#51: Chiuso Per Ferie
Hello from (what feels like) the face of the sun!
It has been very hot this week, but relief is on its way this weekend. Assuming the weather forecast can be believed.
Isn't it funny how quickly you can go from thinking that a daily maximum of 32 is scorching, to viewing it as a pleasantly cool day? It only takes a week of 37 degree temperatures!
My innate desire to limit our air conditioner usage is completely out the window, and nonnas from the top of Italy to the heel of the boot will be horrified to know that we have even been sleeping with it on for the past few days. I assume we will all be struck down with severe cases of colpo d'aria imminently.
Many of our friends have fled for the coast or the mountains this week, and some even for the southern hemisphere. This mass migration upwards and outwards in Italy at this time of year causes absolute mayhem on the autostrada. Newspapers and television news bulletins are full of reports of transport chaos, like it doesn't happen in exactly the same way each and every year.
We have been enjoying a quiet few days in and around our neighbourhood. Managing work and the kids at home is occasionally quite the juggling act, but on the whole we have been getting by. It has been nice to spend time with them both during the day, and watching as they begin to play more independently at home. Sometimes together, but more often than not just alongside each other.
Raffy has been busy with all sorts of arts and crafts. The mess is epic, but a price well worth paying for peace and quiet. Meanwhile Leo is reinforcing all possible gender stereotypes by alternating between playing with cars, and playing with trains.
Our Tuesday afternoons at the pool are quickly becoming a much loved and anticipated tradition, with a group of friends who join us there each week for swimming, snacks and even the odd little spritz.
I am absolutely delighted by how much more comfortable the kids are becoming in the water. To be honest I was quite taken aback by how nervous they both were for the first few weeks. Perhaps this is one of the trade-offs of raising children in Italy? But I'm pleased to report that we're back on track now, and I think by the end of the summer we will have two little water babies. My inner Queenslander can relax.
Today is the famous 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.
We must be careful not to injure ourselves, because I'm not confident that even the hospitals will be open...
Certainly many public services have already been closed for weeks. I was horrified last week when I trekked into town with the two kids to go to the library, only to find the dreaded sign on the door proclaiming that it was chiuso per ferie until the second week of September! It was a mad scramble to find an alternate activity to prevent full scale meltdowns in the hot sun.
Of course the solution involved gelato.
I am obsessed with the signage that is put up around town to communicate the various closures. My favourite so far has been a very nice restaurant near our old apartment, which proclaimed:
CHIUSI PER FERIE ... CI VEDIAMO 20 AGOSTO ... FORSE ...
Closed for a break ... see you on 20 August ... maybe ...
What does maybe mean? Maybe they won't open then? Maybe they will, but we won't be able to get a booking? Maybe they are never coming back? It's all very enigmatic.
But this is typical.
I remember from last year that there were more than a few businesses that extended their ferie. The update was always proclaimed unashamedly by crossing out the original handwritten date on the note in the window and writing a new one underneath. Clearly once there has been a taste of freedom, it can be hard to return.
I like to think that they had to ask a favour from a neighbour to go and update the sign. A call most likely placed from the bar at the beach club, an espresso or spritz in one hand, and a cigarette in the other.
Sending lots of love and hugs as always!
