SURPRISE Sunday and MAGIC Monday

Sunday, after I lit a fire, hung around and did some art, cleaned up a bit, took a nap, the sun came out and I decided I was sick of being alone with my thoughts.  So I grabbed the keys and headed out to find a town I want to go to on Tuesday for their street market.  I found a couple of surprises on the way:

• The road out of the village is VERY STEEP with tight twisty turns.  Apparently, it is a road that cyclists train on, because as I was making one of the tight turns no fewer that 100 cyclists, in full matchie matchie cycle gear were headed up.  It was quite a sight to see.  Their legs were so muscled (OK, so were their butts but I wasn't really watching, I was looking at the road) and they worked so hard to climb that impossible hill.
• Once I landed at the bottom of the road and began my right turn, the sound of horns rang out and cars were coming from everywhere, flying Italian flags, flying what looked like a Ferrari flag, and these black and white flags the significance of which I have yet to determine.  As far as I can tell, it was the final day of an entire week of "solidarity".  Protests about the economy and other things I haven't figured out yet.  It went on for several miles, and at one point the police had traffic stopped so this "parade of cars" could pass.  People lined the streets waving flags and shouting support.  It was totally fun to see!

MONDAY - Apparentlly, "domani" which means tomorrow to every other Italian means "whenever I get to it" to my landlord.  Four days ago he was going to install a pully-type clothes line for me so I could wash and hang my sheets. I have a washer, but no place big enough to hang them.  I got tired of waiting so I took off again to the next town.  I FOUND A COMPUTER STORE where I will be able to buy a plug for my Mac AND it will have a european plug so I won;t have to worry about the converter or burning up my american plug.  I am so happy.  BUT, like so many other businesses in this country, it was not open until this afternoon.  So at four o'clock you know where I will be!

I forgot to mention that Sunday I also stumbled upon a store that was sort of like a K-mart, and I was able to purchase a European hair dryer and flat iron for $9 US each!!  Yippee!

OK, gotta run.  I hope the internet holds long enough for this to post.  Ciao!