It is the heat of summer when you feel simply sticky all day long and the sweat just coats you like oil. Mosquitoes are out in full force, leaving nasty red welts on any inch of skin they can get to, which is a surprising number of places. Open windows at night just let them in, but closed windows are suffocating. Italians don’t really believe in screens. Perhaps it’s because windows are more than just windows here. A greeting, an escape, a way to know the world, the window is a portal into the culture. How else would Italians be able to shout to each other and find out neighborly gossip? How would they be able to follow passerby with well-trained eyes?

Italians can often be seen perched above, like hawks waiting to swoop down on their prey. If, by chance, you do catch their eyes, it is better to look away and keep your eyes in front of you, as you will get no smile unless you have known them for a very long time. It is hard to know an Italian, really. Especially as a tourist, a foreigner, a stranger. They will know you by your easy smile, given freely to anyone in your field of vision. You have been sighted, pegged and neatly packaged into the box without the green, red and white ribbon. You are no Italian.

Italians do not give smiles for free but when you finally get one, you will know it is genuinely for you. So be content to be watched from windows high, and if you have a room with a window (as much as you might complain about the heat and the mosquitoes) do not screen yourself in. Lean out, look down and be content to see the world the way it was meant to be seen-from high above.