Friday was Labor Day in Europe. Also called May Day. I see the U.S. also had a big May Day walk out. Italy always has lots of strikes and also parades on this day. Umbertide always has a parade too. It’s made up of the labor unions and also lots of tractors all shiny and clean blowing their horns. The local mill is a union operation and all of its trucks rumbled past. Oh, and of course the Umbertide town band, who were sporting spiffy new uniforms. They actually seem to have improved a lot recently. They even had a few flags against the Iran war. They said “war is not our business”. Sentiment here is very high against that war. Here are a couple of pictures with captions.

Diesel fuel is now up to 2.05€ a liter. That works out to about $9.50 a gallon. This is hurting a lot of people here. And the airlines are canceling lots of flights internal to Europe due to lack of jet fuel. Lufthansa canceled 20,000 flights. This will start to hurt the tourist industry hard. I read Americans are rethinking their plans to come to Europe. 20% have decided to wait. None of this is good for Europe. No wonder they are anti-US administration. Of course that administration is threatening to close the U.S. bases here because they won’t support the war that it started. Closing bases would hurt the U.S. more than Italy and Spain. The U.S. needs those bases. Enuf of that.
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Our weather is spectacular right now, the Umbrian countryside is verdant green. I had my inaugural Campari spritz of the season last night at Bar Mary in the Piazza with newly returned friends and friends of theirs who have come to visit. Lots of fun and laughter. Salute a tutti! 🍹🍹🍹