First off, and I’ll try to get you more info when I get on the net, Debra returned from Stockholm yesterday, where Winter’s Bone won best picture, best actress and another prize I don’t know the name of. Pretty much swept the boards. That’s why she couldn’t come to Italy, I guess…

Second, Jonathan is here, got in late this afternoon, and ran into the same dilemma I was trying to work out while out shopping for various stuff I either left behind or, ah, left behind. What neither of us knew, although we know now, is that a great number of the stores close from 1:30 or thereabouts to 3:30 – for lunch. So I found a market and pharmacy, waited for them to open, got my stuff and came back to the hotel. Jonathan, meanwhile, went out for lunch and got a tiny sandwich in the only place open Mondays for lunch, and came back to the hotel hungry. We talked a while, caught up on a few things, and went out a little after 5 looking for an early supper. Y’know what? People in Italy don’t have early suppers. And on Mondays, they mostly have them at home. Virtually every restaurant on the recommended list is closed Mondays. Those that are open do not open until 7 p.m. — unless they open at 7:30. We ended up at a fake English pub where Jonathan got a steak and fries, and I got a passable salad, and, after a very long time, a small dish of ravioli. But the beer was good, and we managed. Tomorrow night is the screening, and the next day another. The rest of the time we’ll be moviegoing, or visiting the film museum, or gawking at the many architectural monuments. The city is mostly stone, with granite slabs making up sidewalks and small square cobbles paving the streets. They obviously don’t expect an earthquake, because the buildings are granite and more granite. The oddest thing to these old hillbilly eyes, though, was finding that the most widely used ornamental tree on the downtown boulevards is the sycamore. Now I don’t know if they got them from us, or we got them from them. There’s a research project in there for somebody, I’m sure.

I almost have the jet lag whipped, and am feeling rested. Missing everyone, but glad this email connection is working.

-m