Yes! It is summer! For better or for worse. Wednesday we had our first hot day 39C or 102.2F. We seldom use our air conditioning. We only have two units anyway, and they are old. We keep cool the old fashioned way — shutter management and fans.

We close all shutters around 11am. Making it dark inside. In the evening, after sunset, we open all the windows and shutters and let the cool evening air come in. We place fans in the windows to pull in the cool air. This makes the house very comfortable all night. Next morning, when we close up we keep all the cool inside. Works well. Every now and then it will just get too hot for too long and then it can get tough.

My orto is doing pretty well. I planted seven tomato plants of all sorts from seed. They are now happily growing in the new planters I have. Today I spied my first baby tomatoes. All the herbs are doing well except the rosemary which has croaked. Don’t know why. Basil is big and bushy. The little jalapeño I got is struggling for unknown reasons. But it does have quite a few peppers on it.

Qua and Quo, our fishes are doing well. If you’ve been reading this for long you’ll know last year we got three fishes for a small “pond” I made, Qui, Qua, and Quo. Qui unfortunately died of unknown causes. The other two are doing well and getting quite fat. Especially Quo.

This week has been busy! I had a final dentista appointment Monday. Then we met some new friends in the piazza at Bar Mary for caffè on Tuesday. Afterwards we shopped for groceries because we were having friends over for lunch Wednesday. Then, Tuesday night was quiz night, a benefit for a local charity called Books for Dogs/Libri per i cani. They have one every other month. We have a team. So we always attend. It is a British founded charity to support two canile (kennels) that take in abandoned dogs. One has 250! Very sad for the animals. Then our friends came for lunch which was fun.

It is now tax time here in Italy. We visited our Commercialista today. It is not my favorite time of course. I doubt I have talked much about this. Once you’re a resident here you are liable to pay income tax on your worldwide income. This includes a wealth tax and taxes on investments as well as social security and other income. The tax rates are higher here, but I reckon it all works out in the end because we have no property tax, nor state tax, and health care fees are negligible. We must file in the U.S. but we pay no taxes there because of the Italian/US tax treaty. I truly believe if a person wants to come live here they should contribute to the system, and pay for all the things they are enjoying.

I also met with Irma (our architect) to begin a new project. All three baths here are probably circa 1980, when this place was built. So they sorely need an update. We decided to start with the guest bath. It has an old shower which is the one we use because the bigger family bath has only a tub. We will rearrange the room. We will remove a laundry sink which we don’t use, and the bidet. This will be the spot for a new, bigger shower. I want a seat built in. And we both want a rain shower with separate squirter. Then the sink will move into the present shower spot. Probably two sinks. And the toilet will get updated plumbing from the old overhead tank. The dark blue tiles which go nearly to the ceiling will go and we will have a half wall of probably white subway tiles I think. Who knows when we can begin, but it will eventually get done. As always here in Italy, piano, piano!

Friday was our anniversary. We had a good lunch at San Giorgio in the Piazza to celebrate.

We, unfortunately have the horrible Saharan sand in our air again. This is the sunset Friday.

Luckily, today, Saturday, the air has wonderously cleared. It is not as hot either. A gorgeous day. The high will be about 82. There’s a nice breeze. Being market day I decided to walk into town and see if there are tomatoes yet.

😃 YES! I see my first caprese salad in my future!

Buon weekend a tutti!