Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

This is the scene I woke up to on Monday:




I ask you one question: What’s prettier than the Italian countryside?

Answer: The Italian countryside covered in snow.

If this beautiful country couldn’t get any more beautiful, it succeeded when it dumped a couple of inches down on Sunday night. Of course, there are the usual downsides, especially to us living up on the mountain where the snow is much deeper than the rest of the city, the worst being that we couldn’t drive anywhere and thus keeping everyone indoors and away from work.

The second downside being that it’s freezing, although it was like that before the snow appeared. The bonus to this is that we have fires, something that we haven’t done in years in Canada due to the cleaning up factor (and that mom likes to decorate inside the fireplace), and what’s more fun than sitting beside the fire reading a good book (ok, probably a lot of stuff is more fun, but you get my point).

I had been warned by various people about snow here, although the warnings were often different. Some said it never snows, my family told me that it does, especially since we live so high up in the hills, making our house a winter wonderland.

At Sunday lunch we all spoke of the mythical snow. Some said that it wouldn’t come, that it was still weeks away. Others told stories of years past (apparently last year on a Saturday night out, Christian was driving home around 2am only to discover it had started snowing on our mountain. His car is useless in the snow he turned around, parked the car at the town at the bottom of the hill and walked up… a brave feat during the day in normal weather, but at night in the snow, wow). As I went to bed Sunday night I looked at the clouds and predicted that snow would fall during the night, when I was woken at 6am (both by the need to use the bathroom as well as all the talking downstairs) I realized that indeed the outside was covered in a blanket of the white stuff and no one would be going to work. So I went back to bed.

While I love the looks of it, driving, and thereby working is impossible. Luckily the roads get plowed and salted pretty fast around here, so by Tuesday morning the snow had stopped and we were able to go to work, even myself who hates driving in the snow.

Right now it’s the perfect kind of snow, it’s still on the yards and in the trees and the rooftops. The mountains and fields are absolutely gorgeous, but the roads are clear and safe for driving. On my way to Vicenza on Wednesday morning it was great to look at the blanket of white on the fields as I listened to Christmas music and realized Christmas is less than a month away!