Photo's of My Mountains with snow atop!! .... (and a couple of the pope)

Well, nothing of note has happened in the Mountains, the snow has abated but Italy is still having its coldest year ever, and I'm still resenting this fact and still taking it completely personally and cursing the weather gods I strive so hard to run away from, who insist on following me with their stoopid cold weather. On the bright side I spose there is the skiing and snowboarding to look forward to.

Ok, I'm aware that this site's becoming a bit mountain top heavy, and gradually veering away from the travel-documentary genre and leaning instead towards the I'm-a-sad-fuck-who-posts-my-life-on-the-net-here's-what-the-doctor-prescribed-me-for-a-rash-I-found-on-my-arse-recently genre, and I know I'm obsessing over them as if they were my precious children, and I know no one cares, and it may be boring, but, well, it's my life and I love them... so here's some more photies of My Mountains! and, by the beard of Zeus, look! This time they're covered in snow! Is is possible to have a mountain fetish? Well, more of a mountain reverence really, yes, it's quite religious my mountain obsession....anywhoo...


....Look away now if you already know what a mountain looks like...





The Mountain which mocks me and belittles my worries on the way to work.


















Grrrrr, Back Yard Mountain being all moody and sullen.


















Back yard Mountain on a good day.

















Spot the pope... can you see him?? He was waving from the window on the top floor near the right of the building, he'd hung a rug out of the window so we knew where he was.... I eventually got round the crowd and caught a glimpse of him, but this was the view I had for most of the speech. The back of a nun's head.











St Peters Square from the roof of the church.

I think you'll agree My Mountains are more impressive... si?











See?? Came out lovely didn't it!! It WAS worth the risk of being forcibly removed from the vatican by the Swiss guard. And I found a lovely gold lamé gilded photo frame down the market, I'm gonna print this, frame it, hang this on the ceiling and bish bash bosh, Bob's yer uncle, may aswell have had Michaelangelo himself pop round to paint it on me ceiling ...



...Ok, ok, so I should have just bought a postcard.








Getting all David Bailey inside St Peter's Basillica.



















A mummified woman from Roman times.... dunno why, it's a bit gross tho innit?













A man and his sons being attacked by a giant snake...





























Ok, one for the road... "Boo!" See?? They just pop up from behind the houses!


























Right, last one, I swear.
I think I'm in love with My Mountains.

Freezing From The Inside-Out.

Well, it's happened, I knew it would, cos it's gradually been getting colder and colder. The clouds on My Mountains have released their load and My Mountains are now capped with snow, its soooooooooo purdy, but sooooo cold.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Oh god, its only 2 days later, and now the ice is descending from My Mountains like in "The Day After Tomorrow". The temperature has dropped 10 DEGREES in 2 DAYS and its snowing as I type this with my purply-tinged fingers. 10 degrees!! That's LOADS. I can't even see My Mountins now cos the snow's so thick, there are no more bugs or flies around cos they're all DEAD cos it's so cold they've all frozen from the inside-out, and last week a helicopter crashed into My Mountain after it's oil tank froze from the inside-out, and when they found the pilot he was frozen from the inside-out too! ..... (ok, maybe i'm confusing reality and films, but it is very, very cold over here and I'm sure that could happen in real life). Apparently this drop in temperature has never happened before, bloody typical innit, talk about taking the weather with you, things definitely ain't cooking in my kitchen, cos its too feckin cold to light the stove. I can see my breath in the house in every room, and there'll be no more taking showers with the window open.... cos the EXTREME cold would creep in through the window and with no source of heat (cos the shower water would be frozen cos the boiler would have been frozen from the inside-out) I'd FREEZE from the inside-out myself and most certainly DIE and I'd be stood there naked and frozen forEVER...

Ok, am gonna stop now. So, anyway, this weekend, I was one of the "pilgrims" as he calls us, in St Peters Square when the Pope came and made a speech at his bedroom window, and I have to say, it was quite moving, I had a lump in my throat when everyone started chanting together (whilst the person I was with was actually blubbing like a baby, but as she pointed out he IS probably the most famous person in the world ever, in terms of people in the world having heard of him, even in tribal villages in Africa, and it is quite a monumental occasion, seeing him in real life). So yes, caught him making his speech from the top window, didn't recognise much of the speech, my Italian's very, very far from that good yet, but I did go 'yey' when he welcomed people from England.

My feet/back/legs/neck are still hurting from all the walking/eating-whilst-standing/climbing-320 steps-up-to-St-Peters-Basillica-roof/staring-up-at-a-certain-very-famous-ceiling/queueing-up-for-aaaaaaaaaaages-to-get-in-to-see-said-famous-ceiling, that we did. That was AMAZING, the sistene chapel, seeing it after studying it in books. The curator was a very stern Italian chap who's job it was to remind the 200+ people in the chapel to keep the noise down. How does he do this? By frantically going "Shhhhhhhhhhhh"...... "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!"!! every 7 minutes and staring at people. I mean , come on, if you go to see the most famous painting in the world, like you're gonna stand there looking up in silence!! No, you're gonna go "Ooooh look, there's God and the creation of Adam and Noah and the flood and Noah getting drunk (yes, I hadn't actually heard of the latter painting before, and didn't know Noah was a drinker but there it was plain as day "The Drunkeness of Noah") and the last supper and the last judgement, and the temptations of christ. Its got more famous painters than you can shake a stick at in there, and they want you to stand under it not talking or taking loads of photos. Don't fink tho.

And i've just found out that skiing season starts in December here, and that it's a 45 minute bus trip to the best ski mountains in Italy, Wa-Hey!! Snowboarding here I come!! Yeah baby! Haven't actually got a clue how to do either skiing or snowboarding, but I'm sure I'll pick it up in no time...