Three weeks ago!

cant wait gattina!!

when i got stuck with my camera i put how can i ..... into google ~ it was very helpful

When you said "snowed in", I didn't picture it quite this bad. :(((

Um, nor did we! Let's hope that's it for this year!

lol hope that's it for a few years, you must have had more than your ration for one year! but I suppose that such an extreme does make you really value the change when it finally does come

oh my god! very cold!i love this climate , i want to experience this snow!

Oh, Junna, I think after a very short time, you would have had enough of it and want to get back to your lovely warm climate again.

OMG thats unreal!

Like you, Gattina, I hope we've now seen the back of it! I have to say, we havn't experienced snow quite as bad as that since we've been here - in fact I hope we never do! I'm terrified of slipping over and breaking something - and I don't mean a flower pot or two!! ;o(

Now that is some snow ! When it melts , does it flood?

Sometimes, Rose, but this year the thaw has been very gradual, which has pleased the farmers and the river authorities mightily, since the meltwater is released slowly and gradually into the earth without running off the surface and straight into the rivers, taking out the banks and the bridges. We had five months without rain, and the land needs it. Our well water level is looking normal again. I think Italy has better water management than the UK, as even in times of soaring temperatures (most summers) and drought, the reservoirs maintain an adequate level to cope with demand. We do have requests to use it carefully, but no hose-pipe bans as such.

the news this evening anounced a hosepipe ban already, bet they could do with some of that metlwater!

Yes, we saw that! Our Italian friends, when I tell them, are by turns perplexed and convulsed with laughter.
We pay the grand sum of €12.50 every year to something that translates roughly as "The riparian consortium", and they look after the drainage, collection and management of natural fresh water sources and river banks, and it's worth every centesimo. If they didn't do such a good job, we'd have floods, and even more devastation from landslips.

sounds a good scheme. of course, that's too sensible a plan to use over here!

If our water companies stopped investing all over the place ion non-water comapnies and started actually doing ther proper jobs, such as repairing their pipes. we would'nt be losing thousands of gallons of water every day from leaks and wouldn't need hosepipe bans at all, or at least this early in the year.

*s* come the revolution, when I take over the country, every water comapny will be fined £1,000 for every gallon they lose through leaks. That'd make 'em get their act together! (and they wouldn't be allowed to pass the cost on to the customer, either)

That should be fun to watch, Fran!

I can't believe you only pay that small sum , we pay nearly £500 a year for ours! We too are having a water ban starting soon. Frans right, they haven't a clue!

Ah, no, Rose, you mistake what I'm trying to say - we PAY for our metered water (and how!), that goes to the private companies who collect, purify and supply it to houses, but the "Consorzio Renana" is responsible for what river water, snow melt and rain do to the surrounding countryside, and for the water table. They can prevent large swathes of the country being asphalted over where rain absorption is vital, so it isn't channeled into drains and lost to the reservoirs, but keeps the water table high. Does that make sense? Not sure I've explained it adequately.