Yesterday evening we went to what is called a “sagra”, a small festival where there are maybe a few rides for the kids, but where the central feature is always good food, and this was no exception. We had an excellent plate of beans and sweet onions with a light dressing, and another plate of…

The heat has eased up since early June – or maybe I’ve just grown used to it, but we’re now in that very comfortable part of summer here when it’s almost always warm out, at whatever hour you go outside. It’s an especially nice feeling in the evenings, because the absence of the sun, and…

Indeed, nearly a month after we ordered it, our DSL connection was activated, piece by piece. The modem finally arrived, but with no access codes or any of the other bits that should have come with it. After continully hassling them on their toll free line, Telecom Italia has slowly relinqueshed, bit by bit, that…

We’re still in the process of furnishing our new apartment. The place we settled on “only” had a kitchen. You see, in Italy, unfurnished really means that. There is nothing inside at all, and one purchases “a kitchen”, including sink, shelves, stove, fridge and other appliances separately. This is clearly prohibitively expensive, and limits one’s…

I was invited to speak at the JOIN2003 conference, at the University of Minho in Portugal by Jose’ Castro about a week ago. Ilenia and I were in the middle of moving to our new apartment in Padova, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to go to Portugal, someplace that I had heard good…