"O'er all the sand-waste, with a gradual fall,

Were raining down dilated flakes of fire,

As of the snow on Alp without a wind. 

As Alexander, in those torrid parts 

of India, beheld upon his host 

Flames fall unbroken till they reached the ground,"

Dante Inferno XIV, Longfellow trans. 

And the winter weather, skiffs of snow regularly 

since our return from Venice 

continues apace.