And so the seasons have begun to change again and, with them, the offerings in the markets. The first porcini are here, but the apricots are on their last legs.

Jonathan is back in school and three days a week he leaves before I am awake in the morning and doesn't get back home until almost 9 p.m. But he loves being a student again and became quite giddy over all the options when putting together his class schedule for this semester. It was adorable.

There was a Bike To Work event last week at the University of Pisa and, being a die-hard biker all these years, Jonathan went, even though it wasn't one of his regular class days. They all got t-shirts and then peddled around the streets of Pisa together ringing their bicycles bells. I wasn't there for this, but I'm sure it was, again, adorable.

I mostly stay home and fart around while he is away. I write some on my new novel. I do laundry. I overwater the houseplants. I am trying to read an Agatha Christie book ("L'assassino di Roger Ackroyd") in Italian so that I can join the reading group down at the bookstore in town. Just this morning, someone on the internet said, "To learn another language, you have to be willing to be an idiot." True.