During a recent visit to Italy last week, I was shocked to realize how much media coverage was dedicated to the apparently unprecedented cold weather hitting the country. 

Even before leaving I was warned by friends and family that this was to be "the worst winter since 1985" but I could not anticipate that the national television channels would literally be monopolized by alarmist talks about snow storms, frost, Siberian temperatures and all sorts of weather related apocalyptic…

Snow on trees - beautiful, if you ask me, and appropriate weather for this time of year. Of course not everybody sees it that way. Most of the people supposedly always "Dreamin' of a white Christmas..." have been whinging non-stop since the snow started, admittedly a good bit ahead of the feast…