Summertime

Another week has gone by and here I am, in yet another city. Today it was time to come back to Rome. This is the third time this year, but Rome looks very different in June. The sunny weather and the really high temperatures put a smile on my face as soon as I landed in Fiumicino. I realised how much I miss these hot days, when you can have dinner in a terrace, wearing short sleeves and still enjoy the occasional fresh breeze. For my friends in Portugal this is probably difficult to understand, but I’m sure that some of my friends in Belgium understand it well! On the other hand, there are things that never change… Alitalia’s delays for instance… I find it really amazing how it is possible that a country such as Italy stands the fact of having a “national” airline which uses such old and bad planes and provides such a lousy service… But in spite of Alitalia and regardless of the heat, Roma is a beautiful and magical city and it’s a pleasure to be here. Yet, this time, I have to confess that I would prefer to be somewhere else… the heart has reasons that even the reason ignores…

Anyway… in the meantime, I finished the book I started reading last week (actually, I finished it already on Saturday!) and started a new one, that I bought in Madrid. This one is in Spanish, and it’s the new novel by the Spanish journalist Julia Navarro. I read her two previous titles (“La Hermandad de la Sábana Santa” and “La Bíblia de Barro”) and I trust that I will enjoy “La Sangre de los Inocentes” as much as I enjoyed the other two. A bit of history, a bit of religion, a bit of mystery and a very well written text, are the ingredients that make Julia Navarro’s books the right companion for a trip, a boring meeting or a lonely dinner in a terrace in Rome under the summer heat.

Being part of a group of four brothers and sister, I grown up to appreciate being alone. It’s not like if I prefer to be alone rather than to be with other people. No, I actually prefer to be surrounded by people, especially by people I like. But since a long time ago, I’ve learned to cope with loneliness and developed techniques to fight boredom. Reading nice books, listening to great music, writing stupid posts… there’s a lot I can do when I am alone. But having dinner in a nice terrace in Rome, that’s something that you should never do alone…