Wednesday July 13, 2022
Margaret has been reminding me that I need to do a blog and sure enough it’s been over 2 months (oops)
The early hot weather finally broke with cooler temperatures and some rain. Margaret and I need to go down to the Adriatic beaches soon before the holiday crowds show up.
And speaking of holiday crowd avoidance: we will spend the first 3 weeks in August back in the states and avoid the hot, everybody’s on vacation in Italy month of August.
My Paris Weekend.
Our youngest, Matthew, called and said that he needed to be in Paris for business Monday through Wednesday, July 11-13 and if he came early could we spend the weekend in Normandy looking at D-Day stuff. That has been on my list and we had a great time. Weather was beautiful in Normandy and we finished the weekend with a Sunday dinner in Paris. The tourist spots of Paris were safe from me this trip. Margaret and I will get there together at some point.
July 4th Party
We threw our first patio party to celebrate July 4th. A mid-sized group (15) with a mix of Americans, Brits and our Italian neighbors. Our neighbor, Paul, loaned us a large gas grill, a patio umbrella, chairs and a smallish cooler to help pull it off. Our neighbor, Maria, contributed potato salad, pasta salad and cookies and cakes. We grilled cheeseburgers, hot dogs (beef/turkey combo) and sausages and Margaret made a broccoli salad and a couscous salad. We had more than enough food and plenty of sweets as our guests brought several trays.
We were hoping it would go well. It started off on a tangent as one of the first guests, Marsha, listened to me offering wine, beer, water, soft drinks and then said she would like a spritz. So I mixed up a large batch of Aperol spritzes which got everybody off to a good start. But we quickly ran out of ice, note for next time make ice ahead of time and store it (no ice kiosks in Italy).
We did get thanked from multiple people for throwing the party and letting them meet new people. A lively American & British general gearhead & motorcycle group discussion took off.
(Margaret's edit: Paul and Mike moving the grill.)
And then there was lunch in Rome.
Margaret had over a year of remote Italian lessons sponsored by the downtown Chicago Italian Cultural Institute. Her group of four included a woman working in Abu Dhabi, Hariska, a woman from El Paso, Bilge, and a man from Chicago, Ivan. Hariska is now studying in Rome and Margaret had mentioned that she would like to get to Rome and see her. When Bilge posted that she and her husband (Dennis) would also be Rome, Margaret quickly scheduled a bus trip to Rome for lunch and off we went. It was 7 hours round trip on a bus for a 3-hour lunch but it was totally worth it for the three of them. Dennis and I were happy to have someone to talk to and both groups had a pleasant lunch.
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