I want to post a picture from Sesto under the snow!!

The new year has begun and I want to post some two extraordinary clips which I ended the 2008 with. One is unforgetable for the song, and the message it delivers. the other one is simply fantastic for the humour! Grande Checco Zalone!!



the best way for beginning the new year: laughing!!!



My Xmas holidays were wonderful, despite I was sick for 3 days and I spent new year evening at home. But what matters is not where you celebrate the new year, but with whom, and I was with the right person.
I left Sesto on th 19th and I spent two days in Arezzo, including a hiking on Pratomagno with L. and the dog, and then I moved to Lucca for Christmas day.Then I came back to Arezzo for one day and on 27th we left for Veravo, in Liguria, where we met our friends. We had two nice days there, but unfortunately I came back with fever. I had a lot of time for reading, and in two days I almost finished my new book, by David Grossman. I really evjoyed it. Finally, before startign the long trip towards Sesto, again, we had a nice day at L.'s father home, and L. and his son made the "Vin Santo" by squeezing the grape that was left drying since september. It's a very good taste, and it's important going on with the tradition of making it. It'll be ready for drinking at least in 4 years. Meanwhile it'll stay in small barrels, and then it'll be put into bottles.
Then, after a stop in Lucca, on the 5th I was again at work. It was quite hard to come back to my life here, but then a one-day snowfall invested us, and the landscape became so beautiful that I was really happy to be here. It's my fate, all my life has been divided in two parts, two places, two hearts. Now they are three of them, one here, another in Lucca and the most important in Arezzo. I bless internet and skype for making it easy to stay connected with people I love!!
On saturday I attended the first class of the ski course, and I really enjoyed it, although I felt down many times. But I'm looking forward to be on piste again next saturday. The weather was perfect, sunny and not too cold, the view incredible!! I hope I learn quickly so that I can make the best of the huge amount of snow that felt this winter!!

Buon Natale e Felice 2009!!!

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!!!

sunday crazy sunday.......... in Milan...

As when I came back from Val Verzasca my voice was gone and I felt a bit sick, the day after, on sunday, I decided to go to Milan for doing some shopping. and I decided to go by car, thinking that at lunch time there was not too much people around. In fact I arrived in Milan in half an hour, but then it took one hour and half to park!!! I mean, not to search for parking, but to drive the 3 km to the parking site!! It was incredible, but I was there and it was too late to turn back. Then of course everybody parking there had to get to downtwon by the underground: the train were already full of people and then at each stop the new people coming kept on pushing to enter.! and it was impossible to leave because the doors couldn't be closed, the driver had to advise people of getting off and wait for the next train..not so difficult to understand even without the advice.

That was S.Ambrogio in Milan! a stream of people in the roads, the "oh bej oh bej" market, the shops invaded by clients. Impossible to buy anything for me..I went into some clothing and shoes shops, but it seemed like there had just been an hurricane and I need order and calm to decide what I'd like to buy. I hardly managed to change two shirts in Decathlon and then buy a book in Feltrinelli. Uff! How hard it is to do shopping!!!..

The last was a long week end, and people use to go back home or leave it for a trip somewhere during these long week ends, but I decided to stay here, at my new home, as I was just arrived. I was not with my family, nor with my boyfriend. I was alone and I had to organize my time in order to feel not too bad for this. But it wasn't easy. I realize that now most of my life is here and here I'm alone, even if I'm making new friends. My life with Luca is such a small part of my life, but most of all it makes me feel so happy that I can't stand thinking about it when I'm not with him. It's like I should forget about it in order to not go crazy, and let me live this life here at least a little bit.

Anyway, after some pain and tears I managed to survive and I had a really nice weekend.

On saturday I went to Val Verzasca with a friend of mine, working at JRC, with whom I sometimes go running or drinking a beer. I wanted to check some information about wolf presence, I hoped to find some signs, but we did not. Instead I discovered a wonderful place, very cold, but amazing..

this place will be perfect for swimming in summer. BUT WARNING!!! As we are in Switzerland, warning signs are very precise and are meant to terrify people by excessive realism. The sign we saw was warning people of dangerous currents at a certain point of the river, so that swimming was not allowed there. The interesting thing was the skull on the background, not the common symbol you can come across on any bleach container, but a picture of a real skull, like they were showing Lucy's remains..and the text: that is really perfect to avoid panic. "If you feel the current, it is already too late". It's a pity I didn't take a photo of it. The only explanation for this excentric sign is that we were on the "artistic path", as you can see below.

No wolf, but we met a lot of chamois! The first one was a juvenile, and we got very close to him, so I thought it was used to people, but then we observed a lot of them along the river, and finally I concluded that probably the valley is so clam, and there was so much snow everywhere, that they were used to come down to the river and closer to the houses to seek for something to eat.

On the way back we stopped at the Vogorno's dam, closing an artificial water basin. We were struck by two facts there. First, in the middle of the dam's wall there was a camping van and two palms on its sides..very strange. and then we saw a kind of a bridge bending out of the parapet, over more than 200 m of emptiness..bungy-jumping!! Is there someone ready to pay more than 150 € for jumping from there??? Gosh!! I felt sick only watching down from the parapet!!

