Buon.... Halloween??

Halloween in Italy.  Hilarious.  E basta. That's all.

The kids nowadays are understanding how Americans celebrate the holiday, from movies and tv shows, but the elderly Italians just DO NOT get it.


Alina, the Polish nanny, has never celebrated it either so it was everyone's first time except me.  I helped the kids dress up into their spontaneous princess dress and vampire cloak, did Matteo's makeup, and we all left.  We live at the top of an apartment so we just made our way down through the complex.  The children started out timidly whispering "dolcetto o scherzetto" until they got their first couple candies, then they grew more confident and ended up having such a good time!

It was too funny to see how uncertain everyone was, since they were just mimicking what they had seen on tv!  Our neighbors would look at Alina and I for guidance on what they were expected to treat the kids and wandered around their house trying to find something...

These poor kids ended up with cough drops and pastries.

Today, All Saint's Day, is the holiday they acknowledge.  They have no school or work and everyone leaves town at least for the day, if not the weekend.

We went to Il Parco di Monza with Simone's former coworkers and their family.  It took about a half an hour due to the traffic after Mass, but we played "I spy" and the sign game to pass the time.  It is a huge park, the largest in Lombardia.  We went to a dinosaur museum and outdoor park then got coffee while the kids played.

Bocce ball is a game dating back to 5000 BC making it possibly the oldest in history.  It's simple but fun, and as you can see the Italian veterans still love it.  Daria actually let me know that this specific court is reserved only for vets.