The start of the tourist season

We went to Roma for a couple days at the end of March to meet some friends from Corrales who are in Italy for a couple weeks. We always enjoy a trip to Roma and it was fun to spend a day with Wayne and Evey talking about New Mexico, Italy and our mutual admiration for Italian food. On this trip we tried a new way to get into the centro storico by parking at the end of the Metro line on the east side of the city and taking the Metro into the centro, fortunately our car was still there unharmed when we returned after two days.

There was a group from The Ohio State University architectural school here in Ascoli Piceno for a couple weeks as part of their spring quarter in Italy and one of the students, Adam Davie, is from the same area in Ohio as Valerie and we connected with him for a Sunday pranzo. Since then we saw other members of this group around town, including one student whose family now lives in the same suburban development where I grew up, Wyoga Lake Estates in Stow.

There has been a definite influx of tourists here in Ascoli as they are evident by a camera in one hand and a map or guidebook in the other hand. The newspapers have had stories that Easter is the official kick-off for the tourist season in Italy and we have seen several articles where this country is still considered one of the top destinations for Europeans and North Americans. According to the news outlets the past weekend is used as a gauge for what to expect for the coming year for the tourism industry and from what we saw around town it looks like this will be a busy year in Italy.