Masked Alice

San Bartolomeo, Italy (Feb 7, 2005)

This is my other niece Alice, Mililla sister. She is now two years old, and grew up a lot since last december, as children tend to do, in a really fascinating process.

Last time I saw her, this summer, she was barely talking, and now sometimes it is not possible to stop her at all. The funny thing is that she talks very fluently a language that she partially invented. She still finds difficult to say words longer than two or three syllables, and she solved the problem by shrinking all longer words into two syllable words, effectively creating a new language with modified vocabulary and simplified grammar (Italian has a rather complex grammar). And she really talks very fast in her Alice-speak.

Here she is with a Carnival mask. Similarly to Halloween in US, during Carnival children (and grown ups alike) go around dressed in costumes. The most famous italian carnival is in Venice, where people dress and walk through the narrow alleys and along the canals of the museum-city dressed in very expensive and elaborate costumes. I had only been there once, but I still remember it quite well because it was the occasion in which I actually met Mayli, now my wife.