Busy and the beach

It has been a fun few days since I last posted. One of the things that I wrote about before, the wildfires, happened again overnight from Wednesday into Thursday, but was out by morning. It’s pretty common here this year to smell fires burning or burned woods, which is different from past years. The gardener that was here this week showed me some photos that people have posted online of some of the destruction to the pine forest and wildlife in town. In one of the photos there was a snake at least six feet long, another showed a large turtle, others showed rabbits. It was pretty heartbreaking to see all of the damage. Again, there were fires up and down the coast, and Italy isn’t the only country dealing with them in Southern Italy right now. The gardener came and did his thing this week, cleaning up all of the overgrown weeds, vines, and trees. It’s definitely cleaner to look at, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I miss the color and privacy that the overgrown garden provided. As soon as Giovanni the Giardiniero (gardener) left, I broke out the mop and squeegee and cleaned the patio. The condo is finally cleaned up. I spent Friday morning heading up to the main part of town in the hills. Handled the banking in just about an hour, normally it takes two to three trips to handle it all, but I was hustling and alone so it moved much quicker. This week has also been fun hanging out with family and friends. Zia and I went out on Wednesday night to Ristorante Netti with my cousin Renato, his wife Dorette, their son Mario, his wife Cassandra, and their daughter Rosella. It was my first chance to spend time with Rosella, as she’s only 18 months old. Thursday night I went out for a drink with our friend Monia and my cousin Valeria Lido Miramare on the Lungomare (beach strand). And last night Mario and Cassandra invited me to tag along with them and their friends to a new pizza place near me. Oh yeah, I’ve also been spending several hours a day at Lido Ritz beach club. Their wifi had been zooming all week, then today, with the place packed, it was slow again. Italy just instituted a thing called green pass, which is a digital vaccine record, but so far no one has asked me to show it. We do need to wear masks inside the clubhouse now. That was optional until yesterday. All in all, things are going well here.