The windows are closed in the middle of the day, the heat must be kept out, the only wind you percept is a soft warm breeze that makes you want to lay down instantly. The pennichella (the nap) is about to take place.
The sun is hitting the asphalt and the sky becomes almost foggy. Shadows are well defined and long, and the bright white of buildings and walls can really put your eyes at a challenge.
Strangely, I always wait for this time of the year, where the days don’t seem to end. Where a glass of water stays cold for less than 10 minutes, where you, upon going outside, immediately feel sticky because of the humidity and your feet start to burn through your shoes. Where the way of breaking the ice with people is “che caldo che fa” (no pun intended).
The only sounds you can hear are the fan moving incessantly, seagulls singing and flying out the window and some workers pouring the asphalt, during these days where people are mostly out of the city or at home at the very hottest point of the day.
The time between lunch and the start of the afternoon is sacred. My family after lunch, would close the windows and it would look like when you actually go to sleep at night, everybody on the bed or couch waiting for the warmest point of the day to calm down.
My grandpa would announce himself going to take his after lunch nap and come back in a couple of hours, well rested and ready to start the second part of the day. My mom would always drink a glass of water, put the fan at maximum power, lay down and close her eyes. My dad would sit on the couch watching television, slowly closing his eyes until my mom would come back and wake him up around 4 o’clock. My nonna would clean green beans while watching her favorite tv show and then move to the couch, using only her hand fan, never the electrical one or air conditioning. My grandparents never used these artificial electronic refreshments, also because they would spend the whole summer in Nettuno, the seaside of Rome.
If you are out on the street around that time you won’t see many people, actually none at all (depending, obviously, on where you are living or staying). This is something I grew up with, the staying at home during this time of the day, and I understood by time passing. The older you get the more you get it, eventually.
So if you ever wondered “why is everything close at that time”, now you know. And like my mom says all the time: “dall’una alle quattro non vola ‘manco ‘na mosca” (from 1pm to 4pm not even a fly flies). And she’s absolutely right!
roman gal goes around 