Floods and Christmas lights.

There are two things I'd like to talk about today:
1) Bari's inexistent canalisation.
We've had some really bad weather these last days, it kept raining and raining and raining.... Well, okay, as a German from Bonn I can't really say I haven't ever seen any rain before, so I took my umbrella and wanted to go out. I hadn't quite expected the catastrophe that was awaiting me outside: my street was flooded. There weren't just puddles but at least 20cm of water everywhere in the street. This was the first time I noticed that I had never actually seen any gullies here. Since I needed to go to the supermarket I made may way out of the street anyway. There weren't any people in the streets, some cars were trying to make their way through the streets that had turned into rivers (it seemed). State of emergency. I actually got to the supermarket (it was deserted, not even the beggar who is usually always outside was there) and when I came back to my house, I was completely soaked from head to toe.
For the rest of the day and night, I stayed inside. The next morning, it was still raining and the circumstances hadn't changed much. By now, the streets are accessible again, but I am praying everyday that we won't get anymore heavy rain.
This explains why Italians don't understand how we can put up with our -much worse- weather in Germany. Yes, we have more rain and it's much colder in GER, but we are much better adapted to these "harsh" conditions - we have heatings (yup, in many houses here there's no heating), canalisation systems and much more...

2) Christmas in Italy.
Of course I won't be here for Christmas, but I have been observing Italian Christmas "customs". Everywhere there are lights - bright, coloured, blinking lights (not very classy to my mind!). You can see an army of Santa Clauses climbing almost every balcony of the city. There's tons of "living" wannabe-Santa Clauses who are strolling around in the city (also decorated with bright blinking lights), some playing Christmas songs on a trumpet or flute that make your tympanic membrane explode.
In the supermarkets people wait for hours in loooooong lines to buy some "Panettoni". A panettone is a kind of cake that you buy in a huuuuuuuuuuuge box, and according to Jan Weiler ("Maria, ihm schmeckts nicht"), it's just disgusting. Well, I tried some and it really depends on the sort of Panettone. Last time at the supermarket I saw a man with two shopping carts full of panettones waiting in line. I counted them, he bought at least 60. I was so vexed I hadn't taken my camera with me, the sight was too amusing... an old Italian, barely noticeable in between those two huge shopping carts with piles of panettones.
After seeing "A Christmas Carol" yesterday I am finally somehow in the christmas mood. Although, without the traditional German Christmas market, I'm not quite there yet.

Merry Christmas, happy new year and happy holidays to everyone!