I went to Naples to celebrate my 40th with my BFF Marianna and my friend Francesca from high school. A long weekend away where I could be just myself (not a parent, not a wife, not even a teacher) , eat lots of food and explore a new place in the company of two of my oldest friends was, quite predictably, FANTASTIC. It was also the perfect chance to take my new - used - mirrorless camera for a spin!

What can I say about Naples, it's one of the oldest and most densely-populated cities in Italy, with only two full days we barely scratched the surface of what to see...I had an inkling I was going to like it, but I didn't expect how much. It was just SO familiar. A city squeezed between the hills and the Mediterranean, with a vast historical city centre made up of a maze of alleys...Yeah, it does ring a bell. As I wrote over on Instagram, Naples basically feels like Genova on steroids, lol. It's so busy, bordering on manic, and full of the zest for life we all associate with Southern Italy (I'm sure it's played up for the tourists), the traffic is as mad as you expect... Quite often the sheer quantity of people (locals and tourists) felt overwhelming. Must be because it's been a while since I was in Rome or Venice last, but I honestly didn't remember the crowds there being this exhausting. It might be a sign of me getting old. :P

Anyway, we decided to skip Pompeii and the other archeological sites on purpose because next year Gaia is studying Ancient Rome in school and I want to come back with my family and just explore the Roman bits. So mostly we walked all around downtown Naples kinda aimlessly, stopping only when our feet hurt too much (we walked over 20K steps each day) and/or we wanted to try one of the many culinary delights on offer.

I must report I'm pretty happy with my mirrorless Canon (which is an old model I got second-hand off Francesca's dad), it's light enough and my back didn't bother me at all despite all the walking. This is MASSIVE for me, the main reason I no longer carried my DSLR was that my back hurt too much. I stuck to mostly automatic settings and the all-purpose basic lens it came with, but considering I'm most definitely not a pro I can already tell it meets my basic requirements. Most excitingly, I was able to download my pics via bluetooth/wifi immediately and edit them on my phone in our B&B, which is the sole reason I'm now posting them in a timely fashion. I miss a wide-angle lens, I do have an adapter mount to keep on using my wide-angle lens (and all the other cheap lenses I bought for my DSLR, this is the main reason I stuck to Canon), but I didn't bring all of that with me this time. I mostly used my Pixel 7 when I needed a wider angle.

( Pics under here, a mix of camera and smartphone shots )

Of course you can't go to the South of Italy without seriously overating. But this entry is too long already, so I'll simply link you to the relevant IG post.

Tonight after dinner we watched a cute and educational cartoon on RaiPlay (the Italian equivalent of the BBC iPlayer),for Holocaust Remembrance Day, called La stella di Andra e Tati. It was really nice and a good starting point to talk more about the Holocaust and the broader issue of genocide (we talked a bit about the war in Gaza too), and even F and I learnt something new (we were not familiar with the Bucci sisters' story). And we have to thank Gaia's teachers for this, they were the ones to tell Gaia to look for this short on RaiPlay.

This is how I found myself browsing through RaiPlay's massive catalogue, cursing myself because I forgot its existence. I pay Rai's licensing fee with my taxes, I should take advantage of what it has to offer. It's just I haven't watched television proper in almost 20 years so it's easy to forget I can watch it on demand (with little advertising to boot) on RaiPlay. Anyway, this how I came across Starstruck, which is a 20-minute romantic comedy that apparently aired in the past couple of years on BBC3.

It probably wasn't a great success, I never heard of it and I usually trawl the interwebs incessantly looking for British tv series to try. Or something.

