With hey, ho, the [fog] and the rain

 “For the rain, it raineth every day…”

- William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

It was an endlessly rainy, foggy weekend here.  It is the rainy season here in this part of Italy, and we knew that before we came, so we can’t really complain about it.  It’s not that it actually rains 24/7, either - there are some breaks in the rain; it’s just that over the last few days, we haven’t had any breaks of sunshine in between the waterworks (which range widely between light drizzles to outright downpours).

Being high up in the hills, we are encountering a lot of low-lying clouds and fog, making driving a bit tricky on these twisty, narrow roads - especially at night, as we learned last Friday evening when we decided to drive a few towns over to visit a cheese shop we’d heard about.  We didn’t know just how bad the fog would be until we were already on the road outside of our town (it didn’t seem like anything much closer to home) - but we suddenly found ourselves right in the thick of it.  What makes it particularly awful is that these mountain roads are very dark, as there are no streetlights along the roads between comuni, and the sudden road curves can be quite sharp, with nowhere to turn around.  Also, it’s damned hard to see the potholes until it’s too late.

All of which meant that it was a rather hellish ride to the town of Santa Croce di Magliano.  What should have been about a 15 minute ride took three times as long.  My shoes left many marks on the glove box of our car from stomping on my imaginary brakes.  I was gripping the sides of my seat so hard I’m surprised I didn’t make holes.  But, thanks to Paolo’s good driving (and not allowing himself to be districted by my abject terror) we arrived safely and made our purchases.  We got some fresh mozzarella; a  cheese labelled as “Hamburger Tartufo” (a round, patty-shaped cheese with truffles); and a softer block of cheese, also with truffles (this cheese squeaks on your teeth when you chew it).  Fortunately, the drive back home, while still pretty bad, was slightly less like a roller coaster ride through Hell.  Even so - that better be some effing good mozzarella.

We ventured out again in the car on Sunday; while there was plenty of fog, driving during the daylight hours wasn't nearly as horrific (although still not great).  I tried to get some pictures from the car of the countryside in fog:

Last night, we managed to squeeze in our evening walk about 9 PM or so, during one of the breaks in the rain (it started up again sometime in the middle of the night).  But the everlasting fog was still hanging around:

If you look closely, you can see the cloud hanging around the top of the tower

I just received a text from Nicoletta confirming my next citizenship appointment at the town hall for this Thursday afternoon!  Since I am now registered as a resident here, I think we will be filling in the paperwork required to make my official request for recognition of citizenship.  Stay tuned!