Winter is coming.

Obviously, the Italians do not have such things as cold and snow. It's not stylish enough, I suppose. Since the local folks take out their furs and woolens when it's 15 above zero and we Northerners still run around in light sweaters and Birks, I actually cannot imagine what the Florentines would do in real winter.
We have rains here. End-of-the-world rains when the water descends by buckets and changes the town into one big puddle. Shoes dissolve, too, unless one gets the point - you know, they don't have rubber boots in many colours at, for example, Fendi, which is a Florentine company, just for the heck of it.
Winter is also announced by the arrival of smog. For me, it meant to go back to corticoids which I hate because.... because.
Today it was sunny, though, so I was hanging around thinking of doing some shopping and the damn town is full of damn tourists. I know that tourists are keeping the economy going but why the hell they can't do it in a way that the normal folks do not have to knock over them? And, does the city council really really have to block via Calzaiuloi, that just accidentally goes from the Duomo to the piazza Signoria and is full of tourist traffic, with some decorative Christmas crap? We all are vaguely aware that the Christmas is coming and we all know how a conifer looks like. Grrrr.
I don't get another thing. I mean, I was sorta looking around with the vague idea of getting me some undies and I noticed that basically anywhere, they have Christmas themed underwear. Is there anyone who really wears bra and panties in 0C100M100Y0K (1) red with faux fur trim on Christmas day? And, no, I'm not sure that I want to know. I bought myself 500 euros worth of La Perla stuff on eBay instead. For 75.50. Black; I have architect's soul.
It's the feast of Immaculate Conception on Monday. Means two day weekend for me, the natives maybe celebrate something. Accidentally, in one of the odder corners of Ravelry, we're discussing the dogma of immaculate conception and the momentary conclusion is that the darn monk who invented that Virgin Mary remained a virgin before, during and after the birth, spent too much time between the walls of the convent. I'll find the book on women in Middle Ages, there's a cute chapter on medicine and female anatomy in the views of the scholars of the time most of them were clerics and had interesting ideas indeed. I don't recall Capitulare de villis mentioning some interesting herbs or crazy mushrooms (2).
Next week, I'm starting work on my next book. Woe upon me.

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(1) geeky way of saying That icky screaming shade of red that you get in the basic six piece box of cheap crayons. You know what I mean, anyway. The numbers are for percents, the letters are for cyan, magenta, yellow and black. I did graphics for too long.
(2) Here. It's a document that, among others, declares that in monasteries' gardens be planted herbs (3)and trees that are listed.
(3) of which some are discussed at Gernot Katzer's spice web.