Too bad, it was made for me, basically. The main character is Jessie, a Kiwi in her late twenties living in London, managing to eke out a living working two crappy jobs. On NYE she has a very drunk one-night-stand with Tom Kapoor, who is later revealed to be a quite famous actor. The rest is the classic will-they-won't-they/opposites-attract rom com stuff. Only actually funny because Jessie is played by Rose Matafeo who is an actual comedian (who pens the scripts together with another comedian, Alice Snedden), and very refreshing because Jessie is such a breath of fresh air, in terms of female characters (especially in comedy): she is comfortable with who she is without coming across as the 'strong girl' stereotype, while at the same time she doesn't veer off into that forced 'quirky girl' territory either. Mostly, though, I liked that she was immune from that self-flagellation that put me off Fleabag (I know, Fleabag is the holy grail of millennial female comedy, I know, and I see why it was seminal, but while I'm glad I watched it I didn't enjoy doing so, you know?).

So, if you're looking for a light-hearted, charming show, this might be it. It's also set in London, mostly in and around Hackney and it made me feel like I was visiting silviarambles. I've mainlined the first season (it's just 6 episode long) tonight and immediately went and made myself an icon. Can't even remember when the last time was I felt the urge to get a new icon and had to resort to making my own because I couldn't find any, lol. Might have to delete tomorrow when I look at it from a larger screen, the RaiPlay app didn't let me get a screenshot and this image I got off the internet was shockingly low-res.

One of the things I like the most about GoodReads, besides getting to see what all of my friends and favourite authors are reading - and this is how I find most new-to-me books to read most of the time, is the end-of-the-year recap they give each user, with some stats. I think there are better sites out there to log your books and have detailed stats about them, but I'm too lazy to go look for them or, you know, analyse and tally that sort of data myself, so I'm perfectly happy with what GR gives me. This year, though, someone on Threads linked to a Spotify-wrapped-style recap a nerdy soul had made (drawing on those GR stats) and found it interesting too, so let me start with that.

2023 has been an exceptional year for reading for me, this is the highest number of books read in a year ever since I started logging my books on GR, almost 10 years ago. I wish I knew I could pinpoint the exact reasons to replicate the magic. ( A lot of navel-gazing about my reading habits )

I read mostly authors who identify as women, a dozen who are genderqueer/non-binary, and only 7 authors who were men (J.D. Salinger, three Italian scientists specialising in science dissemination and two Anglophone journalists whose non-fiction books I read). I really love looking at all the covers of the books I read, so here they are:

( Cover collage under here )

My top reads, divided by genre, are

Contemporary Fiction

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. Kingsolver's best since The Poinsonwood Bible and possibly my favourite after The Bean Tree and Pigs In Heaven, which I read in those years at the end of high school when my English finally got good enough to read something other than crime/thriller books in the original, and therefore I consider formative novels on a par with books I read during my childhood, lol.

Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha. A novel about racial tensions and relationships in present-day L.A., presented as a thriller/mystery but obviously more than that.

Historical novels

The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson. A story of mystery and intrigue in Georgian England. Absorbing and fascinating. A tad less politcal/social commentary in it than Shepherd-Robinson's previous excellent novels set in Georgian England, but the attention to historical detail is still there.

Contemporary romance

Mended with Gold by Lee Welch. I like slow-burn romance between damaged, real people and stories with a strong sense of place and this delivered magnificently on all counts.

Historical Romance

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen and A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel by K.J. Charles. Charles is the queen of historical queer romance, imho, but these two outings are some of her best yet (set in Georgian England).

Something Human by A.J. Demas. This is not proper historical as it's set in a fantasy world very similar to Ancient Greece, basically. From the GR blurb it is "about two people bridging a cultural divide with the help of great sex, pedantic discussions about the gods, and bad jokes about standing stones." Delightful. Highly recommended. If you like the idea of this ancient Mediterranean world, and would like a slice of a 'mystery in a grand old house in the country' with your romance, run, don't walk to read *Sword Dance+ by A.J. Demas, which is the first in a trilogy focusing on a m/nb romance "with murderous philosophy students, sex acts named after fruit, and love blossoming in the midst of mayhem".

Sailor's Delight by Rose Lerner. If you don't like explicit sex scenes in your romance, this m/m romance with a lot of fantastic historical detail, especially if you like the kind of nautical historicals à la Aubrey/Maturin.

