Italian stylists Dolce & Gabbana (who are also a well known gay couple) in an interview voice their support to the concept of 'natural family' (meaning a man, a woman and child(ren) ) and their disagreement with practices like surrogate maternity (which, by the way, is illegal in Italy) in a very sedate, reasoned way, with no hint of condemnation, ( Read more... )

In Europe, if you request the status of refugee, you cannot move to another country in the EU, not even if you have relatives or friends willing to take you in and sponsor you. You have to stay in the country where you place your request ( Read more... )

Today I learned a folk saying from Padua I liked very much, here it is in the original:

L'oca del Bepi la traversa 'l canal par 'ndar a casa a bevare.

meaning: " Joe's goose crosses the ditch to get home to drink".

In my parents' dialect (near the border from Verona to Mantua) it would be:

L'oca del Bepi la traersa el canal par nar a casa a ( Read more... )

I'm still around ( Read more... )

As usual for this time of the year I'm running from one school to the next, trying to soften the impact of a new country and a new school for kids coming here from China (and Ghana, and Nigeria, but that is more straightforward interpreting than cultural mediation ( Read more... )

I can't resist the chance to take a macro...

( Wanna see? )

( Read more... )

Today my mother and I started the family's batch of sourdough.

Up to now our home-baked bread was made using brewer's yeast, that's the most common and,possibly, easier way over here. Given the shared passion for baking  we decided it was high time to try the oldest method and start what we both hope will become a family heirloom (seriously, there ( Read more... )

Today the postman brought me a little treasure, a paperback copy of The Assisi Underground by Alex Ramati, the book was published  originally in 1978 in the UK under the title Why the Pope Kept Silent, it is a non fiction work telling how a network of people in Assisi among which Father Rufino Niccacci hid and protected hundreds of Jews.

I was ( Read more... )

Yesterday I had a rather instructive experience.

I had driven to the mall for a quick run of grocery shopping, that done I went to the parking lot with my cart, I was moving between two cars to reach my own when I realized that the cart was too big to go through (I am very short sighted and I have trouble gauging distances, for that reason I always ( Read more... )