Rome: Suddenly Summer

There is this one day in May that changes everything: the season in the Eternal City has begun.

There's this one day in May, the Romans say, when summer comes. It's a question of temperature, of course, but also of scents, sounds, and the senses. All of a sudden, summer is here, as if someone in heaven had flipped a switch. This year it came a little later; spring was mixed. But now it's finally warmed up in the Eternal City; the star jasmine is climbing over walls and fences and filling the neighborhoods with its heavy, sweet scent. Now is the best time of year, before August gets hot, sticky, and exhausting.