering Malito and the surrounding countryside. I was meant to start a temporary work project today at a local school, but it was closed due to the horrible weather conditions!

Snow snow go away

Work was cancelled on Saturday due to excessive amounts of snow trapping people in their towns. The roads had frozen over around here, and unless you had a 4x4 then you were not going to get very far. Luckily for us bel fidanzato's cousin has such a car, so he took us for a drive up further into the mountains. It was cold, freezing actually but so, so pretty!






The snow has finally stopped falling here in Malito, although there is still a lot of snow in the village. Yesterday we feared that the snow would never end as a freak snowstorm started as we were transporting wood from the car to the apartment. Our apartment is up near one of the old churches so we cannot park the car out the front. Sometimes bel fidanzato can drive up and leave the car briefly behind the church, but the road up is not a real road and it's steep so was covered with ice and snow.

Whilst it was snowing down freezing cold pellets of ice, I was standing by the car, with my feet ankle deep in icy, cold, melting snow, holding a giant umbrella with one hand, and trying to load wood into a box with the other. It was windy, the wood was heavy and I now know what it feels like to loose feeling in your hands and feet. I honestly thought I would get pneumonia in those few minutes I was outside.

Poor bel fidanzato made 3 trips back and forth, up the steep, icy path, without an umbrella whilst his poor foreign partner just looked on in cold disbelief. I really did want to be helpful, but it was just too cold to move!

Thankfully as I said, the snow has stopped and I was able to get to work today! Hopefully these will be the last photos I post of the snow in Malito. If the sun comes out I can begin my walking tour through town!

White Malito

(N.B I wrote this post last night.)

It's still snowing in Malito, and for that matter most of Italy. Bel fidanzato and I went for a glass (or two) of prosecco earlier, in one of the two bars in town, and it was not snowing, but hailing massive (rather painful) balls of ice. I estimate that today it has snowed about 30cm which may seem like nothing to you readers, but to me - a mere Australian living in Calabria - this is a lot of snow! My new boss just sent me a text message saying there will be no work tomorrow as she too is snowed-in in her village...so less money this week but more time to fix up the new apartment.

Here are a few random pics from the apartment and more of the snow. Bel fidanzato and I are very lucky as the apartment was left to his mother in a will...so we get to live in this beautiful (albeit cold) apartment until we do up a house of our own. No one has lived in the apartment for a while, and even when someone lived here it was only in the summer months. Bel fidanzato has taught me how to light the open fire (I am not so good at the moment...it seems to keep dying on me!)but he says that I will not have to go and chop the wood - even though I offered!

This is the entrance to Malito:


This is a tree that is about to collapse under the weight of the snow:



This is me on the steps of one of the churches, which is the part of town in which we live.




This is my balcony (not terribly exciting, but my family does read this blog and they want photos of the new aparment!)



The apartment was left pretty much fully furnished. The relative who passed away had good taste and decorated the aparment with lots of unique bits and pieces. This is the wall in the hallway which is covered with old keys. Ever since moving to Italy I have loved the giant, heavy, old keys and now I have a wall full of them!



This is bel fidanzato getting the fire started:



and the snow:



I also have a tip for those of you out there, who like me find yourselves in a snowing country with less then adequate footwear. Bel fidanzato, his brother and nearly all the men over the age of 28 wear their old national service boots when it snows. I guess having to do military service used to have some perks...even though my foot is the same size as the bel fidanzato's however, I do not want to wear his boots (they are water proof yes but so cold!)

Bel fidanzato's brother taught me an easy way to make my boots sort of water-proof - well actually he showed me how not to get my socks wet. Over my socks (or 1 pair of thick stockings, 1 pair of thick leggins and 1 pair of hand woven woolen socks in my case) you need to put a plastic bag, then put your boots on. I thought bel fidanzato's brother was joking at first...but low and behold he was not only telling the truth, but has now turned me into a fan of plastic bags in the boots!

Snowed in

I was meant to go to work today but I didn't. Why? Well...we're snowed in up here in Malito - that's why!



We went to bed last night with the rain quietly pouring down. It has been raining a lot lately, it's winter after all. Just after midnight we heard a 'bang' of thunder, and then all went quiet. We subsequently fell asleep.

