It's not just us...

We have, for now, an incredibly strong wind, but that's about it. What is more troubling, aside from the mountain of mud related problems here in Monterosso, is what's going on an hour (or so) away in Genoa. The flooding that devastated us over a week ago has reared it's head again, but this time releasing its wrath on the largest port city in northwestern Italy, and one of the most important port's in Europe. Six are dead, including 2 children, and like us, the authorities are instructing people to head to higher ground, stay in their houses, and avoid roadways or travel. The Reuters article in English can be found here as well.

It's incredibly difficult to see these same disturbing images on the news, just with a different setting. The headlines yell, "Tourna La Paura" and refer to us here in the Cinque Terre as a "paradiso sotto il fango" - a paradise under the mud. The state of emergency in this part of Liguria is still in effect, and before the mud has even had a chance to dry, we're going through the same thing again. We're still sitting tight here, hoping the rain spares us the same wrath it just released on Genoa a few hours ago. I wouldn't wish this on anyone, and my heart goes out to those suffering with these same floods. Above is the heavily sandbagged Via Molinelli in the New Town, a troubling street for all of us the next few days.

In lighter news, we are desperately trying to have a bit of normalcy in the face of all of this fear, preparation,

anxiety, anticipation and cleanup. Especially for the sake of the children around us, who must be petrified and more then a little bit confused. Even our baby mascot feels it - her mother and father work at the restaurant, and the rest of us spend our time coo-ing over this sleepy little angel. The army, the Red Cross, men and women of all ages, are rendered helpless by our little 3 month old Giulia when they walk in the restaurant. Fact: baby noises that grown ups make are the same in Italian as in English. We prepared a big lunch today with the tons of food thankfully donated and dropped off yesterday, and tried to distract ourselves with light conversation, a little baby, and some creme caramel. It worked, for a short while, then we all returned to watching the sky, and now that it's dark out, the news.