Summer Holiday

51% of Italians have declared that they are not going on holiday this year. They were interviewed on beaches, in large and small boats rocking gently on turquoise Mediterranean waters, (here? oh, no, we pop along for the week end as we have a house here), pausing for a coffee in Roman piazzas, stepping briskly round hot , bored groups of tourists on their way to interesting appointments in renaissance palaces, buying heaps of freshest greenery and armsful of flowers in stone-paved markets, driving red Lamborghini tractors in Tuscan vinyards with flights of cypresses waving from golden corn-covered hillsides, eating lunch at the local, white-clothed, waited-on, fixed at 10 euros three course restaurant, scootering homewards for a little lie down in the afternoon. Then a freshening shower, clean clothes, and off for another couple of hours work and the evening yet to plan - light dinner with family or call round to enjoy whatever mamma has cooked just in case, then an ice cream at Vivoli, cinema al aperto, a drink with friends - indeed a procession through the Corso of greetings , smiles, gossip catchings-up, promises for Saturdays and Sundays, outings to exhibitions, collections - there's George Grosz on in Rome, the Absolute and the Relative under discussion in Milan with all the brains in the world contributing, magic and rituals of the Etruscans at Sovana, parties for First Communions, weddings, anniversaries ....

Of course they aren't going on holiday - they're there already, all the time.