Our week has been dominated by the Lucca Comics and Games festival, which has been taking place here for the past four days - with one more day to go tomorrow.

The Italian interpretation of customer service is - I will give you my advice on the matter at hand, whether you want it or not, because I know more than you. As foreigners, the going-in assumption is that we know absolutely nothing and MUST BE TAUGHT.

Strike action in Italy is standard business, and is especially common on the rails - usually taking place on a Sunday. The sciopero is always advised well in advance, so it is usually only the most unfortunate of tourists who really get left high and dry.

After the four of us being in the most perfect of health for the 14 weeks of summer holidays, Leo has chosen one of his first weeks' back at full time school to come down with un raffreddore (a cold).

Lucca is famously wet in October, and this year it has started right on time. Gone are the shorts and t-shirts of a month ago, and on with the jackets, ponchos and umbrellas. 

We've just returned from a magical three days at my favourite seaside escape in Liguria. Tellaro is truly something special.

Technically, it is still summer until this Sunday 22 September. A concept that almost broke our Australian brains.

Summer is finally coming to an end here in Lucca, and with that is the slow return to normal life. The temperature is now consistently back below 30 degrees, and we've had a couple of spectacular storms overnight that have finally brought some rain. 

I don't want to call it too soon, but I believe that we might have almost made it to the end of another Italian August. And while I wouldn't say we are completely mentally and emotionally unscathed, we've done pretty well. 

The beginning of a new week has brought with it the signs of an economy creaking back to life. The work site at the end of our road, which has been as silent as the grave for a fortnight, is back in action. Albeit for very reduced hours.

Today is the famous il Ferragosto. They say that the Melbourne Cup is the race that stops a nation (increasingly less true in the last few years I think) - but it has nothing on the fifteenth of August in Italy. The day that somehow manages to stop a nation for two weeks.

This week it is the turn of the French to invade Lucca. They are, of course, as stylish as tourists come. They are never sweaty, and they are impossibly aloof. They never, ever point at anything.

I can see why whole economies in southern Europe grind to a halt in the summer months - it is simply impossible to operate with energy and efficiency in this heat. The only course of action is to find a spot in the shade and rest for as many hours of the day as possible. 

Can we talk about pizza? Obviously it is an Italian dish, so I recognise that criticising the way Italians eat pizza already has me on rocky ground. But Italians don't order pizze to share.

With summer well and truly underway here, we've been looking for activities to do with the kids that don't involve just sitting at home with the blinds down and the fans running, spying out the windows at anyone crazy enough to be out in the heat.

Today is officially our one year anniversary of moving to Italy! On 10 July 2023, we landed at Pisa's Galileo Galilei Airport in 38 degree weather. It feels simultaneously like it was last week, and a decade ago.

I always used to wonder how families coped with the neverending Italian summer break, but now I know. Either they have retired grandparents on hand (sometimes living in the same building), or they send their children to campi estivi.

I dream of achieving perfect cross-ventilation. Our neighbours think we are insane for keeping our windows open all the time. And we feel the same about them having theirs permanently shut, with blinds down. 

I always wonder when the week will come that I will sit down to write you this letter, and I won't have anything much to say. Almost a year into this crazy Italian adventure, and I haven't even come close yet!

This week I've had the absolute pleasure of welcoming Mum back to Italy. She arrived on Friday last week, landing in Bologna. I drove up from Lucca to collect her, and then we bunny hopped our way up into the Dolomites (my manual driving continues to be a work in progress).