What's new and what isn't

❣ Our new kitchen looks fabulous, but it's so hot we don't want to cook anything. Photos when it cools down enough to open the blinds.

❣ Even in this heat it's pleasant to sit out on the piazza at eight o'clock drinking aperitivi. There's a nice breeze and lots of people of all ages strolling and riding bikes. Last night I celebrated our arrival with an Aperol spritz (two, actually) with Pam and Romano. Danny had already gone to bed.

❣ The bar around the corner, formerly Bar della Piazza, just rechristened itself (in English) Beef Corner. I wonder if the new name sounds more appetizing to Italians than it does to me. It's still a bar but they serve "meat specialties" in the evening. We went there tonight for some prosecco. 

I made Pam take this so I could be in it. Note remains of generous snacks.

 ❣ After drinks at Beef Corner we went to Pizzeria Baia Azzurra ("Blue Bay") for some deep dish. The eatery is nowhere near any water but at least the name is in Italian. As we were strolling home we noticed that the scaffolding that for years covered the back of the 11th-century Duomo is finally gone. Now the cathedral looks beautiful from all sides.

❣ There's a new tailor on our street, a new real-estate office, and a new clothing store, and a couple of empty storefronts where stores we can't remember used to be. Happily the gelateria across from us is still there, still doing a thriving business.

Before going up to our apartment tonight we stopped for some gelato: sour cherry for me and very rummy zuppa inglese for Danny. This was the one place we went tonight that was aptly named:  Gelateria Borgo di Golosi, "Village of Gluttons."