No matter what the weather in Abruzzo, Italians are never happy with it. It is either too hot, or too cold. In fact until Spring gives way to Summer the Italians can be heard like mini barometers mumbling and muttering to each other, "freddo, freddo" meaning, its cold, or brutto tempo.This is on a day that you and I would consider warm.

In fact on a cool day the first thing I hear from Antoniettas mouth is a tirade of Italian swearing or "parole brutto" (ugly words) telling me what an awful day it is. There are many posts on Facebook talking about the weather, asking where the sun has gone and when will it be back.Bad weather is a cause for national outrage.

This year the Summer was late coming and the usual sandwich of 2 weeks of stormy and rainy weather in between Spring and Summer lasted over a month. There was many an "ugly word" exchanged about that I can assure you.

Last year Summer came like some-one had switched on a light, we went from sleeping under 3 thick duvets to sleeping under a sheet overnight, in fact the change was so extreme that it put all the poor old Abruzzese people in hospital with respiratory complaints, bless them.

This year has been a bit more gradual, but it did still go from early twenties to 32 overnight and stayed there, that is also a big change and a bit of a shock to the English system.

My huband and i have lived up North in Britain for years and the weather is always cold. So we are hardy to the cold. My husband is also astonishingly hairy, which means he gets very warm. This results in him walking down the street in the depths of Winter wearing only a T-shirt and bare arms. The reaction from local Abruzzo people is to rush up to him and stroke his arms in alarm and ask him if he is cold. He can be stared at like a circus freak mostly by Italians with 3 layers on as a minimum. It is amusing to say the least. I wonder what would they have made of my Scottish friends who walked with me to Everest Base Camp and wore kilts at minus 20 degrees!! Yes us Brits are crazy.

Italians are also allergic to rain, i always find it amusing that if they put a fence up around their house, they always offer their guests a little roof at the gateway lest they should get wet. That amuses me becuase it rains tonnes more in Britain but we would never bother with such practical pleasantries, our answer is that our guests simply get wet and be happy about it. That is the British way.

British people like my husband and I also tend to walk calmly straight through the rain without rush. Our attitude is that a few drops never hurt anyone. Walking through the rain in Italy will result in a fervent group of Italians running towards you with brollies, lest you get wet. How very gentile you might think, that is unless you are me. Heavy rain in Italy can mean serious lightening and personally my fear of lightening means that i would rather get soaking wet than have some-one holding a giant eletrical super conductor over my head. Horses for courses I say.......