View from my bedroom window (Sant' Eufamia della Maiella)

Ah, the village. This is Peter's maternal grandparents village situated high up in the Abruzzo mountains. Basically, everyone in the town appears to be family. I know that this isn't quite true, but when every second person you meet is described as a "cucino" (cousin) you start to see a trend.

We had a lovely time visiting the family here and eating. Lots of eating and lots of talking. This isn't a quiet family :)

Some family photos...

[Peter says: lots of pics here. Flickr uploading is too slow. We will upload pics when we get back to the states. And one of my family members can feel free to print the very last picture and give to Giulio for his upcoming birthday]

Angelina, a nosey neighbor, at the local fountain - water straight from the mountain.

Kimberly with Aunt Antonietta, making pizelles.

Peter, towering over his Aunt Eufamia and Uncle Aldo.

Kimberly and Peter with (L-R) Aunt Elda, Aunt Pierina and Uncle Peter.

Uncle Bruno making fish.

Aunt Elda waiving to the camera.

Kimberly, looking normal sized, with (L-R) Aunt Elda, Uncle Bruno, and Uncle Peter.

Uncle Giulio working the land.

Aunt Antonietta (Middle) with 2 friends, on the Wall.

Kimberly with Aunt Antonietta, on the Wall.

Peter with Mario "Cipolla" - his wife Mary refused to let us take her picture.


Finally, this is Piero, who owns one of the last bars in this small town. He's holding a bottle (of whiskey, I believe) that my other Uncle Giulio drank on his last day in the village. The next morning, there was still a small glass left at the bottom, so Piero and his wife saved the bottle. If you zoom is on the label of the bottle, you may notice the date - 9/5/97 (I left the image big, so you can and I know, it looks like 87, but it's 97 And remember, in Europe, they reverse the day and month). They told me they had a little party last month because it was the 10 year anniversary since my Uncle Giulio left to move back to the US.

The Summer Solstice

So it's really hot over here; the day we left Rome, it was supposed to be around 40 degrees - CELSIUS (divide by 5, multiply by 9, add 32, and you get: 104 degrees Farenheit)!!! I don't know if it actually got that hot, but every day we were there, it felt at least that hot. And our second go around in Siena is more of the same.

At night, it actually cools down a few degress, but with the added humidity, it feels twice as bad.

It's not supposed this hot here, yet. Maybe August, but not June. I would blame Global Warming, but our President says that's a lie. So we suffer with long pants (required for churches) and lots of free water from the many fountains (actually potable, as well).

Additionally, it is almost the summer solstice, either today or tomorrow or the day after. This was reinforced to us at St Peter's Square in Rome.

In the middle of the square, there is a giant obelisk (above)

which is in the center of a perfect ellipse. As we were wandering around the square, we noticed stone markers for the 22nd day of each month in a straight line coming from the obelisk. After a few minutes, the light bulb went off: the square is a giant solar calendar, with the top of the obelisk marking the changing of the zodiac signs. A few minutes later, I realized it was almost the summer solstice, so the shadow would almost hit the first marker at around 1 pm (hour adjustment for daylight savings).

If only I had planned a little bit ahead, I could have been there on the solstice, which would have been totally cool. But this was good enough.

The worst thing was no one else seemed to care about this at all.
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As a side to the heat, we were planning on going to the Sistine Chapel on Monday morning. We even got up early to get there before it opened at 8:45. When we arrived on the bus, we saw a line that was at least half-a-mile long. Oh great. It turned out to be the line for tourist groups with reservations.

The line for individuals was twice as long.

Since it was already really really really really hot out at 830, we decided not to wait it out and went to St Peters Bascillica instead. Of course, it was beautiful, as was everything else in Rome.

Although a little frustrating that we couldn't get into the Sistine Chapel, Kimberly keeps reminding me that we will be back sometime in the future.

View from my bedroom window (Roma)

I actually didn't take this picture until the morning we were packing our bags and getting ready to leave Rome, after 6 days. The reason is, I didn't look OUT our window until that morning, when I remember that I had a series of posts going on and I should take the picture. And the reason of THAT is the heat wave. Currently, I could care less about the view and more about is there an air conditioner and does it work? The answer to those questions being yes, and sometimes. Our convent/hotel had an AC, but seemed to only turn it on from 4-6, both am and pm. But those were the magically cool hours.

Here you go, the view from my bedroom window in Rome.