Summer Sense of Time

For breakfast, we eat fresh-baked rosetta rolls with butter, sour-cherry jam, and feta cheese We drink endless glasses of hot, sugary black tea.

Lunch is khoresh-e-bademjan (tomato-eggplant stew) and rice, served at 2:00 PM. We have so many guests today that we spread a tablecloth on the marble floor in the foyer—set a sofreh—so that we can all be together.

After lunch, with shutters closed to darken the living room, nearly everyone reclines on the floor with pillows and naps. I keep quiet, writing another long letter to my mother and reading.

Later in the afternoon, we drink more tea. We slice and eat watermelon and munch on pistachios and chocolates. We then head out shopping.

Dinner is spaghetti alla carbonara and salad, served after sunset, at about ten o'clock. We then stroll through Rome's crowded piazzas, gelato in hand, joining the passeggiata.

An hour or three after midnight, we return to the apartment on Via Sesto Miglio. We spread out our bedrolls and fall fast asleep.