So here I am back in the USA at my house in Bowling Green, Ohio after a long and pleasurable sojourn with my friends at CDP and elsewhere in Italy. As the title implies I arrived there a few days prior to the Vernal Equinox and departed a few days after the Summer Solstice. The only big disappointment was that for logistical reasons I was unable to visit my friends in Piemonte and Lombardia .

For the final month of my stay Michael was with me and we were able to travel back to the US together. As we approached the day of our departure, the weather became very warm and I remember one sweltering night in a hotel in Siena and the next day going by train from Florence to Bologna where the temperature was 40 C (104 F) when we boarded a plane for London, only to disembark into a temperature of 16 C (61 F), an unbelievable drop. We got to our hotel in London later than scheduled so we missed most of the final match of Euro 12 between Italy and Spain; in fact we arrived just in time to see Spain’s third and fourth goals. Michael and I were supporting Italy since England had been eliminated, so it was a huge disappointment for us to see them so badly mauled .

The next day we boarded an AA flight to Chicago where again it was near 100 F, so our temperature excursions over 24 hours were phenomenal. We stayed one night with Jane and Sam and the next day Emily (who had come to Chicago to meet us), Michael and I drove to BG where again we found heat.

I have a gadget on my screen that tells me the temperature in Siena and I have been noticing that for the past two or more weeks it has stayed in the 90’s for the daytime highs, similar to what we have here; the difference being that here I live in an air-conditioned house, go to the air-conditioned gym in an air-conditioned car, shopping for supplies in an air-conditioned store, and partaking of drinks in an air-conditioned bar, whereas most of my Italian friends enjoy only some of these benefits. We are told that the citizens and residents of the US are profligate with the energy resources of the planet, but during the height of the summer here, I tend to subscribe to the attitude that it is a problem that my children must deal with, I want my comfort!

During my stay in CDP I had occasion to spend quality time with friends made in previous visits. Not only that, but I am delighted to report that I found new friends on this visit. Just at the city end of via Remota, a new bar/restaurant opened in March, just as I arrived there. It is called Bistro 22; it has a very warm atmosphere and I came to spend an hour or so there most days. It is operated by the Bertozzi family and in particular it is managed by Alessandro and Greta, brother and sister. They, along with their parents Marguerita and Roberto, are splendid people and are very easy to get on with. Anyone that read my previous post will recall that I wrote a poem about my time at Bistro 22. Here I append a couple of photographs taken on the White Night festival (June 28), hence their “formal” dress.

Several of my readers have requested that I write shorter posts as my verbal meanderings have been known to challenge the attention span of some. With that in mind, dear friends, I bid you farewell.