This morning we woke up - and low and behold...this was the view as we looked out of the window. I have never lived in Malito for more then a few weeks, and it never occurred to me to buy snow appropriate shoes. I stocked up on winter boots when I was in Australia, but never thought to get some with well gripped soles - I forgot that it snows in Malito. This morning as we walked out of the apartment, I had to grip bel fidanzato's arm like an invalid as I squealed as I tried not to slip over.







I am no slacker and wanted to go to work (also since I don't get paid if I don't work) but being Australian, I am not used to driving in snow. And not just a bit of snow, but snow that has been falling since the night before. Everything is under snow - even the cars.



The roads in Malito were covered with snow, but I was rather determined to go to work, so bel fidanzato got in the car and decided to drive me around to see which was the safest road to take out of the village. We are after all some 700 metres above sea level so to see there was a lot of snow is putting it lightly! We got into the car and started to drive around in 1st and 2nd gear. At one stage the tyres started going crazy as the car could not grip the road and I was scared...we were not even a 1 minute drive from home! Eventually we made it out of the village but the roads just got worse and we were slipping and sliding that I had to call work and say that I was snowed in and could not make it! I would rather loose some money and still have my life.

So bel fidanzato and I went for a walk, played with my little friend and now I am sitting by the open fireplace as I write this, thankful that the snow has stopped, the skies have cleared a little and I may hopefully be able to drive to work tomorrow!

Hot hot hot in Sorrento

It is so, so very hot that really I am over it now. It was 36 degrees at one o'clock as I was driving (very well might I add) back from the airport. When it is that hot I am in no mood to meet and greet customers...with sweat pouring down your face it is not such a welcoming site!



The heat is not such an issue for me, as being Australian we do have pretty hot summers (it got up to 47 degrees when I was there at the beginning of this year.)It is the humidity that I cannot cope with. I suffered through a hot and humid summer 2 years ago in Sicily and was so happy when the locals here in Sorrento told me that it is not normally so humid here in the summer...well that was then and this is now...now they are all telling me that this summer is the most humid in about 7 years so that's just great! Thanks Scirocco for following me here to Sorrento.

People just have no patience when the weather is like this. The humidity and hot winds make people go mad (me included.)

So to make myself feel better I have been looking back on my lap top of photos of the bel ragazzo and I in Malito over the winter...and it doesn't make me feel so hot anymore.

Snow covered Malito

Came across these pictures on facebook.

One of the churches in Malito on a nice, sunny day:



And what it looks like at the moment covered in snow:



Doesn't it look beautiful? Growing up in Australia I am still very excited when I see snow...and I have not yet seen snow like above in Malito. We saw a little bit up in the mountains above Malito in December, but I've never seen snow in the town itself.

And it looks like I will not be seeing the snow for some time. When I leave Australia I am heading over to the Canary Islands to visit my bel ragazzo who is still working in Fuerteventura. Not sure how I am going to be able to start work again after having so much time off!

Fire and ice

Bush fires are still burning here in Victoria, far north Queensland is flooded as it's tropical climate mean it's the wet season and on the other side of the world bel ragazzo says there is 60cm of snow in Malito! (He is not there, but still in the windy but mild Canary Islands...I shall be joining him in less then 3 weeks!!!)

What on earth is going on in the world?

Fires still burning

The bush fires are still burning throughout the state of Victoria with the strong winds not letting up. A report states "...that as many as 200 new fires were started yesterday and 31 blazes are still active across the state." The weather has cooled down (from the top of 47 degrees reached on Saturday) to temperatures being in the low to mid 20s these past few days but the wind is so strong that it is pushing fires along at such a tremendous speed that people are not getting out in time.

On Saturday the fire was moving at about 120kms per hour and now there is fear that many of the fires will merge to make a huge fire wall. Each day more towns are being warned that they may be the next in the firing line, and are all on alert.



Onto brighter things (if that is possible) you have probably all seen this photo of Sam the poor little koala who was rescued by a firefighter called David Tree. Koalas are not the most social of creatures, and with their two thumbs (yes they have not one but two thumbs on their paws) they will normally scratch anyone close enough to touch them. Another interesting fact is that koalas very rarely drink water...so you can just imagine how scared and dehydrated little Sam was to gently hold the firefighters hand while drinking from his water bottle.

Sam has suffered 2nd and 3rd degree burns to her paws and today she was reunited with the firefighter who saved her life.

Heat wave grips Victoria

I just got back from a fantastic long weekend at the beach, and must say I was glad to be out of Melbourne.

