I came to Rome in 2003 after some time in Portland.  I never once got sick of the rain when I lived there and I can't explain why.  I used to love going out in the rain to go for a run...(it always made me feel like a bit of a jungle warrior running in the hills in NW.)  I actually miss the smell of Portland.  I miss the smell more than anything.  There is this shrub that everyone uses to line their yards in Portland and it's pungent and anything but "pretty" but it reminds me of the city and I'm crazy about it.

It's 30 minutes to the sea by train and i've got no excuses not to be there on the weekends. Santa Marinella...out of the house by 10 in the morning, home by 7.  I've lived in this city for nearly five years and have never ventured out to the beach by train until last weekend: it was one of the most relaxing moments I've had in years.

Perhaps it is the fact that Rome has been covered in spring clouds for the last month or maybe it is just because it is new, but I finally get why the beaches of Italy are lined with thousands of visitors each day in the summer.  The atmosphere is that of leisure and leisure only with a light smell of salt and fried fish.  I've found my Italian equivalent of that shrub in Portland.

What a world we live in...ahhh