Secondly, while we were walking back to the car we saw a telephone box, not a normal one, unfortunately, but the one of "Telefono amico"!!!!

Bungy-jumping vs Desperate-jumping............................

..to be continued..

coming soon.... crazy sunday in Milan: is there a financial crisis in act, really ??

I left the work on 20, and today was my first day of the new contract. it was like first day at school! it was raining cats and dogs this morning, and at noon it was snowing, but the snow melted at the very moment it touched the ground. winter has definetely started. But I like snow, and I need it. In the beginning of this new life it reminds my of what I really am, and what I really love...

I go on from the previous blog that I had to pubblish for some connection troubles.

I realised that my hiking was already three weeks ago, then the following week ends I went to Arezzo, first, and then to Lucca. Actually not only Arezzo, as I went firstly to S.Sofia to partecipate in the Felid Congress, quite interesting. Even R., G. and L. came and, along with L., we had a nice time all together. The weather was quite good. I left on monday to come back to Ispra. The last week end instead I went to Lucca and spent a lot of time with T. The weather wad wonderfull but I was quite lazy as I had to recover from the week when I didn't sleep too much and not even well.T is so cute and fun, and smiling!! And every time I come back home he asks me: "Aunt, can we make the wolf?". it's a play no other child on the earth has never played, I guess..

And here it comes the very news! I have just signed a new contract for the next three years!!

It's fantastic, it's the first time in my life I know for sure what I'm going to do for the next three years. Well that's a good point, but.. do I like the job, living here, ecc... Yes, I like it, even if I don't love it and I wouldn't risk my life for it, and it's not all my life..but it's a great compromise, as I'm doing interesting things, I'm working in an international context and, the last but not the least, the salary us very good. and whereelse could I go swimming at lunch time or say hello to M.Rosa going work? The only negative point is that my personal life is in Arezzo and hereafter it will be very difficult for L. to come to visit me.. it's a pity because there are so many place to go to and things to do here..

Tomorrow is my last day of the old contract, and then there will be a break for a week, and I will go back to Tuscany

my life has completely changed in the last period, but still some ghosts from the past come back to the present...it's really incredible, I risk to lose my mind, my heart and my love but I still suffer so much for certain things that I don't really know what to do... Go ahead, live the present and think of the future, don't look back, this I'm telling me..butit's so difficult.

what should I ask more now?? am I like Christine of last Woody Allen's movie?? I never feel satisfied, "I don't know what I want, I only know what I don't want"?

Again it's long time since I wrote the last post, no such interesting events or thoughts in my life on one hand, no time to spend on the blog on the other. The latter means more social life outside home. In fact I started to play volleyball twice per week, and I went out for dinner twice. Moreover I am often too tired of pc working to turn on it again when I'm home.
Anyway I have some nice picture to show.

Two weeks ago I went hiking to Mt...I don't know, the geography of these places is still unknown to me. It's a mountain chain going north-south eastern then Lago Maggiore, and the italian-swiss border is on the ridge. I went up from Curiglia to Monteviasco by the cablecar, because otherwise I would arrive too late, and then I climb up to the main ridge. There was snow above 1500, and almost nobody, only goats. But the view on the lake was superb. Monteviasco is a really nice village, with all typical houses built with flat grey stones. I really enjoyed the sun and the autumn's colours, and walking and then be tired for this. I need to do more activity, for a longer time than one hour pilates class or 2 hours volleyball.

E' tantissimo che non scrivo sul blog,

forse perché la mia vita non è così colma di avvenimenti da raccontare agli altri..

Negli ultimi tempi sto procedendo tra lavoro, analisi su analisi.., corsa, pilates, inglese.. stiamo avendo un bell'autunno, finora, speriamo che duri!!

Un week end sono stata a Milano a fare shopping, e ho scoperto che il Duomo non è così grande come me lo ricordavo!! è incredibile quanto il ricordo fosse diverso rispetto a quello che ho trovato.. ovviamente il mio shopping si è arenato nel decathlon, dove ho fatto scorta di cose sportive, ma ancora qualcosina da prendere ci sarebbe.. poi ho esplorato il mondo libri e cd..la prossima volta mi dedicherò solo a quelli! qualche vantaggio ce l'ha una grande città: tanta gente, mostre di tutti i tipi, ampia scelta per fare acquisti. poi andando col treno e metro non pesa per niente..

Lo scorso week end invece mi sono persa le più belle giornate da quando sono qua, perché avevo la febbre: che peccato!!

E infine questo sabato e domenica ero a Arezzo, a celebrare la festa della caccia di selezione! finalmente godendomi questo momento! anche se rivedere tante persone e tante cose mi ha fatto sentire un pò di malinconia per la mia vita là, comunque sono contenta di ciò che ho, che mi permette anche di pensare a realizzare le mie passioni nel tempo libero..

pare proprio che se tutto va bene rimarrò qua per un pò..

facendo i debiti scongiuri, sono proprio contenta e per un pò non avrò più l'angoscia del lavoro e dei soldi!!

.. e intanto mi sono comprata un piccolo compendio di swahili, che no si sa mai...