It's still Summer

Huw Williams | 20:24, Tuesday 27 August 2013 | Turin, Italy

There's a different feel to the end of Summer in Torino. The sun is still as uncompromising as it was in July, the heat is still as unforgiving, but as the people of Turin begin to make their way back from their ferie, and the city begins to feel less deserted, there is an almost tangible change in the body language. We are all (even me, ever so slightly) browner than we were a month ago, women sport hair looking decidedly sun-and-sea-bleached after their August getaways. 

But it is more than that. There is a difference in the way we walk too. This side of the vacation, the Summer is just as wearying, but now it’s back to work. I don't think it's my imagination, the people getting down from the tram at the stop opposite seem to walk with a heavier gait in the early morning sunshine, knowing that a day's work in this weather can be a draining experience. We're still closing the shutters at mid morning for the heat, but now there's no holiday just around the corner to look forward to.

And it is the knowledge of what it is that is just around the corner, that is the one thing which makes many of us reluctant to complain about the heat; we know how endless and how cold the Winters can be. We remember well how we longed for the Summer last February.

And there's no escaping that feeling of the new year ahead. We might have been out of school for more years than we were ever in school, but with September in sight, it's hard to shake the new school year feeling.

I even want to buy a new pencil case.