Think On It

Sunny Italy

June 8th, 2008

I often joke when it’s foggy and grim, saying “Come to Sunny Italy” like a travel poster. If you move to Italy you should look up details about the weather in the areas you are considering. Umbria is not the sunniest part of Italy by a long shot. It has higher rainfall than most of Italy and our water reserves are the envy of all.

Umbria is called “The Green Heart of Italy” because when most of Italy lies yellowed and sweating under the summer sun, Umbria’s hills are still green; dusty, perhaps, but green.

The last few weeks, however, have made a joke of all the stereotyping about Italy and Italians. It has rained steadily at least part of almost every day for weeks. Plants that need the sun to grow are not growing. Beans and greens came up and stalled. Plants with large flowers are having them beaten off them, petal by petal. The tomatoes bloom but they don’t set fruit. Molds are growing in their thousands of possibilities, some this year which may have reawakened after being dormant for decades, or even centuries, how could we know? Italians are trudging on in the direst of circumstances, still doing what it is right to do this time of year, even though it doesn’t work this year.

The plans I made to have lunches and dinners on the terrace to celebrate the fantastic first flush of the roses lie sodden on the table. I have had to partially dismantle the roof of the gazebo to avoid wrecking it with the weight of too much water and the force of erratic wind. Stones are slick with moss. A thirty foot tree was bent double from the weight of the rain and touching my raspberry bushes. Olga and I had to hoist it up and tie it to a cement post. Once the fruit has ripened, if it ever can, I’ll cut the top of the tree off halfway so it can once more grow erect.

Every day it rains. Every day you can’t mow the grass. Every day the grass grows ranker and taller.

And the crop of pollens and molds sets records in our little valley. Thank eg for the allergy medicines she has sent me. I am a total disaster waiting for the summer and the end to wet!

Photo courtesy of BBC by Ros Baylis

Entry Filed under: Italy