Dressing for the Season

Italians have an outfit for everything. Some, like athletic clothes, are obvious. Even having a different outfit for different activities, i.e. cycling vs. running, isn't that unusual. However, the conventions do seem a bit rigid. If you are cycling then you ARE wearing a cycling outfit, no exceptions. You would never wear running shorts to cycle or sweat pants just to walk around in comfortably. Further, Italians dress by the calendar, not by the weather. On September 21st, during some of the hottest weather we had, the fall colors and styles came out. As of December 21st, every Italian in his/her right mind shrugged into their down jacket, wrapped a heavy scarf around their throat and pulled on their hat and gloves. It didn't matter that the temperature was pushing 60's on some days and was, regrettably, warmer than we heat our house to in Massachusetts. I guess they like to sweat in the name of fashion. One curious result of this obsession is that you can't look out the window and judge what you should be wearing by what you see on the street. If you dressed by what you saw you would be stifling hot. I know, I fell for it a couple of times. Now that we are half way through "winter" the end of the season sales are being held. All winter clothing is at least half off, even during this, the coldest stretch of weather we have yet had. After all, it will be spring soon and the stores must be selling spring clothes now so that you can walk out the door on March 21st properly dressed for the season. Until then, you can walk down the sidewalk dressed in your jacket, scarf, mittens and hat, talking to yourself and gesticulating wildly while drooling and nobody will look twice. However, walk around in shorts after going for a run and you are likely to be shunned as a lunatic.

All of this brings us to the last few days. An inch of snow on Wednesday morning closed the school and paralyzed the city, but was gone by noon. That was just the warm up. Snow fell all day on Friday resulting in a canceled school trip to Rome. The 4 inches of snow which fell was the storm of a generation for the Viterbese who have not had this much snow on the ground in over two decades. Snow fell in Rome, covering the ruins and providing unique picture taking opportunities if you were already there. However, no trains were running so you couldn't get there otherwise. On Saturday afternoon school was canceled for Monday, at the request of the city, with the possiblity of cancellation on Tuesday as well. I didn't bother with pictures. I have lived in buildings with 6 FEET of snow on the roof. A few inches just doesn't do it for me. The big question then becomes, what do Italians wear when it snows? Why, brightly colored snow suits and big down filled boots, of course! These are size sensitive items and, as I just indicated, this 4 inches of white stuff is a once in a lifetime snow event. Do Italians go out every fall and purchase a snow suit, just in case? I wouldn't put it past them. Hopefully, these are just their "skiing" clothes, pulled out for (gasp) double use. It remains a mystery.