I’m hot, she’s hot, we’re hot, it’s hot…and we can’t do anything about it. We decided, after about a week of avoiding the stove/oven as if it had the swine flu, that we must break down and buy a small air conditioner to cool at least our room. The problem is this: first our house is over 500 years old and putting in central AC is impossible and is not allowed because our house is “historic”. Second it has been about 95 or more for the last 2 weeks. Third turning on the oven heats the inside of our house to about the same temperature as the Sun. Fourth, since the our room opens to the street, where the heat from the day is the worst, our windows remain shut while the boys’ room and windows on the back open to the garden and are able to cool. Fifth at the end of the day our room remains around 35(Celsius) and we sleep poorly. Sixth and finally we’re stuck because all stores were closed Sunday (which is usual) and Saturday (which is odd) for a holiday. So we continue to sweat, Texas in August doesn’t sound so bad; I think we’ll go there next time. Just like all the Italians, we’ll go on vacation
Speaking of which, literally everything closes for vacation: restaurants, coffee shops, retail stores, gas stations and hotels. That’s right, gas stations and even the major hotels close for a week or two in August. The combination of August and a holiday weekend left our small town nearly deserted this past weekend. But that wasn’t so bad, we had a great afternoon tour of the Castle downtown and a nice and very Italian dinner of Panini sandwiches on the cathedral square.
We decided, while taking in the scenery and enjoying the beautiful bells from the cathedral, that our little town is a magnificent and seemingly undiscovered gem. I’m sure that Rome, Venice or other more well know and popular places have a great number of beautiful things to see and do, but I would say that Ferrara rivals them, if only on a small scale. So despite the sweating, which we have decided to remedy at the next available opportunity, we like our new home.
