Halloween - Not

As I think most of you know, Halloween is not celebrated in Italy (or anywhere else in the world I think) in the same way as Americans. (Although, our housekeeper knew all about it, "from watching television" she explained.) There were some Halloween decorations around and a small amount of Halloween-themed candy, but no costumes, etc. I was told that all the kids dress up for Carnavale in February. I did ask around a bit to some of my English speaking friends about it and got a variety of answers. The American kids who know someone with a pass to get on to a nearby American army base go trick-or-treating there - not an option for us. Some people throw little parties for kids - too lazy of a mother this year. But I did have a plan. I bought each child three large Halloween candies and they trick-or-treated our apartment - me, my mom and Bill. The advance planning took all of 2 minutes and Bill was a monster in our bedroom, I was in the laundry room and handed out candy from behind the curtain with my "bloody hand" and I think my mom just gave it to them with a friendly-grandma kind of "boo." I have to admit that it was a nice respite from the multitude of parties, parades, innumerable occasions when the kids have to wear their costumes and hundreds of pieces of candy. And the best part was, the kids didn't really even care - they got some candy, spent a couple of minutes being a little scared and didn't have to do all the usual work!

The only nod to Halloween was the previous week when they got to dress up as their favorite character in a book for "Book Week." Isabelle was Ruth Rose from the A-Z mystery series, Nick was Harry Potter and Sam was a "footballer" from the current Italian team "a la mode," Milan AC. I think the other reason that the kids didn't pay too much attention to the lack of Halloween was because the next day we went for a mini-vacation to see Pompei and Mount Vesuvius. It is not just one story, but many little stories which I will try to write in the next couple of days - just imagine this, Federico Fellini makes a Chevy Chase vacation movie and that about sums up our experience.