Whilst I was enjoying a fresh sea breeze in Rosebud, parts of Victoria were in the midst of a record heatwave with 3 days reaching over 43 degrees. The city has not seen weather like this since the 1880s. Over 300 rail services had been cancelled, about 35,000 people were without electricity, reports say over 30 people have died and there are wild bush fires raging through the state. Not to mention the roof debate with the Ford Australian Open...

The weather is going mad. I heard of the news that in London they had 20cms of snow! As long as you are close to the sea, I'll take the heat over the cold any day...or would I?

Hot spell in Australia

I've just come back from a nice extra long weekend at the beach...only to find that the hot spell is coming over the next few days, starting today with a forecasted top of 41 degrees. Apparently it will be the longest and hottest spell in over 100 years - with the 41 degrees Celsius being traded in on Saturday for a mild 35 degrees. Ha! Hottest spell in 100 years is saying a lot when Australia was officially founded by European settlers in 1788.

So I am declaring that I cannot possibly blog in such heat, especially since I am back in Melbourne away from the cool ocean breeze!

Visiting Altilia

With the weather as it was during the months of November and December in Italy the bel ragazzo and I could not be so fussy about our touring around.

Here is a photo of Malito when it was hit by the heavy rain. The photo is not so clear as we were in the car but you can see that the main entrance into Malito was covered with debris from an exploded pipe in a steam above the village and the wind had knocked the sign posts down.





Bel ragazzo and his brother had to chain saw a massive tree which somehow the gale force winds had managed to knock down blocking one of the roads.



At least then the shepherd could safely pass with his flocks.



So with these weather conditions our site seeing was in the hands of mother nature. She did not often stop the rain but when she did we would quickly dash out of the house. On one such day, with the overcast skies letting us know it would be rain free for about one hour, I asked bel ragazzo to take me to a little town about 10 minutes drive from Malito called Altilia. Now I am not saying that Altilia is up there on the list of places to visit in Calabria and everyone did keep asking us why on earth we were going there...but I like little villages even if there is nothing that special about them. I have to remind people I come from a relatively brand new country - Australia so I love anything and all things old!

The first time I went to Altilia was 2 years ago during my first visit to Malito. Bel ragazzo and I spent our first New Years Eve together at the old convent in Altilia which was converted into a disco of sorts. Along with 700 odd people we danced the night away. This year we also went back to Altilia but with the lack of heating in the upper levels of the convent, and the amount of children I saw down stairs I think this is the last time I will be spending my New Years Eve there.

Here are some photos of the village.

Finally the skies have opened

Finally, after months and months and a few more months rain has come to Rome! I cannot remember the last time it rained. I think it was back in May when my parents were here. We had a hint of rain here and there, days where the sky was heavily overcast and you felt a cool change in the air... but that was only mother nature teasing us as she soon took the cool change away and let heat and humidity set back in.

The summer has been long, and I am sure it is far from over, but I am so happy that at least last night I heard and saw some rain, and today I not only used my umbrella but I noticed a definite change in the air. The cool change may not last for long, but it's here and I am could not be happier!

Parts of Italy such as North Sardinia have been hard hit by storms with roads flooded, luxury yachts being over turned and people being evacuated from their homes but luckily here there were no such issues.

Rain rain go away

It has been raining pretty much non-stop here in Rome for over a week now, with the last few days in particular being exceptionally strong. The news is full of families being evacuated from their homes, houses flooded, cars washed off the roads...the worst I had was my bathroom flood which was a giant deep puddle! Oh, and don't forget my parents are here so they have not seen one little bit of sunny Italy. I told mum to make pack plenty of sunscreen so she didn't get burnt, I did not however tell them to bring wet weather gear.

Oh well, at least they are able to look on the bright side as there is next to no rain in Australia as they are in the midst of a drought with heavy water restrictions in place. My parents were therefore able to say how nice it was to see so much rain, just a shame it is on the wrong side of the world!

They are now in Calabria, in dad's home village so stories will be coming...from Rome, fro Calabria and from Puglia. You may however notice the lack of photo's recently on my blog. That is because when my bel ragazzo was in London, he left me his camera which I subsequently dropped from quite high up whilst trying to take a nice photo on a rather hot day. The camera is a little worse for wear and does not function at all so for the time being we are camera-less...