Summer has definitely arrived here in Northern Italy.
We’ve been enjoying temperatures in the high 30s with high humidity for the last few weeks.
From early morning to late evening we have all the doors and windows open letting a warm breeze blow through the house.
The fans have been on high speed in every bedroom during the night.
We all smell strongly of mosquito repellent.
The oven hasn’t been turned on in ages.
Dinner consists of salads, sliced meats, cheeses and melon.
The freezer is overflowing with every kind of popsicle, gelato, ice cream and freezie available.
Our home grown strawberries are ripe and ready to be eaten straight out the garden and still warm from the sun.
The heavy smell of the flowering jasmine plants that cover my neighbourhood is intoxicating.
The visits to the lake are getting more frequent.
Now all we have to do is get through these last two weeks of school and buy a new hammock and we’re off to the perfect start to summer.
Last week some good friends and I jumped in the car and escaped to Piemonte for a few days (we were in the charming town of Moleto where we visited last year). We left the kids and husbands to fend for themselves and drove off into the sunset to enjoy some downtime amongst the vineyards. We dined, we swam, we laughed (a lot), we chatted, we drank cocktails, we donned our fancy high heels, we went for walks and we just really enjoyed each other’s company. And we decided that these little get-aways have to become more frequent in our lives because they feed the soul and give us a much needed rest from our daily grinds. Many thanks to the husbands for their cooperation and understanding (even if they don’t know about our plans to do it more often yet).
When I was at The Hive European Blogging Conference in Berlin last month I participated in an amazing video workshop by the talented Kat from Zero The One. At the end of the session she had us watch this beautifully shot video which made a serious impact on me and has been lingering in my thoughts ever since. I actually have a very close family member going through a similar battle so it’s something that hits really close to home at the moment. After watching it with my 11 year old daughters one of them said to me “Even if the story has something so sad about it I found it so beautiful at the same time”. I have to wholly agree with her. She then mentioned ” I didn’t even mind that he said the f-word a few times. He deserves it.”. Take a peek at the video and his blog here.
The other morning my friend sent me a message asking me to drop by for a tea and piece of cake. This is what I was welcomed with. I love my friends.
This cat has been living in our garden for the last few years. She comes and sits at our kitchen door and waits for food every day. We’ve named her FumoTre and we’re actually not even sure if she’s a she but nobody wants to check to make sure. For some reason when she meows it sounds like she has a bad case of larygitis and we’re pretty sure she’s quite fond of us due to the amount of gifts she leaves us.
I read this article on the “Top 22 Unbelievable Places That Are Hard to Believe Exist“ and have added quite a few of these destinations to my “must see” list. The wisteria tunnel in Japan, the pink Retba Lake in Senegal and canola flower fields in China are just too stunning not to witness in real life.
Happy Week-End Everyone!
Jillian In Italy 
