On this Sunday afternoon in April, I pull my thick cardigan a little tighter around me as I sit at my writing table here in Rome. Outside, there’s a heavy thunderstorm and bright flashes of light are quickly followed by loud thunderclaps. The rain is pouring down from the sky. However much the sun has tried its best over the past few days, this attempt of spring hasn’t been as convincing as you (or at least I) would expect in southern Europe. Although April is the one month in which we can expect to have all four seasons in one day – and this is also true here in Rome – it is to be expected that it will soon become a lot sunnier and especially warmer.
Baskets are stuffed with delicious food and taken to the seaside, where for the first time this year you enjoy a panino that crunches between your teeth because of all the grains of sand, heavenly!
Because this Sunday it’s the 25th of April, la Festa della Liberazione, Italy’s liberation day. Traditionally, for many Italians it’s the day they open the beach season. Baskets are stuffed with delicious food and taken to the seaside, where for the first time this year you enjoy a panino that crunches between your teeth because of all the grains of sand, heavenly!
All it takes to mentally find myself on the beach is to close my eyes and let my mind float away for a second. But an Italian summer is so much more
“Manca poco!”, or; “Very soon!”, is what every Italian tells me when I exclaim I can’t wait anymore to finally go to the beach again. Endless days at the beach are what I live for. The sound of the waves washing up, the smell of the greasy sunscreen mixed with the salt of the sea and the tingling sensation of the hot rays of sunshine on your skin. All it takes to mentally find myself on the beach is to close my eyes and let my mind float away for a second. But an Italian summer is so much more. It also means spending whole mornings wandering around cute little streets until the “we’re open” signs on the shop doors are turned around again and you know it’s time to find yourself a little table outside for a delicious lunch. No one will look at you funny if you close your eyes for a minute after having finished a plate of delicious pasta while you sag a little further in your chair and the cacophony of Italian voices fades into the background. After all, you are probably wearing a big pair of sunglasses, just like the Italians. And when it is time to move yourself, a quick espresso in a tiny little bar will get you going again.
Where all the non-Italian readers of my blog are hoping (and praying) they will be able to travel to Italy this summer, my Roman friends are expressing their wish that the current travel ban between the Italian regions will soon be lifted
You can already picture yourself, can’t you? Well, I certainly can. And now the calendar tells us that the summer is approaching rapidly, the speculations are getting louder and louder: what will this summer be like? Will we be allowed to go on holiday? Will be allowed to eat out? Where all the non-Italian readers of my blog are hoping (and praying) they will be able to travel to Italy this summer, my Roman friends are expressing their wish that the current travel ban between the Italian regions will soon be lifted so that their plans to spend the summer in Calabria, Puglia, Sicily and Sardinia are not going to be ruined.
Where the Netherlands presented a roadmap last week in which they presented a plan to lead the country to a summer in freedom in six steps, the Italians got a redeeming message too
And it seems like it’s all going in the right direction. Where the Netherlands presented a roadmap last week in which they presented a plan to lead the country to a summer in freedom in six steps, the Italians got a redeeming message too last Friday: bars and restaurants will be open again as of next Monday. The outside areas, that is. But this time they are also allowed to be open after six o’clock, which means that after more than half a year – which sometimes seemed to last forever – it will finally be possible to go out for dinner in a restaurant again. A first, but very big step forward after months of the restrictions only getting stricter.
However, now that I look outside on this grey Sunday afternoon, there seems to be one little element that is not quite going according to plan. A minor detail that the politicians seemed to have overlooked
So, Italy is going to open up a little on 26 April. A day after the national holiday. The Netherlands will take the first step of their ‘road to freedom’ on 28 April. A day after – exactly – King’s Day, a national holiday. That totally makes sense and I don’t mind it at all, as long as the well thought out plan to secure our summer in freedom is followed. However, now that I look outside on this grey Sunday afternoon, there seems to be one little element that is not quite going according to plan. A minor detail that the politicians seemed to have overlooked when they decided that we are allowed to sit at the outside areas of restaurants and bars again. A group of rulers with whom they’ve not yet lobbied hard enough: the weather gods. No doubt they extended their hibernation a bit longer when they, with one eye half shut, peered down and saw that all bars and restaurants were still closed. But now that that’s about to change, I am sure that they will wake up too over there. That the sun will once again shower us with warmth and light and that I’ll be sinking my teeth into a sandy panino before I know it. Oh, sweet, sweet summer, ti aspetto con impazienza. I am literally on the lookout for you.