Everyone home?

That’s the question heard daily during the last few days of August in Italy.  During that month, everyone goes somewhere…..usually to the shore…..and if you live in a city like Florence, everyone means everyone!  Estimates are as high as 60% of the population bailing out of the city in favor of sun and sea.

We are usually no exception to this rule, but this year we stayed put and savoured the quiet, the slower pace, the comforts of home.  We had a busy July and after the sabbatical year of travel in 2014 we just wanted to stay in one place.  Most of our favourite bars and restaurants were closed for at least two weeks out of the month, so we spent a lot of time at home.  We like to cook and we have a great garden setup for eating out every day, so it’s not as if we were losers in the summer lottery.  We actually enjoyed it……and we got to work on some projects/future plans that have been sitting on the back burner for too long.  I finally organised and began editing the volumes of sweet (with the occasional bit of sour) italian stuff I’ve been writing for years and the essays will finally get to see the light of day since I intend to start posting them here…..and soon.

Meanwhile, it’s nice to see a bit of traffic returning to our neighborhood, good to hear voices as they stroll by the driveway, good to welcome everyone home again.