Heat + Dryness + Wind = Wildfire Season in Calabria

We learned recently that Calabria is the region with the highest number of wildfires in Italy. In the last few weeks, this fact has really become evident to us. Almost every night we can smell smoke in the valley, and once or twice we've seen some actual flames on the distant hillsides. It is just so hot and dry here this time of year, so with a little bit of wind it does not take much to get a wildfire going (especially given the amount of burning that people do around here anyway... we can't imagine why they would still do it at this time of year given the likelihood of fires!). We're pretty safe where we live (so don't worry!), but there do seem to be frequent fires popping up around the valley and the region as a whole.

This evening, we noticed some smoke on the horizon that seemed to be just up the hill from our house (or at least closer than we'd seen before). So we got in the car and drove up to see where it was coming from. It was actually further away than we thought, but the fires were very close to the main road that we take to go the beach as well as along the hills that we drive through/over to get to the coast. We were actually able to get within a safe distance of the fires, so we snapped a couple photos. It was pretty interesting to watch, especially because the sun was setting. We came home both smelling like campfire! Anyways, here are some of the photos we managed to snap...

Rende Wildfires

Italian Road Trip Photos

Here are some of the photos from our recent road trip to the Dolomites and other parts of Italy. Enjoy!

Italian Road Trip August 2011

One way to beat the heat...

As Lynne has already mentioned, our August travel trip was pretty sweet. I enjoyed a week of hiking solo, in the Dolomites, and then a week later, Lynne joined me for a tromp up and down, over and around, the steep but beautiful Dolomites. Sore knees forced a change of plans after day three - so we hiked down, returning to our car for a few days of road trippin'. But, let this be a warning to all enterprising Italian vacationers, the temperature of Italy in August is not for those accustomed to cooler climes.

Our travels took us to Lago di Garda where we camped and enjoyed swimming in a lake that was clean and cool before continuing to some other interesting cities. Seeing such interesting places made us feel that Tuscany, the most storied of Italian regions, is somewhat over-rated. Next time we have visitors who come here, we are going to get you "off the beaten path," into some of these less touristed towns, where you can see how interesting this place is, day to day. Lago di Garda was stunning, beautiful, and even in the most popular season, it was surprisingly relaxing.

One of our favorite stops on our sojourn was Verona. The city is notable for more than just Romeo and Juliet, and just outside is one of the best wine regions in the country. Our goal was to try a few of these great wines, when they were relatively cheap. Fifteen minutes into our day in Verona (at about 10 am), we found a quaint little wine bar, with beautiful hardwood decor and local football paraphanelia on the walls. It was tucked into a side street, easy to miss. I glanced at the menu, and they had some cheap, cheap glasses (1.50 Euro!). We peeked inside and started talking to the owner, enjoying the peace and quiet of our discovery. Pretty soon, the locals started showing up. I chatted with a short, smiley guy, about sixty, spunky, and full of stories about Verona. He introduced himself as "Alberto, but everybody calls me "the mosca" (aka, "the fly")".

The fly bought us a round of wine, and entertained with stories. Soon his buddies began appearing. We met Nicola, who worked in a watch shop, and Diego, who was quiet but funny, and Charlie, who made a living as a blues musician. They were in the mood for sharing, were really funny, and loved to share recommendations for what to drink. And, amazingly, they started buying us more wine. A couple of hours later, it was noon, and we were four glasses in. But they were just getting going.

We switched to white wine (with ice cubes), and started drinking Soave, a smooth, mellow balanced white from just outside the city. It was about 90 outside, so the cool wine hit the spot. As our hosts started telling funny stories, talking smack to each other, we felt comfortable and happy, and we started getting bolder and bolder with our italian. There were lots of jokes, and lots of toasts, and lots of different wines to try. By 2 o'clock, my face was red, and the crowd consisted of about 8 Italian guys in their late 50s and 60s, myself, and Lynne. She looked like a queen holding court, smiling and laughing as these local characters traded stories to impress her. As the mosca was busy recounting all the embarrassing stories he could remember, every 15 minutes another friend would stop in and have a drink. By mid afternoon, we all sat down in the extra room for a big meal. I was thankful for anything to soak up my mid-morning wine binge, and we dined on pastas, fresh vegetables, meats, and cheeses. Our Veronese friends, so kind and hospitable, insisted on paying for all our drinks and lunch.