The Oak and the Ash by Annick Trent. If you like historical romance (of the M/M variety), this is such a gem. Annick Trent is the best kept secret of historical romance, I feel. Her books always involve common people, not the aristocracy and this already makes them stand out, but they're also well-researched and usually have a good balance of plot and romance. In this one there's also politics. It's not action-packed but the sense of place, time and the social dynamics are perfect. And the two leads here are adorable for different reason (gruff, politically active Northern surgeon and proud-of-his-job, highly competent valet).

Fantasy

Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night by Katherine Fabian and Iona Datt Sharma. This reminded me quite a lot of Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London, because it's set in a present-day London where magic is real and is part of everyday life in a very matter-of-fact way (the first inkling this is the case you get when one of the main characters mentions a school leaflet for children from magic-using families). And if you know how much I love Aaronovitch's world you'll know how high praise it is when I say that Fabian and Datt Sharma's world is possibly even better. Because it's much more queer and diverse. The prose is lyrical and just fantastic (as Datt Sharma's always is). And the mystery aspect was intriguing enough too, though of course the relationship/dynamic between the different characters is what drew me in. Also this was the perfect read for the last day of the year.

Sci-fi

Murderbot owns my heart. I've talked about it enough already, I think.:D

If you are saying my youngest daughter, you are, unfortunately, very right. Sigh What can I say, that girl is a magnet for bugs/germs/illnesses of any kind. We should be used to her falling ill whenever we go somewhere and yet every time I keep hoping *this time * we'd be illness-free only to be disappointed.

With the bad out of the way, let's focus on the good. This is our first holiday in the mountains as a family, and the first one for me in...20 years. My parents are keen hikers so our family summer holidays when my brother and I were children were always to the Alps, so we could hike together. I love walking and while I've never been as enthusiastic about hiking as my parents I don't mind it (it's just that my ideal holiday is sightseeing somewhere new, as you all know). Thing is F is definitely not a hiker. I think it's mostly down to the way he was raised, so we never did it as a couple. Now, my church has organised a one-week group holiday in the Alps for forever, mostly aimed at families with kids and elderly people in need of company, when I was a child my family took part several times and I had fond memories of this experience. I just knew the girls would love spending time with all the other kids from our church, and that this way F and I would also get some rest and relaxation (and mostly I hoped F would enjoy the community spirit too - something I never had growing up). This year I managed to talk him into giving this a try (and we also got lucky with the timing of the annual leave he got from work).

This is how we came to be in Gressoney Saint Jean, a village in the Alps, in the area of Italy known as Aosta Valley. This is a bilingual region (French/Italian) since it's near the border with France and Switzerland, but Gressoney is a peculiar place because in the Middle Ages the Walser a German-speaking people, migrated in this area and thus here there's a strong German influence (their German dialect is still spoken today).

I'd forgotten how beautiful and peaceful the mountains are. And when I say mountains I do mean the Alps. It's weird, the area I come from is pretty mountainous (Liguria is in large part occupied by the Appenines, the other Major mountain range in Italy) , and most foreign people who visit it do consider them mountains, but to me anything under 1500m is more like a hill, lol.

Before my youngest fell ill, the girls were always busy with the other kids and needed no supervision, plus someone from the group to keep an eye on them is always out and about - the hotel we're staying in has large, fenced grounds, with volleyball/football/basketball courts, its own small playground, and three indoor playrooms with ping pong tables and foosball and our group makes up 80%of the guests here anyway, it's super safe. This meant I was free to roam the village and the area around our hotel, which is quite nice in itself. See it's at a stone's throw from Castel Savoia, a Summer residence of the former Italian royal family, and it turns out that the hotel building used to be castle's stables. Here it is:

It's gorgeous, I love the pink flowers and the traditional shutters. Don't think it's a posh place, it's a church-owned family hotel, the rooms are spacious but pretty spartan but the food is excellent and the price is excellent value for money.

