#44 And summer ends (English)

The time has come again! This week I will pack up my things and close another door behind me. I have lost count of how many times I have done this over the past few years and the fact that I lived in no less than three places in Naples during last year’s summer has contributed quite a bit to this. And with this major change coming up, the end of the summer is now really in sight.

After a hot, long summer in which the streets felt deserted and the Italians who had stayed behind in the city escaped the heat by keeping their shutters carefully closed, the city is now buzzing again

So, I am going to move. But first I’m going to stay in the Netherlands for a while. Despite the fact that I love being surrounded by my family again for a few weeks, being able to spontaneously have coffee with friends and eat the typical Dutch pastries to my heart’s content, I feel a little sad about not being in Rome at the same time. The Romans have just returned from their houses by the sea, restaurants and bars are open again and – last but not least – it will start to cool down to the very pleasant temperature of about twenty-five degrees in the coming weeks. After a hot, long summer in which the streets felt deserted and the Italians who had stayed behind in the city escaped the heat by keeping their shutters carefully closed, the city is now buzzing again. Almost everyone here will agree: spring and autumn are the best seasons in Rome. Unfortunately, the lockdown meant that I also had to miss out on the whole of spring this year. It’s with mixed feelings therefore that I will board my plane Thursday. However, the Netherlands is calling again.

Apart from the occasional emotional struggle, it can also be highly unpractical to not have your family or best friends around

It is a common cliché among expats: the desire to be able to be in two places at once. At your mother’s birthday a few hundred, if not a thousand kilometres away, but also at that party in that foreign city that has actually become your new home and isn’t foreign anymore. Apart from the occasional emotional struggle, it can also be highly unpractical to not have your family or best friends around. Something I experienced once again last week. 

After ten minutes of patiently waiting for hot water, it began to dawn on me. Of course, as a result of the power outage, the boiler had gone out of operation and it didn’t seem like it would start functioning again, no matter how many times I pressed the reset button

After the power had been off in the street for almost an entire evening – I had never realised that you literally can’t do anything without power, no Netflix, no light (! ), not taking a hot shower, no cooking (electric hot plate), not charging my phone whose battery was dying very quickly because I had to inform my whole social circle about the lack of electricity of course, not being able to keep your food fresh in the fridge and even, not brushing my teeth (I have an electric toothbrush that of course needed to be charged) – I stepped into the shower unsuspectingly the next morning, being relieved that the electricity had returned. But unfortunately, a cold surprise was awaiting me here. An ice-cold surprise. Of course, this happened during the only three days this summer in which the Roman weather gods suffered a severe depression and treated us to rain and barely twenty-three degrees. After ten minutes of patiently waiting for hot water, it began to dawn on me. Of course, as a result of the power outage, the boiler had gone out of operation and it didn’t seem like it would start functioning again, no matter how many times I pressed the reset button. After a long and complicated phone call to the landlord who lives hundreds of kilometres away – I was given all kinds of instructions in Italian about levers I had to pull and buttons I had to turn while crawling between the pipes – I didn’t have any other choice. I did what I always do. Calling Dad, of course. 

Funnily enough, the fact that my father was in the middle of an online course with a camera on his face while he was giving me all these instructions about pressing a copper button, didn’t seem an issue to me at all

With the help of photos I sent him of the pipes, levers and buttons I was supposed to fix, my father tried to think along with me and talk me through the process. However, we didn’t succeed in getting the kettle working again and at one point we both had to conclude that it was rather impossible. How handy would it be if he could just drop by for a minute and have a look himself? Of course, I know people in Rome I could ask for help, but somehow that felt different. I felt very hesitating to just call someone in the middle of the day, knowing that everyone was at work. Funnily enough, the fact that my father was in the middle of an online course with a camera on his face while he was giving me all these instructions about pressing a copper button, didn’t seem an issue to me at all. It’s the privileges you have as a family.

In the meantime, I met a lot of new friends, Italians, some of whom may become my new Italian family over time. Because in the end, everyone needs that. A warm circle of people around you who you can call day and night

Looking back on the summer, I can only conclude that – in spite of everything – I had a wonderful time. In spite of the fact that corona has turned our lives upside down, limited us and our travel plans heavily and sometimes frightened us deeply. In my opinion, Italy has adapted incredibly well to the situation after being the first European country to be hit mercilessly by the virus. People don’t complain about having to wear a face mask even though I can guarantee you that it’s anything but a pleasure when temperatures hit 40 degrees. At one point I even realised that corona was no longer a thing in my life. The face masks had become such a fact of life that I no longer consciously linked them to the global pandemic. Just as you put on a coat when you leave the house, you now put on a face mask (okay, that’s a bad example perhaps, since I haven’t worn a coat for months). I have been to beautiful places in Italy, from small villages to the always chaotic but gorgeous city of Naples and from a beautiful island with the bluest water to the mountains of Molise. My cousin Tahnee came to visit me, as did Lucas and Mariona, two of my best friends. In the meantime, I met a lot of new friends, Italians, some of whom may become my new Italian family over time. Because in the end, everyone needs that. A warm circle of people around you who you can call day and night. Even if it’s just for something small. After all, you never know when the boiler will switch into a complete ERROR again.