Perhaps not surprisingly, the afternoon brought more of the same! We wondered to ourselves, "do these cats do this everyday?" Our friends insisted there was more to see, and our afternoon tour brought us to another drinking locale, and then eventually back to our new friend Charlie's house, to swim in his pool. They even hosted us for the night, showed us pictures of their families, and we had another great big dinner at Charlie's place. These kind, friendly, and merry gents set a new standard for hospitality.

The rest of our vacation was excellent, but as I might have mentioned, H - O - T. After our Verona drink-a-thon, we both needed a day of rest, to tend to our queezy stomachs, before continuing on our journey - to Venice, to Ravenna, to more mountains in the south of Italy (including one called the Corno Grande) and some beach time. All in all, a good trip - but warmish. Our lesson was this: if you come to Italy in August, be prepared to drink some cool beverages, its the best way to beat the heat.

A long overdue update: Our goings on this summer

Sorry for the long delay.  It has been a busy summer for us, and there is much to catch up on from the past 2 months.

Shortly after my last post, I took a spontaneous trip to Michigan for a long weekend in mid-June.  There is a tradition amongst my college roommates to get together one weekend each summer for a reunion.  We had been throwing around dates for a while this spring, and nothing was really coming together yet.  Then in May, someone suggested an early-than-usual reunion this summer in mid-June in Michigan.  This was in part because we had just learned that one of the girls, our good friend Janet, had been diagnosed with cancer.  It seemed like a good idea to get everyone together for a fun, relaxing weekend.  The girls all started making their travel plans, and I took a shot in the dark and looked up flights.  It turned out I could get a semi-decently priced flight with great connections.  I decided to go for it, especially because all of the other girls were planning to be there.  It's just not that often that all 8 of us actually make it to a reunion!  I kept it a secret from Janet and surprised her by showing up on that Friday night at her boyfriend’s birthday party.  We spent the rest of the weekend at our friend Carolyn’s cottage in Chelsea.  It was so fun and I’m so glad I could be there to spend time with my girls. Janet felt great while we were there, and continues to fight her battle with a positive attitude and a smile.  Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.  While in Michigan, I also got to spend a few days with my mom and dad, and Lauren came up from Chicago with Milo and Anabelle. It was a fast trip, but a great one overall.

When I returned to Italy, Tyler's friend Lars was here visiting for a few days from Germany.  He got to see Cosenza, they went to the beach, and we had some of our friends over for a big BBQ.  After his visit, we prepared for the arrival of our good friends the Pawlowskis in late June / early July.  Tyler met them up in Rome for a few days while I stayed back to work (boo!).  Then they all drove down here and spent about a week in Calabria. We showed them around Rende-Cosenza, took a few trips to the beach, ate good food, drank good wine, and had a really fun time together. Tyler and I were sad to see them go, and it made us miss our friends back home a lot.  But we look forward to more visitors again soon!


On our other weekends in June and July, we made frequent trips to the beach to get some relief from the hot summer here.  It really is hot.  To our knowledge it’s been as hot as 43C (for you non-metric system people, that about 109F!), and people say it can get hotter.  We’re thrilled that the beach is no more than 30 minutes away by car and we try to take advantage of it as much as possible!  We also have AC at home now, so that helps.  We also continued developing new friendships, especially the neighbors next door (the singing and non-singing ones) and our friends from the UK that we meet on Fridays for beers.  It has been fun getting to know people better as time goes on.

