Quirinale

Today’s entry accompanies a short video clip of the tour we did with zio Luca and Sara on Saturday afternoon. We went to see the Change of the Guard (Cambio della Guardia) at Quirinale, the equivalent building of the White House for us in Italy. This is the residence of our President, and a special force of the nation always guards it. On Saturday, July 3, 2010, the guard that was getting off duty was the Navy (where my brother works) and the one that was going on duty was the Army. It was a neat experience to witness, especially since in all my years living in Rome I had never seen it before.

Marco noticed that the guards were walking funny, and in his opinion it probably took a bit longer than one could arrange it to finish it up. I explained that this is an important tradition that reminisces a past that we Italians are proud of. I guess from a 12-year old point of view it seems funny and unnecessary, which is why I was glad my kids got to experience it.

The whole ceremony takes about 20 minutes or so. The video is only about 7. A small shower caught us at the last few minutes, so we had to look for a spot where to hide, and be back to the bus, not without our now usual stop to an ice-cream place.

Even with the rain, that day, and all other days since, the weather has now become officially unbearable. It is not only hot, but there are several warnings to older people and small kids to be inside, from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at least. And in Rome they give away free bottled water to everyone at the exit of the metro stations, to ensure people keep hydrated.  Tourists are pretty much the only ones who care to still walk about at any time of day and night. We try not to join them – it is really suicidal. What I continue to find amazing is the adverse sense of accessing air conditioning that all Italians have. We visited a mall on Sunday and the air condition was clearly off. No one complained, and the shopping experience was literally brutal. Thank God theatre halls are the exception – I managed to bring Marco to watch a movie in Italian. Good lesson in language and culture that he seems to have enjoyed. He came for the treats and the ice cream that followed (it was to be expected!). I took him for the extra practice – whatever works.

In the meantime dad tells us that the weather in Edmonton is ok: it rains at night and it is sunny during the day. Certainly easier to sleep at night! I post a couple of nice pics of the garden and flowers that Nick is taking care of at home – nice to know that dad is doing fine and keeping up the beautiful backyards for us for once we get back home.

Enjoy the clip!