Golden nose

The late Gianni Agnelli, the former boss of FIAT, had a bit of a reputation for having gone over the top in his younger days with his cocaine habit. He snorted the evil powder so much that, so the story goes, most of his nasal passages had been re-constructed in gold.

Sadly, the temption of this rather dubious and dangerous passtime of the rich nearly cost the grandson of the famous Golden nose his life, although the incident is being played down by the Agnelli family, as you might expect. You can read about this incident here.

It's odd how drugs seem to cause problems for either the poorest or richest elements of our society. Even Kate Moss seems to have found the temptation of a few too many snorts too great. For some, having too much money would appear to be as problematic as having too little.

As for me, I'll stick to my multiple and far less costly and dangerous doses of good old Italian coffee.

The street fair

I was happy to note that the traditional Paolo Sarpi street fair took place this year.

Having witnessed the closure of many traditional Italian shops in this rather pleasant, and convenient shopping street, I was a little surprised to see that the fair was going to be held.

What they do is to close of the whole street and line both sides of the roads with stalls which sell an extensive variety of regional Italian produce, usually from around the Lombardy, Piedmont areas. My other half picked up some of the best Porcini mushrooms I have ever tasted. Everybody raves about these fungal delicacies, but up until now, I had not been able to understand what all the fuss is about. However, these were good, very good indeed. I suppose they should have been at around 20 Euros a kilo, but, hey, once in a while, what the heck.

I have to admit that I did not have a wander around, due to having had a domestic with my better half, so missed out on seeing what was there. Just as well really, it would not have done my diet any good, I usually come back with a varied selection of wines, interesting grappas and smelly cheeses, which are all a little high in calories. Having said that, we had friends over and they, and I, tucked into the wonderful truffle and barolo salamis which my other half had got. She also found some interesting cheese too, can’t remember what the stuff was called, but it was very good.

The choice of good things to eat here is bewildering, to say the least. And not great for those on a diet, although I can afford to push the boat out a little every now and again, seeing as I’ve lost nearly 8 kilos – four shy of my 12 kilo target, but still 7 kilos distant from the 15 kilos I would really like to lose. Yes, I had got myself rather too overweight, but my only fear at the moment is losing too much weight too fast, which I understand, often means that you put everything back on again almost as soon as you stop dieting. What a horrible thought, although, I have to say that I don’t think I should stop dieting so much as adopt a new diet. I cut out lots of rubbish and as a consequence, I no longer suffer from a burning stomach. Sorry about the digression into tales of dieting.

The only thing bad about the Sarpi street fair/market, is that you have to go in the morning because in the afternoon the street becomes jam packed with humanity and it becomes just about impossible to see anything. Still, it’s a wonderful annual event and, barring domestics, moves, diets and other stuff, I shall make an effort to go next year.

The funny time of year

October here in Italy is quite odd climate-wise. You get up in the morning and find that it is quite 'fresh' as my dad would put it. This means that it is neither warm, nor really cold. Still, it's best to put some sort of coat on in the mornings, or so I find. I'm sure my compatriots would not find it necessary to don a coat, but, well, my body is getting more and more tuned in to the Italian climate. Anyway, after slight shivers in the morning, you actually find youself sweating at around midday and the coat ceases to be a comfort and becomes an annoyance.

As the title to this entry states, it's a funny time of year. The heating system has only just been switched on – a few days before what I understand to be the official heating switch-on in all the appartments here: October the 15th. The only thing which is worring me about real cold weather is the price of heating oil, which is famously stratospheric in this period. That, and our block's rather antiquated boiler, could make for an expensive winter.

The weather…..again

Regular readers will know that the weather is one of my pre-occupations – it should be seeing as it was the 'orrible climate that got me out of the UK.

Anyway, October is here and it's cooled down a lot. Autumn clothes are out and it's feeling chilly. The weather here is now the same as the weather we put up with in August in the UK, just to let you know.

In other words, it's grey and yucky.

Montalbano is back!

OK, so I have not been blogging for a while. Too much to do and other stuff too boring to go into here.

Now, what (or maybe who) is Montalbano? Good question. The answer is that 'Montalbano' is the fictional head of a police station in a small Sicilian town and 'Montalbano' is also the name of the police drama on TV at the mo. It just happens that this is about the only really good and well done drama programme on Italian TV. The lead actor is excellent and the stories are original, and yes, there is a hint of mafia in a few of the episodes, as you might expect.

Believe me it takes a lot to for something to really stand out here. You are regularly bombarded with a seemingly ever increasing number of cop dramas – of Italian, German, Austrian and UK origin, in the main. The Italian stuff is pretty naf, the German stuff is a mixture of good and naf and the UK stuff is up to the UK's TV standards, which in terms of dramas at least, is much higher than that of Italy, with its full facial camera close-ups, bimbo stars and, er, 'interesting' acting.

Montalbano, is in the main, a cut above the usual trash and is worth catching.