Fright Night - my Halloween date!

For Halloween we went to a fund raising event at the Croce Verde (Green Cross).   In Italy a lot of the emergency services (eg Misericordia ambulances) are run by charities, rather than government run as in the UK.  The Croce Verde has been much involved with the rescue effort in Monterosso and Vernazza, so particularly in need of support at the moment.  We paid 15 euros for a gigantic portion of meat and chips, with wine, followed by a very sticky cake - estimated at about 1000 calories per slice!   It was fancy dress, though not everyone managed it.  Neil rather stole the show with a home made mask downloaded from the internet and a borrowed wig.

Here is my Pri-mate for the evening;

Today and tomorrow are public holidays here - All Saints Day and All Souls Day.  Everyone visits the cemetery to tidy graves and place flowers and remember the absent members of their families.  In even older times it was Samhain, when people believed that the fabric of the universe was at its thinnest and the spirits of the dead could communicate with the living.


So, in Italian fashion,  I've been remembering absent members of my own family - my Italian grandfather Thomas, my lively grandmother Annie who loved to party, my story-telling Irish father and long suffering Geordie mother (I still miss them a lot) and two little grandsons, Alfie and Taliesin who died at birth, but are still very much part of our family.