You have only to choose the least evil.

Here for the last week it has been so mild that, if I had been in my usual state of health, I might have gone out, they say; and, of course, I have felt the influence beneficially.

One encourages oneself in Italy when it is cold, with the assurance that it can't last.

Our misfortune this time has been that it has lasted unusually long.

How the Italians manage without fires I cannot make out.