Sweet Days of Summer with Jasmine in Bloom

It finally got too hot to sunbathe on the Terrace--and the sea is enticing with its clear-day colors

Di's been singing Summertime (and the Living is Easy) along with Satchmo and Ella and now I've got her looking for Summer Breeze with all my talk about the spell and smell of the Jasmine in bloom. Normally, the idea of summer would have cast its spell in May, and we would have already been to the beach. This spring has been cooler than normal, so yesterday, 16 June, was the first day for us.

We headed to Lido Paradiso where we usually go. At 0900, we were the first ones and there were still clouds. It was warm and promised to burn-off the clouds.

Empty beach at 0900 and Clouds

The lido folks were still working on their buildings, shelters and beach features. They remembered us which is always a nice feeling.

Di likes to patrol the public beach next to the lido picking up litter. Our life guard said that he usually did that, but Di finished her tour.

The sun arrived and the rest of the day was great. The sea is still a little cool given the lack of warming sunshine, but we had a swim. No snorkeling. I’d guess the water temperature was around 21C. By July it will reach 27.

Arriving home late in the afternoon, we enjoyed the sweet scents coming from the kitchen window near the jasmine plant, and from the terrace where the gardenia is blooming. Sweet summer fragrances under the lovely summer sun. Makes you feel fine...

Those scents and our colorful street will greet the family from Prague staying in our guest flat this week for their daughter’s wedding on Saturday. 

Nice spot for a June wedding, and this will be our first Italian wedding. Stay tuned for Guido in a jacket and tie for first time in many years. 

A Friday Afternoon on the way to Summer

Our classmates and Teacher after a great gelato at Pier Bar

We are still attending Italian language school 5 days per week but school will be out soon—a sure sign of summer. Yesterday we left for school at 1530 as normal.  Folks in town were saying that it was finally the first day of summer—quite a coincidence. 

On the way to Scalea for class, we spotted our town’s new ambulance. The village had been taking donations for a couple months but when I went to give our June donation, I was told the collections were complete and an ambulance purchased. It will be managed in partnership with Protezione Civile--the national agency with the Canadair air tanker planes for summer fires. Our ambulance will be staffed by volunteers (which reminds me of my time on ambulance duty many years ago in the state of Colorado--buy me a glass of wine to hear those stories).

With summer in the air, our teacher Carmelina invited us down the street to a bar for gelato and Italian conversation---out in public instead of the classroom. 
Doug is at the top (USA). Next row is Lucia (Romania), Shabana (Pakistan), Carmelina (Italian teacher). Bottom row is Diana (USA), Katheryn (England), Susan (England--husband David is on a trip to England this week), Dennis and Cheryl (USA) have already returned to Florida for the summer to watch grandchildren, but sent a photo from their recent trip to the Island of Ischia off the coast from Napoli.

The gelato at Pier Bar is terrific. The man working was proud of it and mentioned they had gotten training in gelato-making in Bologna. We shared what everyone is doing for the summer. This was much easier to discuss (in Italian) than the favole (fables) that we worked on at previous Friday conversation periods!

A tradition that started this year also includes the Brits and Yanks going for a caffe - or something colder - after school Fridays. In America it would be called TGIF – “thank god it’s Friday”. Soon we will be spending some weekdays on the beach instead of the classroom.

On the way back to our village, the piles of trash in the street reminds us that Scalea is currently having problems with landfill contracts similar to what Rome and Naples experienced 5 years ago—so when we drive to Scalea, the growing piles of refuse is now part of our day. It is slowly being hauled to sites in Tuscany and Puglia, but they are not keeping up with the daily outputs. Hence, we fear what the streets might look like in August when 20,000 more people descend on Scalea! Coming from Oregon, USA with some of the best land use planning around, we shake our heads at the lack of planning here by the government and/or mafia – whoever is in charge of landfills– to plan for replacement sites decades in advance. Italy needs to recycle more—they are trying--but so are these piles…

It's as good to return to our village as it was to get out a few hours ago. This weekend will be a quiet one with the sun shining and our chores still optional--guests are coming so they won't be optional for too much longer!

Giornata di Ecologia

Ecology Day in our village dawned warm and clear from the park

Diana and I wanted to be involved in the community and approached the tourism development group (Pro Loco) with a couple projects that we proposed and want to support. The project that Di suggested was graffiti removal along with education of the town’s youth about littering and graffiti. Italian kids are well noted by us to be polite and friendly. However, kids are kids and on their own can impact public facilities. At least in our town, the spray paint has not as yet been applied to historic structures, churches, etc, so they have had a little restraint!



The middle school was contacted and they chose to have an “ecology day” that focused on cleaning up a park, so they included the graffiti removal work into their plans. This past Saturday, we met the 38 kids and teachers at the new city park that has been hit so hard in its first year. The teachers and Walter from Pro Loco planned the whole thing and the kids really did all the work. We just showed up to record the event.






The bar across from the school was open so we had a morning espresso to fortify us for the day ahead.

Lead teacher, Elena, was kind to introduce us to the kids and announce the day as an international effort! A neighbor brought bags for rubbish, brooms and painting gear.  We chipped-in some drinking water, paint, loaned a ladder --- then managed to stay clean.

The girls did weeding and trash pickup, and the boys did a lot of tree pruning. Then there was the collective effort of boys and girls to paint-over the graffiti. The little paint rollers are common here. It took more than one coat to cover most of the writing.

We noticed one young man working mostly alone and doing a bang-up painting job.  By the end of the morning (kids being kids) there was a lot of paint being applied to one another. I noticed when they smacked a friend with a paint brush or a hand dipped in the paint, that they applied it to skin – not to clothing that might bring the wrath of  someone’s mamma! 

In the middle, as the temperature rose to nearly 28, the village priest, Don Luciano,  arrived with gelato for everyone!

The kids got a lot done that morning. I am not clear on what messages were given to them about littering and graffiti, but I think they must of thought about picking up soda cans, empty candy wrappers to the extent they may be more careful in the future. Whoever sprayed the paint all over probably never thought about the cost for the village to clean their vandalism – doing it themselves might have taught a few lessons!

I noticed that not a single kid pulled out a mobile phone in three hours!  Maybe they were warned to not bring them? Anyway, it was a good experience with the great raggazzi of our comune. They really worked hard and wanted to finish it all up. We admire them for their good nature and willingness to help their village.

This was a success for the community and Pro Loco. The group’s newest effort is to involve more of the older teens and twenty-somethings in the town’s activities. All small towns face the problem of key people getting tired after years of leading festivals and events. Pro Loco is asking the younger group to think of a new festa led by them – music and food are a given, so put it all into a new, hip format! We’ll see if they come up with something to share. 

Ci vediamo, Guido e Diana