3 Little Pigs Revisited

We've realized over the last few days that there are several bits of information the author of the 3 Little Pigs neglected to include. For your benefit, we've listed them below:

1. Share with your brother. If the first 2 pigs had taken what they had to the 3rd brother's house, everyone would have been a little warmer and a little safer. Read on...

2. Brick houses in Italy are insulated (if you can call it that) with straw!!! When the straw shifts, the ceilings crack. So far no straw on our heads. Just cracks.

3. Bricks are cold. We are literally living in a brick house. Nothing else. No insulation...just brick...except for the straw over our heads.

4. The reason you always have a pot of boiling water going is to keep the cold air from flowing down the chimney, not just to keep the wolf out! We speculate that it should also keep out birds, bats, bugs, etc...so far we have no experience birds or bats in the house. But the bug population is something to be reckoned with!

This little pig is starting a fire...

5. Speaking of the pot of boiling water...the 3 Little Pigs were much better versed in the whole indoor fire thing. We attempted our first cozy fire in our new house today. Ha! Ha! Most of the smoke went up the chimney...the rest created an indoor fog that we're still smelling. After googling for info on it, we think perhaps the chimney hasn't been cleaned for a number of years? We also learned that we don't seem to have a flue...or if we do, it's hiding admirably. So I guess you can add indoor smoke to our rapidly growing list of adventures in Italy...