It seems a smoky haze has been following me around-and I am not talking about jet lag!  When I arrived in Napoli on July 11th, the air was grey and smoky.  As we were driving from Capodichino airport, my cugino said ‘è il fumo da Vesuvio’.  I looked over at the imposing volcano and the crater was engulfed in smoke!  I immediately thought the worst and started to panic and wonder why the 3,000,000 people living in the area were not being evacuated!  Then it was clarified…..the smoke from Vesuvio was from incendi, wildfires burning on the slopes of the volcano. The cause is thought to be intentional, although no one is really sure.  I am not even going to discuss some of the ridiculous rumours I heard. The hot weather, dry soil and wind is not helping.  This is really awful, although looking on the bright side, it is less awful than a volcanic eruption in an area with a population of 3,000,000.

July 11th tweet from 3B Meteo comparing photo of 1944 Vesuvio eruption and today’s fires!

A month later, the air in Napoli was still an atmospheric gray zone.  The day I flew home was also slightly windy.  This caused my flight to be delayed and my connecting flight in Munich left without me.  Mannaggia! I was not impressed.

A day late, I finally arrived home, and was surprised to find the air conditions to be the same smoky haze I left in Napoli!  Was this gray blanket of fog following me? To top it all off, the mountains were missing from the landscape!  It had been this way for 2 weeks due to over 150 wildfires burning in the interior of British Columbia.  The air was so smoky and gray the mountains were not visible.

Yesterday I was at Granville Island. If you are not familiar with it, this photo may look normal. There is something missing…..some very large mountains in the background!

Today the mountains were slightly visible.  Luckily it is just starting to rain now, so that will improve our air quality, and hopefully help to put out the fires.  Speriamo che piove anche a Napoli!

I wrote about my internet issues and difficulty keeping up with blogging in my last post Chiuso per Ferie.  Now that I am home, I will be catching up on reading and soon I will be publishing posts from my travels.

A presto, Cristina