Off to get ready from the Hogmanay in exile celebrations. Part of me misses Scotland on a night like this but then I look at the blue skies and crimson sunset. 
In Britain the weather is always a topic of conversation - largely because it is so changeable and unpredictable and perhaps even more so because it is entirely uncontroversial. In Italy food is the catchall conversational gambit. On today's Radio Subasio early morning breakfast phone-in caller after caller was spelling out in great detail exactly what they would be eating to welcome in the New Year and how exactly it would be prepared. Their descriptions were met with squeals of delight and approbation on the part of the studio presenters. With the possible exception of football nothing,but nothing excites the Italian imagination and verbal passion as much as food. All the local restaurants and hotels are open this evening with special menus priced in the region of E75 per head. There was an article in today's paper saying that more Italians are planning to celebrate at home this year because of the recession but in this part of Umbria everything is booked solid. We shall be entertaining at home having taken delivery of a batch of fresh langoustine from the fish market in Ancona.
The boyz went wild chasing the wild boar and deer scents in the olive groves. They have now retired exhausted and happy to a shady corner and it looks as though we won't see or hear much from either of them for a couple of hours.
Orvieto was crowded with Italian visitors enjoying the bright weather after the recent snow. Didn't hear any foreign accents apart from a couple of college kids from California. I love this town. You walk through all these twisting medieval streets and then there rising up majestically in front of you is the cathedral. On a morning like this it positively glows in the winter sunshine. To a northerner its highly decorated exterior is about as exotic as architecture in mainland Europe can be. There is an excellent restaurant right in front of the cathedral called Giglio d'Oro. Over a relaxed lunch you can watch the priests, nuns and assorted worshipers rushing in for a service. Good food and even better people watching. Orvieto's problem is that so few people take the time to get to know it. The town is on the A1 highway from Rome and also on the high speed train line. As a result it tends to get day visitors spending three or four hours seeing the duomo en route for another destination.
Beautiful morning. Off to Orvieto to buy wine and look at the cathedral. Will post pictures on return. Boyz both exhausted after a run across the hills this morning.
Back from Foligno. The town is a sprawling post-industrial kind of place , a bit like Buffalo or one of those upstate places in New York along the Hudson. The differences are that 1) you can get a really good cup of coffee 2) the town has a 11th century cathedral and 3) you won't hear English spoken anywhere. We like Foligno . It's clearly seen better days but the municipality is doing everything it can to stop decline by investing in the towns infrastructure. From a tourists point of view Foligno sports a cathedral which has a romanesque doorway which incorporates the only known example from the period of the islamic crescent moon symbol and some rather good late 1930's Mussolini era architecture. 
Seems hardly possible but in the space of an hour the sun has melted all the snow that fell over the last twenty four hours. It must be getting close to 16 degrees now and in the sun it's altogether rather pleasant. Italy is a country of microclimates - on the other side of the mountain the snow is still firmly in place.
Shortly heading off to Foligno - an industrial town with an old centre that few tourists ever visit.Foligno is home to some very good restaurants and coffee bars. Will use the camera phone and blog about the trip later today. Blazing sunshine and the snow is beginning to melt.
Woke up to a version of Siberia with olive trees this morning . Having gone to bed with a cloudless sky found that overnight southern Umbria had been blanketed with snow. It's still snowing and the boyz are having the time of their lives - the scents thrown up by the sudden chill are keeping them outside exploring and doing other sheepdog type activities. Inside the floors are covered with blankets ready for their return for lunch - Polish Lowland Sheepdogs attract snow to their fur like iron to a magnet..
I've been trying to use the camera on the mobile phone to take all the pictures posted on the blog. Using the mobile to take pictures is really easy and keeps the news flow current but at the risk of becoming too familiar or pedestrian. - but there again isn't that part and parcel of blogging ? This is a view from the house towards Todi taken this morning and I have to say the quality doesn't seem that different from using the Leica digital even for long shots like this. The Sony Ericsson phone I use in Italy has a pretty good lens but after each snap I have to go back to the menu and reset the photo option which takes time and can be really annoying. When I was back in the UK last week I took lots of pictures on the UK Nokia phone but these can only be downloaded by wireless and the UK and Italian operating systems are compatible at some level beyond my technical understanding.Hence the absence of pictures from London and Brighton.Looking back at the last six weeks worth of blogs it's also apparent that by downloading from the phone I'm probably swamping the blog with pictures of the boyz. It might be better to restrict them to just one a day. I'm finding the map showing geographic spread of visitors to be really interesting - the pattern seems to be entirely random. When I take the time to become more proficient I'll see whether people want a blog about the boyz, about Italy, or about a broader range of topics.
Drove into Todi earlier today for a coffee and some grocery shopping. What a glorious day -blue sky and sun but still with the bitter northerly wind. On the walk into town took a side turning and came across the old Roman amphitheatre with houses in an oval pattern where the stands stood and a church built into the centre of the arena. The gate was locked but I'll find out when it's open and take some pictures. Typical of Italy, things that would be tourist magnets anywhere else, are simply ignored and left unsignposted.
