Mother Nature thinks she's funny

It's snowing.

Now, this isn't earth shaking (earthquake puns are hard to stop) news for me, but in Liguria, this is enough to stop trains.  What started as mild, damp flurries, has now started sticking and is about an inch deep.  Our neighbor even yelled from the terrace for us to come out and see the train tracks below dusted in snow, and we joined several other people from our condo on the balcony, shivering and discussing how incredible this is.  Literally.  Manuel just yelled, for the 8th time tonight "This is incredible!", while looking out the window.

I started the day totally jaded to this, and then quickly remembered the last time that happened was the day of the flood, where I brushed off everyone's astonishment at the amount of rain early in the day, only to have the afternoon prove me incredibly, seriously wrong, so this time I stayed quiet.  In addition to the fact that I bragged a few days ago about how fantastic it was to have a whole year of not shoveling snow or scraping off my car.  I clearly spoke way too soon.

However, it was hard to stifle a laugh when our architect for the Cantina, who drove here from La Spezia, looked at the sky and lamented in a horrified voice, pacing and wringing his hands, that he had no idea how he'd be able to drive home in this weather and he might have to stay here.  They are quite obviously not used to this, and aside from transit fears, the sort of adorable enthusiasm about the snow is actually quite catching.  Manuel might have been serious when he suggested we could go sledding tomorrow, and though I'm inclined to doubt him, with the insane weather we've had this year, I'm not ruling out anything.

Yes, Monterosso still has it's Christmas tree up

They had a few flurries in Monterosso two years ago, but the last time it snowed and stuck was in 1985, and then before that was in the 60's.  It's quite rare, and the combination of snowflakes melting into the sea is incredibly magical.  In all honesty, I've dreamed about seeing snow at the beach my whole life.  When I was little, I assumed the waves would just freeze as the were, as though a snowy pause button had been hit, and snow would accumulate and icicles would hang off them.  Now, knowing better, it's still something I want to see, even without frozen waves.  To New York and New Jersey standards, it's really nothing, but nevertheless, I'm joining in happily in periodically popping out on the balcony and snapping pictures.  Tomorrow, like a happy kid who lived in the sun their whole life, I'm waking up early like all the snow enchanted Monterossini around me, and going to the beach.

These cacti are as confused as we are with the snow

Only this time, to take pictures of the perfect meeting of summer and winter.