"Non c'è molto da relazione" - "Not much to report"

After last weekend in Venice, this week was pretty laid back. Halloween was a non-event here. Because there are so many American students at the Universita' per Stranieri, the pubs and discos all celebrated with costume parties, but the little kids didn't dress up, and we didn't get even one trick-or-treater.

The first 5 days of November is Fiera dei Morti, "Fair of the Dead". We thought it sounded pretty exciting, but it was really just a huge market. Kind of like a homeshow or exhibition - a couple hundred vendors selling food, clothes and household stuff. We found a few things that we needed around the house, and just enjoyed looking at everything. There were carnival rides, but nothing too exciting - unless you like bumper cars, because there were at least three different kinds there. I don't know why they need bumper cars here - it's not much different than driving around town!

I spent my days doing the usual around the house stuff - laundry, cleaning, cooking. That's right - cooking! Believe it or not, I CAN cook, I just don't particularly enjoy it, and I'm not as imaginative as Terry in the kitchen. I think he enjoys 'creating dishes' and I just want to get food on the table, if I must. At laundry, however, I am the diva.

Other than those household tasks, I have also been working on my Italian. I started an audio course on Italian about a year ago. I have not been very consistent with the lessons, so I'm only about two-thirds of the way through now. My biggest problem is understanding people when they speak. Italians talk like they drive - very fast. So I have been trying to listen to Italian news, movies on youtube, anything I can find. I have also 'met' a few people through a language exchange web site; these are people that want to practice spoken English, and will help me with my spoken Italian. So hopefully I'll manage to improve a bit, maybe I'll even be fluent by the time we get back to Canada!

The only vaguely touristy thing we did was to join a couple of guided tours. First, we saw la Biblioteca di Monteripido, a library which has been in use since 1644 with many of the same books and furnishings. Next, we went to il Museo delle Mura e delle Porte della Citta - the Museum of the walls and doors of the city. Here we saw the story of the city walls, including the 3km Etruscan wall, built in the 4th century b.c., and the 6km Medieval wall. The museum is actually built inside one of the doors, and has a viewing area at the top where we had a great view of the city all around us.

We have our first house guests arriving tomorrow - James and Rachel are from Canada, but have been traveling around Europe for a couple of months now. I used to work with James' sister, Beverley, at Forestry. She suggested we become facebook friends so we could keep up with each others' travels. They have some great pictures, and I am looking forward to getting some advice about what places we have to visit in the next few months. Plus, it will give me a chance to play tour guide with all my newly acquired knowledge of Perugia!

Speaking of traveling - some of you have asked me about the climate here. I found this website that allows you to compare the climate of two cities - might help you when you're deciding what to pack!