Over the years we must have spent a small fortune on toys for the boyz. Most of these have been a total waste of money as they are destroyed within five minutes by the incredible pressures exerted by a healthy Polish Lowland Sheepdogs back jaws. Toys can also be a real danger. In the space of two unsupervised minutes Wilf managed to chew a plastic toy hedgehog swallowing the pieces that he tore off and digesting the squeaker. As a result he developed severe colitis - a canine ailment that no dog owner ever wishes to face. Faced with a sick dog we have spent a considerable amount of time and effort tracking down toys that are safe,indestructible and fun. Both products that we've come across are available from the Harrods pet shop in the UK but are much more widely available at toy stores throughout the US. Sadly, as with the Zymox ear product there don't seem to be any mainland European retailers.
The bitter alpine wind is still blowing but the sun is out and the air is crystal clear. Yesterday we went to the little town of Massa Martana to look at the Italian presepe exhibition. The whole of the centre is given over the displays of regional nativity scenes and there is a magical feel to the old medieval heart of the place with the music, the crowds and the bonfires. The presepe showing St.Peter's was the most impressive although some in our party were more impressed with the life sized nativity scene carved out of ice and shown in a refrigerated shop window.
The gale has been blowing hard all day. These winds usually last for three days but the strength of today's storm simply can't last.The cypress trees down the drive are bending at a twenty degree angle. Tonight we are going to see the national presepi collection in Massa Martana and then may drive onto another village nearby where they have a presepe vivante - or living enactment of the nativity scene. We went presepe vivante three years ago but were too late for the action - we did however find ourselves having a drink in the local bar with the wise men and the shepherds.
Woke up this morning to a blast of bitter arctic air sweeping down from the alps. It has blown away all the clouds leaving wonderful views across into Tuscany and east into the Marche, but boy is it cold. The fires and heating are racing away in the house which doesn't do much for our carbon footprint but is a necessity today. Hilltop living is wonderful but for two or three days a year we are exposed to the full force of the storms rushing down the Tiber valley. Naturally, while we are complaining about the cold the two boyz are lapping it up and having the time of their lives. If you have doubled layer thick fur this is your element - the more severe the cold and the stronger the wind all the better !
What will people think of next? The boyz have each been sent an edible Christmas card which they are contentedly demolishing on the lawn. Wilf has jaws that can power through anything and managed to finish his off within ten minutes. Digby by contrast is an altogether gentler soul and the card has kept his attention for more than half and hour and he's still gnawing at it.Why you may wonder are they having a Christmas treat today? This mornings walk turned out to be a journey into thick mud with the boyz undercarriages emerging coated in gelatinous ooze from front to back. The cards were handed out as a treat after the pups had to suffer a bath and a grooming in order to return them to something approaching a recognizable state. The drier is now working at full power with a load of towels.
Fortnum's delivered at four thirty this afternoon - why do deliveries never ever come first thing in the morning? We now have everything needed for an expats Christmas. The mince pies proved too tempting and have already been sampled. Although the trip to Assisi had to be delayed I did just have time to visit the florist in the local village this evening for some roses.Every single rose in the shop had been augmented with copious amounts of spray on glitter . My request for plain roses was met with incomprehension - why have plain when you can have sparkle? I came out with some rather fetching lilies - blue ! Tomorrows priority is a trip to the local cantina to buy enough Franciacorta to last until the end of the week. Snow is forecast for Christmas day.
The owl family returned in force last night and sat hooting on the bedroom shutters from two til four. They breed in the water pipes in the courtyard wall and in the autumn the gardens are covered in the skeletons of shrews and voles that the parents have brought back to sate the appetite of the chicks. They seem quite fearless with the little ones scurrying around on the terrace in full sight of us and the boyz. Wilf is intrigued by them but Digby affords them a healthy respect and retreats under the nearest piece of garden furniture if they venture towards him. I had always thought that owls were solitary creatures,but judging by the numbers and the din they make, the house must provide a perfect social vantage point when hunting for small furry mammals .After a restless, owl serenaded night, woke to a bright pink sky flooding into the house. Fog had settled with the top of the clouds twenty or thirty feet above us. By breakfast time the rising sun was colouring the fog the most stunning crimson.I had always thought that Scottish light with its clarity and softness was without comparison but the hill light here with its Mediterranean tones is equally compelling.
Hope to go to Assisi today but we are still waiting for Fortnums to deliver the Christmas cake and pudding. A terribly nice man from their packing department phoned to say they had tracked down the parcel and it would definitely be delivered today. We shall see. Better late than never.
Umbria is rich in cathedrals. Assisi with its basilica and Orvieto with its Signorelli chapel are perhaps the best known and attract hoardes of visitors in the summer. By contrast Spoleto's cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta sits nestled and relatively undiscovered at the foot of steps and a stone-paved square in the centre of town. At this time of the year the square and the cathedral are deserted save for a few townsfolk heading off to mass or enjoying a quiet stroll. In the summer its a very different picture as the square is used for a series of popular evening concerts and set out with chairs. Much of what we can see in the cathedral today was built in the late 12th century particularly the campanile and the facade with its colourful Byzantine style mosaic. Both were begun in or around 1175 to replace earlier structures destroyed when the Emperor Frederick Barbarosa sacked the town. What a luxury it is to be able to saunter through the town in the absence of crowds - this is what the grand tour must have been like for previous generations visiting Italy.
