Dough!

21st December 2025

It was just as well that Stephen decided there wasn’t enough to keep him tethered to his desk while the boss was occupied elsewhere, seeing as getting home for five on Monday was a blip on an otherwise demanding week.

At least he made it home by 7.30 on Tuesday so we were only a few minutes late for meeting up with Ben and Alessandra for pizza at Bar Corradini. We are a little behind the curve on this one, Vittorio having served up pizze for quite some time now, not only to general appreciation but even gaining the Maddalena seal of approval. We are happy to say that the pizze (in long rectangles, two toppings on each half and each half divided into four) were mighty fine and the company just as good.

Stephen beat his record for the week on Wednesday when it was eight before he walked through the door. The thick fog that had descended earlier in the evening didn’t help matters, the weather having turned once again somewhat random, as this breakdown that I’m sure you are agog to see will prove:

            Monday: unremarkable

            Tuesday: damp

            Wednesday: dullish then foggy

            Thursday: damp and misty then sunny

            Friday: damp and misty then dull

            Saturday: it cleared up for the weekend (hurrah)

Just to be totally pedantic, Stephen’s arrival time on Thursday was quarter to seven, and quarter past seven on Friday.

Friday was also the morning that Peggy showed her displeasure with the weather by deciding to leap onto our bed while we were going through our chores before I took them for our walk by chewing a hole in our duvet cover. It has been a good while since she’s made with the mastication and we thought she’d left those early days behind her now she is settled. Obviously not when she’s a bit on the bored side, but to her credit she did do a good job as she managed to chew the duvet underneath too. We have, as diversionary tactics, given her an old Nylabone chew that failed to go down well with either Harry or Bella in the past but which she is happily gnawing rather than our bed linen.

So how did we spend the last weekend before Christmas?  Not it a panicky and frenzied dash around the shops, elbowing our way through crowds of shoppers, that’s for sure. Mind you, parking was at a premium yesterday afternoon when we got to Ecocasa, though that owed more to the limited size of the car park than any hordes massing at the Chinese store near Girasole where Stephen was on a mission to find Christmas wrapping and gift bags. These were successfully sourced before aperitivo at Totò.

It’s been a while since we were last there, but what better time to renew old habits and bag a couple of artisan panettone into the bargain. Stephen again drove the exercise, being on the hunt for bff Manuel’s Christmas gift. He was a little taken aback at the limited selection on offer compared to past years – maybe because we were a little late or because most people had had the foresight to pre-order, as those turning up to collect suggested.

Nevertheless, we still managed to snag a bounty of goodies, not just the panettone for Manuel (on a decorative plate Stephen chose as an extra on which to present it) but also one for us and a slightly smaller one together with some biscuits in festive shapes to take to Marco and Maddalena’s when we go to dinner tomorrow – not forgetting an impulse buy (like most of the others weren’t…) of a bottle of red wine spumante. That will be cracked open sometime over the next week or so, not so much in celebration of the season but in recognition of the immeasurable contribution we continue to make to the Italian economy.