On the subject of Italy

[telophase]

When myrialux and I were in Italy, we discovered that weather which had us in light jackets, open to catch the breeze, had Italians bundled up in puffy jackets, with scarves wrapped up to their noses, and big fuzzy hats pulled down low. Back home, a bit of web-searching revealed that it's a cultural Italian thing--colpo d'aria, a fear of moving air bringing illness.

I was just now reading part of a website that chronicled a Welsh couple's horse-packing journey from Wales to Jordan, part of which was through Northern Italy, and it seems that the colpo d'aria extends to horses, too. At one stop:

At another place, we experienced more contrasts between our life with our horses and that of our hosts. It was a huge farm building with a small jumping arena outside and one small paddock. Every other bit of land around was used for growing rice, right up to the edge of the buildings. Inside, there were forty horses living in boxes. We asked if our horses could be outside for the night. “Of course, no problem, you can put them in the paddock. But will they be warm enough? What if it rains?” As we watched the sun go down, still wearing t-shirts because it was so warm, two women in the courtyard discussed whether or not to close the top door on a stabled horse wearing a padded rug. They closed the door. We sensed here, and at a few other places in Italy, that some people thought we were being hard on our horses, keeping them outside, but at least they had space, company & fresh air and are rugged up if needs be.