27 December - fur coats & panettone

A good friend has married an Italian and now lives in a charming medieval town an hour north of Venice. They’ve invited me over for Xmas so I thought ‘Why not?’ . Which is why I came to be in a Catholic church for mass on Xmas Day. Would have seemed rude to say “I’ll stay in bed, catch up with you later when you’re ready to serve aperitifs”.
Well, I can’t follow what the priest is saying, given my limited knowledge of the language, but he’s talking about poverty and the need to look after our neighbours and so on. Funny how the church is full of women in fur coats – I have time to count dozens – and there are no other ethnicities but white in the congregation. I wonder if any of these people would lay their coat down for Jesus or other fellow humans in need. I guess not. These totally unnecessary in this weather garments (I don’t object to fur in principle, if you live in Siberia or Norway and you farm it humanely, then you’re entitled to minks like you are entitled to eating little lambs) are usually worn by selfish middle class people in my limited research. I further spot lots of short older people and very tall younger ones. I can’t explain this genetic alteration any different than the times in Jamaica when I could see all the young women were slim and all their mothers some humongous assed mamas. And i couldn't see the missing link anywhere. Anyway, the style of the older people’s fur coats is the same: long, wide at the bottom, sort of like a bell shape. Don’t fancy them much, they look like they took many pelts to arrive at these monstrous dimensions. However, the younger style coats are a different story. For a start some of the furs are dyed in lovely colours, the shapes are skinnier, shorter and very enticing. I mean who doesn’t actually like the feel of fur, despite the fact that minks or foxes get killed in horrid ways? Mhm, can’t afford one in any case so I space out a bit by doing a mini standing tree pose. Well, we’re standing (should have got here very early to secure a seat – bet the rest of the year the service is much more sparsely attended) and if I just lift a foot off the ground, tighten my stomach muscles. Voila’ , mini-tree pose. It is after all a spiritual place and yoga is a non denomination spiritual practice non?

Then we are released into a welcoming bar. Lots of people wishing each other merry Xmas. Nice bars, very mixed ages I notice and the usual mixture of people drinking alcohol and people drinking coffee. Nice to have the choice.
Lunch is a different set of foods. Am told in the south they celebrate with supper on the 24, fish based! And amazing cakes selection The north sticks to Xmas lunch at a regular hour ie. Around 1pm. Guess no Queen’s speech to time things around.
They eat a lot of meat and not expensive cuts either. Hearty foods, including lentils and spinach but you get to grate truffles on your lasagne. Yum. No vast choice of puddings, just a Panettone or Pandoro doused in liqueurs. Then they go to other people’s or relatives’ houses to wish them Happy Xmas and compare presents. They are very upfront the Italians. Show us your presents is done pretty openly in the same way they ask ‘And how much do you earn? Is that before or after tax?’ Very forward don’t you think? In all of this they drive to and fro. Nobody appears noticeably blotto. Think they don’t need to do that here. They are not going to be cooped up for days with relatives and so no need for obliteration and don’t witness any rows or simmering ones.

Much later at night we go to a bar/beer place, nothing fancy, to hear some er.. rock music. Yeeks, Italian rock no less. The whole place is singing along to a Vasco Rossi soundalike, who must be the Bruce Springsteen of these parts and a popular one at that. Me? I've only heard the nasal whine of one Eros Ramazzotti so far.
Again the bar contains people of all ages, including a large family group with young kids and teenagers amongst them. How civilized. You don’t have to break up the atmosphere of the day by dividing into the stay at homes and the going outs. There is strict no smoking now in bars here so you are not actually exposing children to it. Am liking this continental Xmas very much. Buon Natale.