Winter in the countryside.. (Inverno in campagna…)

    I know this blog post is a wee bit late.. Christmas and new year is over… and I have been a bit busy with the holidays and so.. my blog was also on holiday :P. Well.. its not my first winter experience in Europe, but I’ve got to say that when you LIVE here.. its much more different than just spending a holiday here.. Heating and energy efficiency to keep  warm is the utmost priority during winter as the temperature can get below freezing point. Gas gets expensive during winter and it is important for the people that live here to conserve and use energy efficiently. Daylight is also short and the sun comes up around 7.30 am and sets way early around 4pm.

     Mount Vesuvius is covered with SNOW!!! Yup.. that’s right folks… its WINTER here in Naples… the coldest point so far has been -2 deg (in naples according to Paolo – my brother in law). Thank goodness it doesn’t snow often here… I like snow, but after a while snow just gets so cold and your hand starts to feel the pain of frostbite.. a feeling which I cant describe, but its not really a good feeling and yeah.. your nose also starts to freeze..  

      

     Brrr… its so cold here and as I write this blog I am sitting next to a portable stufa (stove) wearing 4 layers of clothes!!  There is no fireplace where I stay but there is one at my aunt’s Giuseppina’s home. Firewood is normally collected towards the late September-October when mid-autumn starts and the leaves of the nocciola (hazelnut starts to fall).

     Fruits of this season are oranges, pears, pommelos, clementines, mandarins, kiwis and tangerines (full of vit c… good for winter flu..hehe). Winter vegetables instead are radishes, fennel, artichokes, broccoli and kale (just to name a few). You can see in the photo, the view from outside my house… the leaves of the hazelnut trees have all dropped and the oranges are in full season! Broccoli grows with abundance beneath the orange trees.

    Since I didn’t have much winter clothes.. I had to do some winter shopping (a good excuse of course). Guess where I went to do my shopping… to a VOLCANO!!! That’s right folks… hehe.. Worried? Well, its not really a volcano but instead its a shopping centre which was designed after mount Vesuvius. The name of this shopping centre is volcano buono which translates to good volcano in English and is located in the district of Nola. There are many awesome shops here.. like Zara, Gucci, Guess,  etc.. (reminds me of KLCC and Midvalley  in Malaysia...). The beauty of this shopping complex is that there is grass growing outside to depict the hillside of the volcano… only there is a crater full of shops inside :P  Apart from that this centre also has a hotel, cinema and fine selection of restaurants. That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more updates from my blog. :D

Volcano Buono Shopping Centre