round about Christmas time. A few days ago I saw Barney and he asked me to send you all his love. He is driving a truck now and likes it much better that foot-slogging. The weather here is rather cold just now and we have had a drop of rain which makes things very muddy. We are up in the hills now next to a range of snow covered mountains and are busy chasing Jerry out of it. I am writing this in a room of a farm house and next room and upstairs the family live. I should say these are three familys (sic) in it and there are kids of all shapes and sizes. They seem to go in for large familys (sic) over here. The cows, sheep, pigs, fowls and even pigeons all live under the same roof in the winter time. So you can imagine the house as a combination house, pigsty cowshed and hen house. I have seen two of the big towns in this part of Italy, during