To Air-con or Not to Air-con?

      It is hot here on the side of my Italian hill. Temperatures have risen the last few days in Italy -- and they were high already. It's basically been sunny and hot here for weeks.

      Now it's hotter. 

      Okay, it's not as hot as it could get in the States where I used to live, not as humid certainly, but there's one big difference between there and here.

      Air-conditioning.

      Don't have air-conditioning here and don't feel like I really need it most of the time. We have ceiling fans in the bedrooms, it does generally cool off in Italy at night, and it's not that humid here, so usually it's fine. Nice even.

      Our bedroom is the hottest room in the house, though, because it's under the roof. And the noisiest too, because it's as close as you can get to the German shepherd next door without actually living outside in the garden with him.

      So I'd be lying if I told you I didn't at times yearn to be as American as an American can be -- blast that air-con, shut all the windows, snuggle under my duvet (yes, in the summer), and sleep like a rock, especially when it's 95 degrees outside.

     Yeah, baby.

     Just the thought of it makes me want to break out into the Star Spangled Banner.

     I don't like that massive U.S. air-con in malls and stores, though. Mostly because I want to wear a summer dress without goose bumps ruining the effect -- or carrying a sweater around. And I don't like feeling guilty about how we're using more than our fair share of resources. 

     But sleeping with massive air-con, pretending it's the dead of winter, now that's another story. Just get me under that duvet, and all thoughts of American over-consumption vanish under the steady drone of zzzzzzs.

     I've been sleeping in the guest room the last couple nights since my son left. It's cooler there; our bedroom is just too hot to get any rest when it's like this. And then there's Nero next door (yep, he's got a Roman name. No wonder he thinks he owns the 'hood.)

     Yesterday, I went to a big discount store near here to look for a new toaster and a lampshade. But guess what caught my eye instead?

     You know. A room air-conditioner.

     They're expensive though. And you gotta drill a big hole in your wall to accomodate it, and put half of the unit outside.

     I can just hear my neighbors hassling me about it now. (Italian neighbors are the stuff of several blog posts -- or a thick book). 

     I may have to just bite the bullet and do it anyway, though.

     Sod the expense, as the Brits would say. Sod the potential hassle with the neighbors, the hole in the wall, the Roman German shepherd, everything really.

     And sing 'Oh Say Can You See' just as loud as I possibly can.