Good Grief! IT'S HOT

 “God, it was hot! Forget about frying an egg on the sidewalk; this kind of heat would fry an egg inside the chicken.”   ― Rachel Caine

The last few days have been hotter than anything again.  I live in a desert where temperatures triple digits during summer months, but it is the 80s-90s that ZAP the life out of me.    Sulmona was hot, humid, and miserable for the few days we were there. 

On Saturday, Peppe and Novelia took us to Campo di Giove, a wonderful little town in the mountains above Sulmona.  It took us only 20 minutes or so to get there, but the difference in temperature was wonderful and welcome.

We walked around town for a bit, and Novelia showed us where she lived for a time.  When she was a child, her family came to Campo di Giove every summer because her father worked there during the season.  We also drove a little farther into the forest.  Mike saw a tree that he wants us to use for Christmas (Above).  I'm not quite sure he'll get it into his luggage, but should you read anything about some nut trying to smuggle a tree out of Italy,  you'll know who it was.

 Yesterday we did laundry, and Mike decided to hang his clothes outside.  Since we didn't really have a line (Our flat was on the first floor.), he put the clothes rack outside the front door. Because it was so hot, everything—including my jeans— dried within an hour.  The reason this surprised me so much was that it was so humid.  The dry air in Las Vegas helps dry clothes quickly outside, but in Italy, it's so much more humid that I thought it might take.  Nope.


 Since we didn't have a car, we decided to walk into an area of town where we'd never been. We found some very nice places and some very decaying places.  We also found that we shouldn't have walked as long as we did because we were so hot, tired, and thirsty that we couldn't find a place to stop and have a drink.  Isn't that the case? You don't need something, but you see it everywhere.  You need something desperately, and you can't find it.  Irritating.

 We ended up stopping at this place called the "Sweet Time Cafe."  We've had coffee there numerous times over the years. so we stopped to get a panini and cold water.  The water was good, but the panini had ham, cheese, and a surprise ingredient.

"UGH!" I exclaimed to Mike. "This sandwich has mayonnaise on it."

"And not just a little," he added.

"I hate mayonnaise," I said.

"I like it, but not this much," he told me.  I knew that, but I was too busy trying to wipe that stuff off of my sandwich. 

"What good Italian uses mayonnaise?" I whined. "URP. UGH. BLECH."  I think he rolled his eyes at my drama.

We recreated a photo (above) we'd taken a few years ago when we were in Sweet Time.  They've added the red flames since our last visit, and there was some red plastic christmas tree thingy hanging on the wall, so we couldn't get it exactly right.  In addition, in the original we were sitting next to each other.  Because it was so darn hot, we sat across from each other.

"My shirt is wet," I told Mike.

"Mine, too," he replied.  "I'll stay here."  

"Good idea."  I was too hot to have anyone within 10 feet of me.

We got the photo done easily, and I took a number of shots.  When we were checking them out, Mike said, "Gosh we look angry."

"Look," I answered back, "I had enough "dew" on my skin to water a garden for a year.  Give me a break."

 Next time, I'm leaving him with the priests in the churches here. Maybe they can knock a little sense into him.  :-)