It's time to fall back in Italy...and snippets from today's walk

Italy falls back tonight to standard time (called "solar time," here), tonight. So, until your local area changes back to standard time, the time difference is one hour less or more depending on where you are in relation to Italy. For example, when both the U.S. and Italy are on the same time system, New York time is 6 hours earlier than Italy time, but until the U.S. changes, NY will be only 5 hours earlier.

Italy changes back to Daylight Savings Time (called "legal time," here) on the 30th of March, 2013.

Together with the time change, the cold and rain is moving in, today, but a nice long walk still was in order......More......

It's sad and scary, so let's get it out of the way. Small- and medium-sized stores continue to close, even on busy streets with good foot traffic and public transportation. Lots of people are looking at things in store windows. Despite the fact that some economists have said that the worst is over and the long slow recovery has begun, it still seems like there are many fewer people actually in the stores buying things. The prices of goods in Italy--except maybe for good local table wine and extra virgin olive oil--always have seemed exorbitant, even ridiculous, to me (partly due to the extremely high energy costs that trickle down quickly to the consumer), but they must be seeming ridiculous to more and more people with less and less in their pockets.

A glimpse inside the courtyard of a typical Milanese "ringhiera" (wrought-iron balustrade) condo of the end of the 19th century. This one's in the Navigli area. Once considered housing of the poor, many of these buildings have disappeared around town, and where they survive often have been gentrified. This one is still home to working class, as well as white collar, families, and got a fresh coat of paint just last year.

After lunch with a friend, we got a yummy cup of espresso here under the tall portico in Piazza XXIV Maggio.

Never ceases to amaze me that people want to eat ice cream when it's cold. Just as well for the ice cream stores.

It's been awhile since I've included a "Here my are!," so here it is!

Must be perennially shady, here.

And, finally, a lovely private garden before making a quick stop for some groceries, and then home with the goods.

It was a nice long walk, I hope you enjoyed it, too, despite the gray chilly weather. Bundle up! Tomorrow we're getting blasted with winds literally from Siberia.