.Ariel.

I'm in Naples this weekend. Just been out for a giro - packed with people. It was 15 degrees and people were wearing puffa jackets - saw quite a few bin liner style puffa jackets. Plus I saw quite a few kids wearing hat, scarf and GLOVES. Gloves?! What will they wear when it gets truly cold mi kiedo.

selinuntina

I always remember a few years ago at Easter, about April time and it was boiling. We were on the beach and my kids were running around with shorts and t shirts. There was an italian boy, same age as mine dressed in a huge bubble coat, hat, scarves and gloves looking longingly (SP?) at my kids. When he attemped to take his hat off his fur (real) coat cladded mother yelled "ma no !!! prendi la febbre !!!!!" . She then gave us a flilthy look like we were to blame !
As far as I know fur coats are obbligatory in Sicily from November to May.

JohnD63

i'm always amazed at how 'Sensible' the Italians are when it comes to keeping warm. My other half is the same. The slightest draft from an open window and she runs off to get her scarf and puffa jacket, talk about overkill
When we're in the UK she is shocked at the lack of clothing women wear when they're stood outside nightclubs in the winter. She always mentions it to her Italian friends

TestaRossa

We must be acclimatising.....Hat and gloves for Antonia - gloves since school started in the mornings at least and hat this last week. Plus she's back in her winter vests now too. Me, down filled coat starting last week, scarf at least since beginning of October and gloves since then too!

.Aerial. when we were down in Naples a few weeks ago we needed our hats and gloves!!

.Ariel.

Testa, I think it was quite cold (unusually) here a few weeks ago, but it isn't now ... So probably the hat scarf gloves at least could be left at home

Maybe I'll really leave everyone open mouthed tmrw and go out in short sleeves. ha!

TestaRossa

It was the torrential rain that got me! We got a bit wet! Did take brollies 'cos we knew it was on the cards but one broke and Antonia needed one of her own as her hood kept coming off on her raincoat! Pompeii was pretty miserable in the rain, although I'm glad we went! Means we'll go again too!

SaddleTramp

I keep trying to tell my mates here, "I am Scottish and the rain is the same here, but just a bit colder"...
They can't believe I go out in t-shirt, and blame my recent bout of flu symptoms on the fact I wore a t-shirt whilst out olive picking last week...They freak coz I won't let them blow dry my daughters hair and letting her go out with wet hair "she will get the flu"...Which actually has no basis in scientific fact....Auld wives tales, gotto love 'em....

indiebird

I get it here too. Julia comes out of school, she takes hat off and chucks it at me and undoes her coat that the Maestra has so lovingly demanded that she zips right up. Some peeps still look at her open mouthed.... she wants to leave coat and hat with me in the mornings as she hates putting it on in the boiling hot school and then coming out in it all but they really would be shocked if i let her arrive in nothing wouldn't they??!! However, we have had a recent bout of Flu here at the school and my daughter has not been ill at all and my son had a few days off ill with a high temp but that was that. Some of the kids here have been off for more than a week, despite all their wrapping up. I have been told (more than once) that I will get pneumonia and die (literally) by going out with my hair wet in the mornings.... not happened yet though. Have been colder recently though here so I did wonder if I was acclimatising....

Lorna at Vicenza

Not sure if I've acclimatised or just got older coz I do wear a vest now in winter here
Not one of the cotton/wool Granny vests that all the markets sell but just a cotton/lycra spaghetti strap top underneath my shirts or tops. I can't stand feeling draughty around my middle or up my back. I'm also allergic to wool so I don't have any big heavy, wooly jumpers and prefer to wear layers.

No hats, scarves or gloves here for the kids and I yet. It's not cold enough and I don't think they're needed yet. Most of the Italian kids all have theirs on already though.

Seeing the Italian kids, their mothers and their Grannies all with their own umbrella just to walk 4 metres from the school door to the car annoys me. 10 drops of rain will not kill you - it is not acid rain.
In the time it takes them fussing over the umbrellas, getting them up and blocking the path for everyone else, they could have run to the car and back 50 times !!!!

SaddleTramp

Oh yeah ^^^ and they NEVER seem to walk anywhere, even the trip round to their parents house, literary the next block, they all jump in and drive the whole 1 minute it takes to get there, then take five minutes getting out!!

Lorna at Vicenza

The one sensible person I have seen here who will not let the kids dress up so much is the football coach.

My little one started football club this September and everything was fine until the weather started to change. The Italian kids began turning up in their football kit with winter jackets and scarves on top of their football shirts and tracksuits.

The coach told everybody that all the kids do lots of warming up exercises and thay cannot play in scarves and jackets and they had to be left behind in the changing room. He quite plainly told all the anxious mummies that young kids running around a football pitch for over an hour will not get cold.

Good for him !

.Ariel.

You don't have to justify the kind of vest you wear to us Nothing wrong with an old granny vest if it does the trick.

.Ariel.

Isn't there a fear of sweating in Italy too? That seems to contradict wrapping up so much .. Any explanations welcome.

Lorna at Vicenza

When I was first nannying here, the young and very trendy mother - (who I thought was old and boring, she was younger than I am now but she was boring) had those granny wool vests and I thought they were awful.

Then we had a really freezing cold and damp spell where the icy air seemed to penetrate right through your bones, and I started wearing t-shirts under my clothes. Later the lycra stuff came out and I have to say, I like the lycra tops as they cling snuggly and don't let any draughts in. Never had such a freezing cold winter since that one. It was the only time I remember being here when my feet would freeze on the pavements walking home and my ears felt like they'd drop off. I remember lots of winters in England with frozen feet though.

37100

Sooo you're secret's out. Have to say, I do wear a vest when it's very cold, but then, I usually wear short sleeves.