Between trips: At home again

Coming home...

The bags have been emptied, the washing maschine is working on the laundry 24/7, my new Missoni dress has found its place in my wardrobe, the boys have checked that all corners of our house are still as they were when we were leaving for holiday, and the wonderful Chiantis, Amarones and champagnes have filled our Festivo wine cabinet. Also the weather has dropped from +34 C to +15-17 C, but fortunately the forecast says it will get over +25 C today or tomorrow.

This is how it's been for the past few summers; the weather in Finland gets rainy and cold when we leave for Italy, and it gets back to sunny and warm when we come back home. Thus we can't take a risk anymore and stay home for the whole summer, as the weather is bound to get crappy, so we're forced to travel somewhere. I'm not sure if the whole weather-thing is about going to Italy, though, and it might be possible to visit some other country instead. But, as all aspects of Italy are so dear to me and we have never been disappointed in the holiday circumstances there, it would be an even higher risk to travel someplace else instead. In the summer, that is. There's still autumn (maybe a long weekend in Oslo, Norway, where my husband works), the long winter months (our last year's trip to the Christmas market in Munich, Germany, was just lovely, and there's the Caribbean cruise coming up) and the spring (is there anything better than taking a little trip with a childhood friend?). Not to mention the unplanned, short-notice I-gotta-get-out-of-here kinda trips that can take place anytime and are essential in merely surviving.

Guess what? I sent one of my holiday pictures to Lonely Planet on Twitter and they picked it into their following tweet "selection of responses"! Take a look: http://storify.com/lonelyplanet/we-asked-you-where-do-you-recommend-others-check-o . Can you tell which one is mine? Quite well of a picture, which was taken with my iPhone..!

I have also received some very uplifting and encouraging feedback on the blog on Facebook.  I'm really taken about it!! And there have been already over 1000 hits! Thanks, guys. I'm so pleased.