Today, five years later, Ratti Bai's sari was even shabbier, her hair even more gray and her eyes twice as dazed.
It was smaller and it seemed shabbier than before -there was no cloud of magic" hovering over its roof and issuing from the windows of the upper floor.
All these things are beginning to affect Italy's justly acclaimed quality of life. Infrastructure is getting shabbier.
Parents, fearing ever shabbier public schools, have another reason to think about moving out of state.