Buona domenica tutti! We had some spectacular storms yesterday and early this morning. We really needed the rain and now the world is fresh and clean.
Sunday is the day we have weddings at the Comune next to us. It is like the city hall in the US. Sorta like getting married at the Justice of Peace. Many couples also get married in the church too. As you know I love being the voyeur. Up above the activity, I zoom in on the wedding party. I love looking at what everyone is wearing. The bride wore black today. 😳 I haven’t ever seen a bride wear black. The groom wore his best trainers as did the best man and the flower girl. I know you want to see! 😁 Here ya go!
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On a more serious note. We are devastated by the horrible school massacre in Texas. My heart goes out to the parents, siblings, cousins and friends of these innocents.
On Friday we had our Italian lessons. Luther and I have one hour, one-on-one with our teacher Marilena. We each spent much of our time trying to explain these senseless shootings and the problems in the US that allow these killings to happen again and again.
Later that same afternoon Luther had his normal Friday chat with his student, Irene. (You may remember we each volunteer to speak English with a linguistics student who goes to the University in Siena.) Poor Irene, she just couldn’t understand the culture that could spawn these killers. And why…why!? would people do this? I tell you, it is hard to be an American here right now. How can we begin to explain the US to them?
🌈 I used to say ”andrà tutto bene”. It will get better. But this time, I cannot say that with any belief that it will be true. I despair for my country.
Hi Denise, I hear so many people who want desperately to leave and cannot qualify to do so. I’m happy you can pursue your citizenship. They say it’s much much faster to do apply for it here. The waits in the US are years. Too many people trying for it. For obvious reasons! Anyway, good luck and thanks for the comment!
Thank you for your thoughtful comments, Nancy. I wish Italians would stop emulating American ripped up jeans, bad fashion and violence in music.they have something better to offer and there are other countries so much better than the US right in Europe. After the previous 4 years of watching the White House become a cesspool and our move toward totalitarianism, I’m in the process of pursuing my Jure Sanguinis citizenship. Thankfully my children have EU citizenship already. In the meantime, I’ll do everything I can to work on getting decent people back in power, instead of irrational, ignorant ones.
Hi Brenda. I hope you didn’t think I didn’t approve of the bride in black. I am just an interested commenter. I certainly don’t care what the brides wear. I just like observing.
I wish people like you could help change things there, and not want to run away. You’ve got family. I would never leave if I had children and grand children there. I wonder, when I hear the newscasters say the majority of people want some limits and safeguards on guns. If that is so, why are they voting in people who won’t advocate for that? As usual, people are not thinking I guess.
Hi Becky. I always keep hoping. Hoping for sanity. I just think we should try to pass laws to protect our people. I don’t want to take away guns for responsible people. The electorate needs to vote in people who will change things. Not the politicians who are afraid to even say a word against guns. Cowards…every one. Vote them out!
Wearing black, and other colors for wedding dresses is becoming a thing here in the USA. Brides aren’t wanting to shell out exorbitant amounts of money for a dress they will wear once. In stead opting for a dress that they can wear over and over. Makes perfect sense. White supposedly represents purity and chastity which, come in, let’s be real, is often not necessarily the case OR a bride doesn’t feel life she needs to make an announcement regarding something of such a personal nature. Black is more classic, has always been the epitome of formal social occasions. I love it!
As for being an American right now. I do not understand how so much of our system is broken. Children can buy guns. How is this ever acceptable. There is a shocking lack of a waiting period and verification of the stability of a person who buys guns. Don’t get me started on assault rifles that only belong in the hands of the military. Honestly, do they even need to exist? Our world continues to get smaller and smaller yet our elected officials aren’t taking the steps to insure the safety of that world. Our hearts are crushed with the slaughters going on. The horrific tragedy of a family dealing with the murder of their children. We just cannot comprehend a government that continues to allow this murder to continue.
If I could get my children and grandchildren to move to Italy, or another country, I would be out of here on the first plane. I don’t see that happening and my heart would break if I couldn’t see them regularly. My sons both live in the same town as we do. My grandchildren live next door as my son purchased the 10 acre property adjoining ours.
Such a tough decision. We have close friends who purchased a home in Ugento last September and we are coming for a visit soon. The tax structure there makes it hard to make the 12 months a year move, collecting taxes on investments regardless of which country the profits are made.
Unfortunately Nancy I agree that we are a lost cause! I think we’re a very arrogant country always thinking we’re the best country but have had a huge layer of stupidity, evil, blindness, whatever you want to call it that is just waiting to grow into the majority! One man said no one would take away his “God given” right to have guns!!! And like you I’m not anti-guns.
Hi Lynn, yes, sadly you’re right. The US is a lost cause. I just never thought I’d say such a thing. I grew up being proud of my country. It is hard to let that go, to finally admit it has changed irrevocably. To be honest, it was probably always like this underneath, but now they have permission to act on it. And they have the means…guns.
Insanity is impossible to describe or explain. If I hear “Our thoughts and prayers are with…” from the elected officials one more time…
The news of this massacre came a few hours after I had tried to explain to a realtor why my husband and I decided to move here 3 weeks ago from a little town in central Texas not very far or different from Uvalde.
My life has been threatened so many times by neighbors for the silliest, most inane things that it stopped phasing me. Imagine going through the check-out at your local grocery store and the next customer behind you has a loaded handgun in his belt.
The US is a lost cause. Thankfully, it’s been my experience that Italy, and a lot of other countries, has stopped emulating the US.
Hey Matt. Yeah. Well put. You can’t explain the unexplainable. I’m not against guns. But I am for some restrictions for the safety and well being of our people. Like banning assault weapons, requiring background checks, closing gun sale loop-holes, banning bump stocks, passing the “red flag” bills. To me these seem reasonable and they won’t limit the gun rights of responsible people in the US. No one needs an assault weapon. And the red flag law is just common sense. You have a crazy kid and you can’t take his gun away??! That’s just nuts. Sorry. I try not to be political, but I don’t really think this is political.
Hi Nancy – There is no way to explain the unexplainable, other than to say, these are signs of a very sick country. Sadly, at the moment the USA is rife with anger, mental illness, and guns. Will it get better? At present I don’t see any sign of it. Also sadly, in the many years we traveled to Italy we’ve seen so much emulating of American culture; the world leans to the US, but at least you can’t walk into a shop and come out with an AR15 and 300 rounds – insanity!! (btw, I am a gun owner)