Asciano and the Lazy Day

The town gate to Asciano

28 June, 2011

There is no job for meteorologists in Tuscany.  Yesterday?  Hot and sunny.  Today?  Hot and sunny.  Tomorrow?  Hot and sunny.  And going out on a limb, next week’s weather?  Hot and sunny.  A few days ago, we passed a digital sign that placed the current temperature at 44 degrees Celsius--that equates to over 111 Fahrenheit!  That could very well be inaccurate, but it has been over 90 degrees Fahrenheit every day we’ve been here.  But, as the joke goes, it’s a dry heat.  It is very dry here.  The grass and weeds crunch under your feet unless watered regularly.  The lavender that fills our yard must love dry weather.   The pollinators certainly love the lavender.  When you walk down the path, the butterflies dance before you and the buzz of bees fills your ears.  Actually, the buzz of bees never ends.  You can hear it pretty constantly because of the lavender and the fruit trees and flower bushes of our neighbors.  

LIke much of Europe, Italy does not routinely have screens on it’s windows.  The only screen have seen was for a window with a huge wasp nest right outside it!  They usually have shutters and sometimes the shutters have louvers which is helpful.  Our shutters here do not have louvers, so we have our windows and our front door open most of the time to catch the breezes.  One night, our door was shut, but the light above the door was on.  I went to turn it off, but saw what appeared to be a hummingbird with a really big body bumping against the glass, probably trying to get in.  But then it landed.  Eeeeeew!  It was a huge beetle!   3-4 inches long--it was definitely a creepy Italian beetle-monster!  It continued to try to fly into our glass door until I turned off the light and it flew away.  

Today, we went to Asciano.  It is a small town nearby--complete with town walls and an archway to enter the town.  Very cute.  It has a main pedestrian street in the older part of town with all of the shops, as well as streets outside of the older part that lead to grocery stores and other places in the town.  The oldest houses are all down near the wall, while the church and a park are up on the hill.  We went into one of the stores that advertised tourist information and asked about wi-fi.  They said that Asciano has free wi-fi out in the streets.  No password needed.  Well, they do.  However, it will let you read things on the iternet, but does not allow you to go to sites that are password protected (such as email, facebook, blogger, etc., etc.)  Italy recently passed an internet anti-terrorism law that requires you to provide a passport or other information to get internet access.  We asked the tourist information person about that, but she did not understand what we were saying.  So in Asciano, you can read things, you just can’t go to sites where you create or communicate with others (is what we figure).  Our U.S. government also, is working on trying to pass bills to limit our access to information on the web.  My daughter, Anneliese, keeps me updated!  My liberal activist daughter! 

The main street of Asciano

I have noticed that in Tuscany, there are fewer shrines and the shrines that we see are more modest than in the north.  We went into Asciano’s church and it was very peaceful.  Much more spare than many Catholic churches tend to be.  Very little in statuary and the stained glass was very minimalist.  I did see a large picture of the Virgin Mary at the top of a building.  

The church

The simple dome and lantern

A photo on the main street of the Virgin Mary

So we got groceries before afternoon siesta and went back to our apartment for a lazy rest of the day.  We had quiet time, reading, napping, and playing iPod games.  Then, after a late lunch, Randy went for a walk and I went swimming for awhile with the children, then read some more and cuddled with Joshua.  After dinner, continued to be quiet time inside and outside, reading, writing postcards, talking, blogging, etc.