The village proper is at a 30-minute walk, but you can do that in the woods following the trail known as the Queen's Walk (apparantely a favourite of Queen Margherita di Savoia).

( Lots of mobile pics under here )

Because I really would like to post more but life is what it is (youngest is Sick Again) and this is the most I can do. & random facts about me, recycled from Instagram:

What's your ringtone? How and why did you choose it? Do you change it regularly or have you had the same for ages? I've had Xavier Rudd's Light The Shade for many years and I don't think I'll ever change it. It fits my criteria for the perfect ringtone just so.

1. It needs to be a song I like listening to, because I quite often let my phone ring out just for the fun of listening to the song play out (what, I get bloody people trying to sell me stuff over the phone very often, unfortunately).
2. It needs to start quite softly, because I hate loud ringtones, so I can either pick up or put my phone on vibrate or just kill the call before it gets too loud.
3. It gets going and louder eventually so I can hear it in noisy places too.
4. It's unique, Xavier Rudd is definitely not popular in my corner of the world, so I'll always be able to recognise my own phone immediately.

So, I just watched the pilot because I am procrastinating doing a million other things and I really liked it. :) And no, I don't think it is appropriate watching for my 8-year-old or indeed many 8-year-olds. Still, it is a lot of fun. Who knows if I'll ever have the time to watch the rest of the season now. Maybe during the Xmas hols.

But it's either this or nothing.

My eldest (aged 8) would like to watch the Wednesday tv series which seems to be rated for 13+ on Netflix Italy so I'm afraid it's a no. I would watch it with her, of course. If you've already seen it, what do you say?

ETA: Thanks for all your comments, sounds like she's still too young for this show (just as I thought).

Just wanted to write a post with that title, really. Yesterday the Guardian published a lovely interview with the two hosts of The Europeans podcast, which I happened to recommend only the other day.

Volunteers (and staff obvs) still work on it to improve it. olivermoss spotted something I'd missed in the latest code tour: now DW allows spoiler tags that work in the comments, that is another way to do a cut-tag that works not only in entries but also in the comments. This might come in handy for those who said that cut-tags were not working well for their layouts? And naturally whenever you want to have a spoiler or trigger warning in comments.

Here's the HTML to do it, in a nice text box so you can copy&paste it.

<details><summary>Click on the arrow to see what's written underneath</summary> This is just a test</details>

ETA: Here's what it looks like, duh.

So, Italy had its general elections. The results are in.

What can I say? It was not a surprise for anyone who lives in Italy or has even just any passing familiarity with it. It is still bloody depressing to think my near and dear and I shall have to live with it, and that the consequences will possibly be felt around the EU too ( I try to console myself witht the fact we're largely more unimportant than we like to admit).

Since I knew what was coming I'd asked F to pick up some focaccia from one of the best bakeries in Liguria. It still left a sour taste in my mouth. I also chose the most appropriate mug from my vast collection, of course.

As an aside, I don't think the majority of Italians are fascists at heart, though we do have a quite disconcertingly high number of people who are alarmingly and bafflingly nostalgic for the good old times of when He was there (and you can always feel the bloody capital H when they speak and you cannot mistake who they're talking about). It's a combination of factors, though. Mostly rage, indifference and the very much understandable disillusionment with the political establishment. In the past couple of elections the big outsiders, the'new' parties that had never been in government won, only to lose all credibility and the people's trust pretty soon when they turned out to be as incompetent, corrupt and power-hungry as the more traditional parties. I've been voting since the early 2000s and I am fed up with the whole lot of them. Nothing ever changes for the better in this godforsaken country. Only I am not naive or angry enough to think that Brothers of Italy, a party of people who are unapologetically fascist, can bring the sort of change this country needs. Dark times are ahead indeed. I really wish Draghi's government had been left in place to ferry the country out of difficult winter, I do not trust the new parliament to be able to pass a decent budget within the tight timeframe it is constitutionally bound to do so and to take sensible decision to face the energy crisis, the climate crisis and all the rather difficult and urgent, grown-up decisions they will have to take.