When people think of Italy in general, they usually think of Venice, Rome, Capri, and Lake Como. It does not matter if it is Northern, Eastern, Western, or Southern Italy: what comes immediately to mind is the warmth of the sun and the lovely orange and yellow hues in which it bathes squares, country, and beaches alike. But if romantic tourists took a look at Northern Italy right now, this very day of February, they would be disappointed. Pictures of downtown Milan look more like downtown Minneapolis, while the country roads surrounding the beating heart of Italian economy would remind them of Siberia.
Even if it is true that Italy is once in a while hit by waves of extreme cold and snow in winter, that nevertheless remains the exception rather than the norm; therefore, besides freezing the country literally, blizzards like these, so voracious as to swallow half of the country in a couple of days, freeze it metaphorically too. Train delays go well beyond the hour when the service is not suspended altogether, and people drive as if they were carrying T&T in the passenger’s seat. Not that Italians are bad drivers – quite the contrary: they are so confident in their driving that they could be scary at times…try driving downtown Rome, or Milan, or Palermo during rush hour! But they are nevertheless little used to such extreme weather, and they end up being ill-prepared to face it more often than not.
Apparently, the warning about the blizzard had been given well in advance, but chaos fell on mass-transportation nevertheless, as punctual as a Swiss clock, as they say over there. It might be romantic to think that Italians are so used to sunshine that they have a hard time taking winter seriously, but that would be also very stereotypical. Northerners are used to cold, and fog, and rain, and ice, and more cold. But snow in massive quantities, with the exception of mountain areas of course, is a different matter. When she comes, even announced, she still manages to take most by surprise. The white lady must love paradoxes.
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