Snow

So yeah, beeing up the mountains was great, went for walks in the snow with my dad and a couple of his friends, played cards, ate well, relaxed... Now I'm in Lugano at my mom's, and on Saturday I'm flying to Rome (yey!!) to go see my grandma & rest of family. Than on Tuesday (24th) back to Lugano (tho might stay in Varese, North of Italy) and on 26th I'll be flying back home!! Lots of back and forth indeed, but at least I get to see the whole family (or most of it). That said, I do miss Glasgow...

A note to Britons, this above is SNOW, roads seemed labyrinths, yet everyone went along with their businesses as usual... Easy..

Rome

This is part of my grandma's house in Rome, her and my granddad had it build in the early '50s, when all around them was prairies and agricultural land. Now it's pretty much surrounded by buildings and shopping centres, but I still love it, it's my personal oasis at Rome's edges. On the right of that car there's a wee spot behind a hedge, just next to the property's limit, I used to go there to hole up and dream when I was younger, it also became a quite useful spot to know once I started smoking! That house is full of hiding places and rooms where a solitary kid can go dream and play, or just hide to read something in peace for a while. I am bursting of wonderful memories of hours spent there, and to this day going back always brings peace to my mind (well, not the flight.. but that's another story and a proper full on rant...). I am hoping to go back there in early March, but we'll see..

Rome in general is a city that always calms me down when my mind's troubled, the architecture, the people's friendliness, the feeling of the city, the fact that wherever you turn you are immerse in history, and of course the food, all these things combined make it one of the most relaxed places in the world, and definitely one of my favourite cities. God I miss it!

So yeah, pretty long entry for picture of the day, but it was needed, I'll never find enough words to express my feelings for that house and Rome...

Cats

So here are our kitties. on the left Birba, she's just been re-homed to us last week, she's was called Bitten (as in Bitten the Kitten, but we are trying to rename her) and on the right Torakiki, he's been with us since he was 6 weeks old, he was so tiny!

He's about to turn a year old now. They are still slightly distrustful of each other, but just now they 're both in the organic veg box on top of the fridge snoring away.

Italians will notice how both are named after cats from cartoons that used to be on Italian TV in the 80s, Torakiki after the cat in Japanese toon Hallo Spank:

while Birba was Gargamella's cat (I think in English she's called Azrael and the evil guy Gargamel) in the Smurfs: we do like our 80s toons..

Edinburgh's alleys

Today's picture is of a wee side alley in Edinburgh, I took it the last time I went up the Royal Mile.