A Babbling Brook in Italy!!

OK, so my niece, Brook, is living in Italy.  She is amazing at writing emails that really give us a good idea of what life is like there for her.  She has coined several phrases while there, like "inch of coffee" as that is all you can get at one time, LOL.  I will let you discover some of the others.  I am going to post a few gems from her last email.  This girl really needs to write a blog!!

Greetings from Hotter than HECK Italy!!  Wowsa is it hot!! How these people do it in summertime is beyond me..I've been informed that our little summer town swells 3 times it's size when it's summertime and when September hits all of these people will GO HOME!! A girl can only dream..Just to put things in perspective, off peak season it takes me 15 minutes to drive my hubby to work, today it took me an hour to get there and another hour to get home.  As I sat in traffic getting more and more angry at the scooters (who always have the right of way) are whizzing past me with people holding such things as, GMA, flotation devices (blown up to full capacity)and little kids and you should see when a whole family gets on one!  They turn 2 lane roads (country roads mind you) into 4 lanes with the scooters and other vehicles that just get behind the scooters and follow them through the lights.  The cops are just sitting at the side street cafe's drinking their inches of coffee and just laughing at the whole mess. I also sat their thinking that this crazy driving is nothing new to them, they are used to it and no one really gets angry at those who skip in line.  I know if we were in America road rage would be in full effect and someone would have gotten shot or at LEAST a finger gesture would have been offered!!  I also found out that Mario Andretti who drives the formula one car for Italy is really just a guy from Italy who drives like the rest of them because they all drive like him !!

Well, this past Monday I dragged my girlfriend Deanna shopping with me and I see this junk store just begging to be pillaged!! Of course Deanna, like any good friend says "I'm staying in the car while you try to talk to them that way SOMEONE can identify who killed you by trying this stupid stunt" ..I wasn't deterred, that dilapidated building with it's huge fence around it and overgrown tree's wouldn't stop me from seeing the goodies on the inside!! So once I passed the hookers, yes I said hookers..lol..I parked the car in the dirt, left Miss Pris in the car and made my way up to the gate where I promptly forgot all of the Italian I know and just went with the yellow lab language!!  which is composed of me just waving and smiling and looking stupid while yelling Americano, hellllooooooooooo!!! not knowing what the other was saying, Finally the only Italian that came to mind was DEMIJOHN??? and he said yes and pulled a small one down wrapped in a perfect little basket, Then I asked, quanta costa (very pleased with myself that i remember that!!) of course he came back with at least 4 sentences, so i just handed him a pen and a piece of paper and he wrote the price down ..I remembered from watching American Pickers your suppose to buy something to "break the ice" so i agreed and he let me look through the rest of his little treasure chest!! He had some of the nicest things but I had to go so I think I told him I would be back?? and he kindly walked me to the gate and showed me the buzzer for next time!!ahahahahaha..Deanne become upset when she saw what I got but was insistent we come back when the car wasn't loaded down and She must have felt like they weren't going to kill us. If I keep remembering the little things like this when I'm sitting in traffic then it makes living here so much more enjoyable! It really is a nice place but it seems that all the good stuff is hidden behind overgrown trees and fences, Lydia my next door neighbor is in the middle of painting one of our demijohns and I had asked her to paint the coliseum so far it looks wonderful. She is also going to paint some other scenes on other demijohns for me. Ciao for now!