My old flatmate, Steve, used to say "ghetto times call for ghetto measures", and it's an expression that I have unashamedly adopted to this day. I got to use it today, and it's been a bit of a motto of late, but today it became incredibly appropriate given the situation here in the studios, and funnily enough at our apartment as well.

Apparently there was an explosion yesterday down the street and the local authorities cut off the gas in the neighbourhood for safety reasons. Our old heater (which has probably been in here since the 1950s) turned itself off. The group of us here in the studio were wondering why it was a bit chillier than usual in here, but when I came in today it was downright cold. I think that it's also what's caused our hot water heater at the apartment to go bust as well. I made the mistake of boasting earlier in the week about how warm it had been here lately (and I'll admit that the temperature's been hovering at an incredibly bearable 15 degrees celsius since I returned from Vienna). After yesterday's rain, it's cooled off immensely, diving down to a seasonable 6 degrees. If you look into the hills north of the city, you can see snow at the top of the hills. The studio is housed in an old stone building, minus insulation, complete with drafty windows, and puh-lenty of humidity. Firenze is based in a river basin, making the climate quite similar to what I experienced when I was living in the Waikato in New Zealand. This means that this weekend I'll be buried under piles of sweaters and shawls, a few pairs of socks, and a toque. Thankfully, I'm getting out of town tomorrow and I can postpone chilly drawing hands for a day.

This weekend, Bologna is hosting their international art fair and the whole group of us are going to be hopping on a train first thing in the morning to investigate the goings-on. The city is going to be hopping with events for the whole weekend, and apparently it's one of the biggest and best going in Europe. It should be fun to draw comparisons to Toronto's own fair. It definitely won't be a way of getting out of the cold, but it will definitely be a way to pretend that we're rid of our refrigerated conditions here.