Tyler also worked hard on the garden, which has produced many wonderful tomatoes and watermelons!  We are still enjoying the tomatoes even now.  We also got a few peppers and some basil.  Other things did not fare as well (plants have to like heat to survive here, apparently), but we’ll do better next year.  Sadly, we did lose one watermelon to theft.  We suspect it was one of the guys from Telecom Italia who came to the house to figure out where to install a pole so that we can have phone and internet at home.  To add insult to injury, we still don't have home phone and internet (and it may take weeks for us to get it) while some random Telecom employee likely enjoyed the biggest watermelon in our garden.  Way to put salt in our wounds, Telecom!  As if the agony of knowing we might not have fast internet in time for football season wasn't enough.  Moving on...

Towards the end of July, I went to Nova Scotia for a weeklong conference in Halifax.  It was great both for my work and because I got to catch up with a number of old friends from U of M.  I gave a presentation at the conference about some work that I did for my PhD and had recently published. It was bittersweet for me because it was something I had worked on for a long time and I was finally putting it to rest, but it was also something I had worked on closely with my advisor, Jerry, who passed away this spring. Jerry’s wife and daughter came to the conference too (with their cousin and her daughter), and I got to spend a lot of time with them which I enjoyed.  This was a conference that Jerry had almost always attended in years past and there were many people there who were sad to know he had passed away.  We had a small gathering one night to remember him, and that was really nice.

After the conference, I tacked on another visit to Michigan (this one I had actually been planning for a while… the earlier one was just a bonus!).  Rebecca, Will, and their kids were in Michigan at that time, so I got to spend a few days with them.  I was really glad the timing worked out so that I could see them. I also spent a couple days in Ann Arbor to see some colleagues and friends.  It made me nostalgic for our Ann Arbor days, and thankful for the great friends we have there.  I was also able to be in Michigan for my mom’s birthday and got to spend a few fun days with her and my dad.

While I was gone, Tyler went up to northern Italy and went hiking in the Dolomites.  He loved it. The mountains were beautiful and the weather was good (I’ll ask him to post some photos).  He stayed in huts every night where you get a bed, a shower, and can have a good dinner. This means not having to carry a tent, sleeping bag, or stuff for cooking which makes the backpack a lot lighter! He liked it so much that he wanted to take me back there.  

Fortunately, August is vacation time here in Italy (and in other parts of Europe).  So after my return to Italy, I worked for a week and then we got to take some vacation together!  We packed up the car and headed north.  We got to see so many things on that trip that I’m going to write a separate blog post about it and will include some photos (when I can use faster internet to upload them all).  This one is just a teaser :-)  It is from our trip to Verona earlier this week.

In summary, we are having a great summer, and we hope you are too!

Come to our house, friends, and eat these:

There are a few things in our garden that are LOVING the Calabrian heat (while we, on the other hand, are tolerating it by going to the beach).  Watermelons are one of them.  We probably have about 6-8 so far (but note their size compared to my fingers... still pretty small!).  The other heat lovers are tomatoes and peppers.  We look forward to enjoying them soon! We've already started on the tomatoes...

    

Come to Calabria, Friends. See this:

A sunset on the beach in Fuscaldo, only thirty-some minutes from our house.

First trip to the coast, and a tour of old Cosenza

A long time ago when I was first talking to my boss about this job, I said "Isn't it really hot there in the summer?" And he replied, "Yes, but then you just go to the beach". Well, Sunday morning we did just that. We woke up early, and Tyler said to me "What time is it? Usually you already have some job for me to do by now." And I said "Let's go to the beach!!" We packed a few things and hit the road for Paola, about 40 min from here by car, over the mountains. The drive was beautiful but we got a little nervous when the clouds showed up atop the mountains. Thankfully the sun reappeared and we had a nice couple hours on the coast reading books and putting our feet in the Mediterranean for the first time!

When we got back, Tyler's friend Dana from undergrad came into town from Naples for a couple days (our first visitor!). After a lunchtime BBQ with some friends, we took Dana for a walk through old Cosenza. I finally brought my camera for this walk and snapped a few photos of the old city. We are just perfecting our tour guide skills for our next visitors - Tyler's friend Lars next week, and the Pawlowski crew at the end of June!

Oh, and there might be a few more garden photos in here... ;-)