SIGNS OF SUMMER

By Larry & Arlene on Jul 4, 2022 in Blog | 10 comments

SIGNS OF SUMMER When I sat down to begin to write this blog entry, it was officially the first day of summer, the Summer Solstice. But here in Central Italy, as far are we are concerned, the calendar pronouncement was running late this year. It has been, from our experience, mid-Summer for nearly a month. In a repeat of last year, we went through a protracted late winter with chilly, damp days and intermittent showers, until into mid-May. There was a brief period of encouraging warmth around the first official day of Spring in April, but then late winter reasserted itself awhile longer. And then, in short order in mid-May, we went from jackets to mid-summer, shirt sleeves. For those of us living here in Ascoli Piceno, on the flat flood plain of the river Tronto, even with the western edge of Ascoli inserting itself into the foothills of the Sibillini Mountains, we were spared any serious accumulation of winter snow. We had a day or two of winter snow flurries which soon melted and was never a serious factor in getting around. However, some of the higher slopes around us were snow covered for most of the winter. It made a pleasant, distant backdrop when Cesare, our new canine family member, had me out in the morning sunshine, for my walks.   At our stage of life, we are not into winter sports, so we have been content to remain close to the hearth this winter. If I ever had any enthusiasm to drive on winter, potentially snow-covered, two-lane mountain roads, I have lost it. When we replaced our car several years ago, we decided on a single set of warm weather tires kept on the car all year round. We have a set of snow chains in the trunk to be legal if stopped and inspected by the authorities between the middle of October to the middle of April. But the chains have never been out of the package. Of course, a contributing factor is in this part of Central Italy and the lower altitude where we live, winters are less severe than further north or in the nearby mountains. Even with that consideration, part of the...