This morning was another scorcher, with temps in the
mid-90s. I went for a walk downtown to get breakfast pizza and buffalo
mozzarella cheese, and hit up the ATM before the weekend drain. There is only
one ATM in town, so when the weekenders arrive, it runs out pretty quick. Then
I went to the beach, leaving mom behind to catch up on sleep.
I was just getting some photos of the acqua balli di gruppo
(water group dancing), when a woman came over to me and asked me if I was
willing to talk to her daughter in English because she wanted to practice talking
to an actual English speaker. Of course I said yes. MariaChiara is her name and
she is a 21-year-old med school student in Padua, studying cardiology. She has
four more years before her residency begins. We talked for about an hour and a
half before she headed back home for lunch. She knows English very well, and
she is up to date with many of our TV programs, as well as those from England
and Canada. The internet is an amazing tool. When I was in high school, Italy
was like three seasons behind on “90210.” Now this woman was telling me about
the most recent episodes of “Game of Thrones,” “Orange is the New Black,” and “Sense8.”
After a little while I headed back for lunch with Mom. The
entire time we ate, we remarked about the bright sunny day, and how fast the
clothes dry on the line. Later on Mom and I headed out to the beach, and on the
way we noticed the gathering clouds and strengthening wind. Sitting on the
beach, it was nice because the clouds and breeze were a welcome reprieve from
the recent heat. The beach was alive with kids playing volleyball, MariaChiara
and family stopping by to say hello, and people running in and out of the sea.
That was until the first drop of rain. At the first couple of drops, people
left faster than the pranzo (lunch) bell. We decided that we’d head back and
get the clothes off the line. When we got back, we watched as huge dark clouds
rolled in off the sea, bringing with them about a half hour of strong wind,
followed by a full on thunderstorm. The thunder here rumbles so long between
the hillside and the sea. It really is neat to watch and listen to.
When the heavens opened, they sure dropped a lot of rain. It
was a pretty rough storm, with chairs blown all over the patio.
