Casa dolce casa

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Late on Friday we returned home to Ascoli Piceno, casa dolce casa. With the travel days to and from Roma for our flights and the day we lost flying east over the Atlantic we were gone for almost three weeks. We knew part of our trip would be hectic with the wedding but the second part was just as busy with the passing of Valerie’s grandmother.

With both events we met a lot of relatives we have not seen for several years and also welcomed new ones into the family; weddings and funerals always bring family together. There were several distant relatives or friends of relatives who commented that they had heard about our move to Italy so we were frequently labeled “the Italians”.

A typical conversation would go like this:

“So who are you related to?”

“I’m Judy’s son-in-law”

“Do you still live in this area?”

“No we actually live in Italy”

“Oh yeah, I’m a cousin of Judy and she mentioned you had moved over there.”

While we were gone this part of Italy experienced a lot of rain, our friends have said it rained almost everyday. The green countryside and cooler temperatures are a testimony to the wet period while we were away. This is quite a difference from the heat and dry of this time last year.

Now we are unpacking and putting things away, seeing friends and getting back into the swing of Italian: the pace and the language. It was much too easy for me to slip into speaking only English while we were gone.

And sagra season has begun in Italy – yeah!