my italy #2

Find last year’s post on Italy here.
Last weekend I flew down to Italy again for four short days of visiting. My dad needed to go on business and I tagged along to visit my friends.
My Italy is




a warm welcome by friends both old and new.
baking summer heat, dry and salty.
swimming in turquoise water so warm it feels like silk on the skin
colorful, shady streets in the city centre.
a sweet baby boy, who I last saw when he was only a few weeks old and who has won my heart so completely that it was so hard to part from him, knowing he won’t remember me when I’ll see him next.



tiny village shops to buy the best goods in town.
waking in the middle of the night because it’s still basically too warm to sleep.
drinking copious amounts of Estathé, the taste of my childhood.



More photos and infos on Italy over on my photo blog.
I’ll just sit back and dream about sun and beaches and good food and speaking italian while trying to blend out the second cold and rainy summer in a row here in Germany. Back next year for sure.

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feels like summer

At least it did, for one day. Perfect from start to finish.
Waking up to blue skies.

Going thrift store shopping and coming home with a carload full of lovely stuff (the conversation with my boyfriend went something like this: Him: “I hope you didn’t bring home half the store again. We don’t have the space to put any more stuff”, me:”I only bought that big wooden box in the trunk for our balcony, see. Only one box.”, him, eyeing the box suspiciously: “It’s full to the brim with stuff isn’t it?”, me: “Yeah, kind of is…it’s real pretty stuff though!”).
Having late breakfast in the sun.

Finding the most adorable kitty to play with. He’ll totally match my still-on-the-needles socks from the pretty yarn in this post.
Yes, I know that was a weird thought.

And eating fresh greens again.

So good.
I have to throw in another shot of the kitty, isn’t he the prettiest fluff ball?

summer scenes part 1

It is 1am and I would really really like to get some sleep…but we’re in the middle of another heat wave and even with all windows open the temperature in our apartment is still around 30°C (about 86°F).
During the day temperatures hit 40°C (104°F) easily and we’re running out of places to hide.
Staying inside the apartment was out of the question, so we met up with friends and tried a new open air swimming pool in a nearby town.

I am not usually fond of these because a) they tend to be ugly concrete buildings with lots of level dry grassland around them and no shade and b) since every other person within a 100 mile radius has nowhere else to go either they tend to be so packed you’re lucky to find a spot to sit.
We were lucky that this new swimming pool was very pretty and uses natural spring water without chlorine. It was built in a park with lots of very old, very big trees and we found a pretty spot with plenty of shade.


It was crowded of course but still a good way to pass the day.

We stayed all of the afternoon and then went to our friends’ house to barbecue and watch the game later.
I was very worried about our 2 cats who had to stay indoors in our small, hot apartment all day but thankfully they don’t seem to be as much affected by the heat as we are.
Still, can it just rain? Please?