Three Things Your Nose Knows about Italian Summers

By Cherrye Moore
April 28th, 2010

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By: Cherrye Moore

The April showers have hopefully come and gone and here in southern Italy, we are preparing for another smoldering summer. You know how I know? My nose knows.

Here are three clues your nose will tell you about summertime in Calabria.

1. You will be overcome by the smell of orange blossoms

A couple of weeks ago I walked outside and was struck by an overpowering scent of blooming flowers, mixed with sweet citrus, mixed with something else I couldn’t quite discern.

“But what is that smell,” I asked my husband after I’d looked around to see if someone had dropped a bottle of $100 perfume on our doorstep.

“It is so strong.”

He smiled and pointed across the driveway to the alleyway of orange trees that line the drive.

The blossoms had been showing signs of life for days but on that particular morning, they burst from their bulbs with all of the force they could muster and sprayed our garden.

And it was heavenly.

2. You will smell the lavender

purple flowers

While not as strong as the orange blossoms in the driveway, the flowers that have grown over our walkway are equally inviting. We have an old bench, sitting near the canopy of ivy and lavender that is faded from too many years in the Calabrian sun. Once springtime hits and summer is on its way, that bench becomes a light beckoning me to grab a book and a pair of sunglasses and just bask.

And bask I do … .

3. You can smell the beach

Just a few days ago my husband lifted his head into the air, wiggled his nose and said, “Ahhh, you can smell the beach!”

And we are a couple of miles away.

After the orange blossoms and lavender have left their distinctive marks, the summer sands start stirring and you can smell the breeze off of the Ionian Sea.

When you are lucky enough to be able to distinguish among these summer scents, you can experience the changing of the seasons in a whole new way. If you are like me, and think someone dumped perfume on your welcome rug every time a new tree blooms, then you still have a few things to learn.

Lucky for us, we can try next year.

Cherrye Moore is a Calabria travel consultant and freelance writer living in southern Italy. She writes about expat life for Affordable Calling Cards and about traveling in Calabria her own site, My Bella Vita.

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