Weekly blog #126: A thunderclap in Rome and other news?

Last Saturday, I found myself in a bridal boutique in the centre of Rome, located in a parallel street behind the city’s main shopping street, when – completely out of the blue – a deafening bang sounded. The very tall windows of the elegant store shook in their frames, as did the glass door. In the distance, the hysterical sound of a car alarm could be heard. I immediately sat up straight in the velvet chair, while the shop assistant spontaneously dropped the papers she had just been holding from her hands. Everyone in the store immediately fell silent. For a few seconds, we looked at each other rather questioningly, until the shop assistant broke the silence with an audible hint of doubt in her voice: “That was just a thunder, wasn’t it? Or was it really a bomb that has just gone off in the shopping street?” We remained silent for another few seconds, but when there was no panic to be heard outside, I cautiously said that it surely must have been a thunder. However, I definitely wasn’t sure and my heart was still hammering in my chest. Just a moment later, the day suddenly seemed to have turned into night, that was how dark it became. Out of nowhere, thousands of hailstones began to clatter onto the Roman paving stones with a tremendous noise. Wow, this was literally what you call like a bolt from the blue.

“I guess there’s no way we can leave this place anytime soon”, I said to my friend, who in the meantime had put on a beautiful celeste-coloured bridesmaid’s dress

Not even ten minutes earlier, we had arrived at the bridal boutique by walk. We hadn’t even taken an umbrella, as there was not a single sign of heavy weather being on its way. “I guess there’s no way we can leave this place anytime soon”, I said to my friend, who in the meantime had put on a beautiful celeste-coloured bridesmaid’s dress (for my male readers, celeste is a light shade of blue, sky blue). But my words couldn’t be further from the truth. For as unexpectedly as the extreme weather had swept over Rome, it was over just so quickly. Less than three minutes later, it was daylight again outside. However, the icy cold of the hailstones lingered in the air for the rest of the day, and I simply couldn’t wait to be back home again once we had set foot outside the bridal boutique. A glance at the weather app on my iPhone told me it was only eight degrees. Eight degrees! On the second of April! 

Of course, it became the talk of the town and the only thing people seemed to speak about

Of course, it became the talk of the town and the only thing people seemed to speak about. How we went from twenty-two degrees last week to less than ten this week. How Easter is colder than Christmas these days. I heard plenty Italian proverbs about the weather in April, the most famous being “D’aprile non ti scoprire”. Literally, it means to not get caught by April. In other words, you’d better be prepared for anything in April. A truism of the best kind, but still good to remember if you have planned your visit to Rome in this month of the year. 

Guess what? That classic trick also works when you’re writing a weekly blog

I can’t help but smiling. Although the Dutch think that they are the absolute champions when it comes to complaining about the weather, the Italians are not unfamiliar with it either. Moreover, it forever is a rewarding topic of conversation that you can always bring up when you just don’t know what to talk about. And guess what? That classic trick also works when you’re writing a weekly blog. Because even though there are a lot of fun, new things happening soon (Eurovision, a nice trip outside Italy, and special guests in Rome), there were simply no big updates last week and it’s still a bit too early to share those other things here in my blog. And that’s how even a rather experienced blogger with already 126 written pieces to her name, shamelessly makes use of the weather as a topic to speak about. Luckily, it’s April…