August, Rome.

I love staying in the office in August. I have then Rome all to myself. The city is baking under the sun but its silence makes her magic. In the morning, no fight at the counter for my cappuccino tiepido. Waiters are kind and share the gossip of the day, we’re survivors after all. Empty buses. And on time.

No motorini around. The full potential of the mighty piazzas is unleashed. I can hear the echo of my sandals on Piazza del Popolo.

In those who walk to the office, from June onwards the shadow radar sets in like a navigator. Between point A and point B it’s not about speed or distance, but shadow.

But this year I had to give up. It’s August, and I have to take all my holidays, all at once, all now. There, a very roman thing to do. Very italian. But I want to have the town to myself for a couple of days still.

So, getting up early for Repubblica and breakfast before it gets too hot. A round of vegetable and fruit shopping at the mercato. And, coming home, I see them. In an old-style window display of a grocery store. The taste of our summers when we were kids. Sciroppo and chinotto!

Amarena syrup, diluted in water. Liquid garnets swirl in the glass. Back then we kids we made our softdrinks. As much as I was fascinated by the mischievous Menta, I feared aunts offering the opaque Orzata.

Give me Rubys, Garnets and Emeralds …milky quartz no thanks (is this the reason why my husband proposed with a beautiful garnet ring?)

For him, born and raised in Rome, the taste of summer was different. No cherries for boyz in the neighbourhood, but naughty chilled chinotto made in Capranica.

The packaging is gorgeous…

I now realize that when I met mein Mann he only weared black. A childhood chilled in chinotto…?

I found myself thinking that the Chinese would love to drink Chin8 on 08.08.08…chinotto, freedom and human rights. They fit.

And in Berlin? Last summer we discovered our share of interesting soft drinks during our Prenzl’berg marathons and in our favourite Biergarten…but wait…it’s still a few days before we go to Berlin. Stay with us in hot Rome a little longer.