THAT time of year, thou mays't ... a melted plastic coat hanger in the back car window find. Yeah, summer heat is here and objects left in the back of the car are likely to curl and contort themselves into weird and wonderful shapes as they melt in the plus 30 Celsius heat.
This is the time of year when the dogs dig up their own earthen bunker in a shaded corner of the garden, buried beneath laurel bushes and old leaves. This is the time of the year, too, when the turtle comes out in the early afternoon, attracted by the water sprinkler and looking to quench his thirst and, if he's lucky, get a bite of melon peel or lettuce that may have been set aside for him.
The heat is on. Watering systems are in full action and the cool shade underneath the lime trees in the corner of the garden has never seemed more welcoming. This is also the time of year for violent and sudden thunderstorms (temporali) that stage their own version of a Hammer Horror movie and which also (and this is true fact, friends) strike a working hack's studio fair on the roof and burn out his computer, modem et al.
This is also the season of the cicada, those large broad insects (of the homopterous family) whose vibrant drone on a hot Mediterranean summer's evening signals, beyond all doubt, that summer is here. For this Northern European born and bred, the cicada on a hot, sultry night still represents a truly exotic, mind-bending sound. Devotees of the guitarist Carlos Santana who are familiar with his Caravanserai album may recall the cicadas lead role in at least one track.
The cicadas, however, are not music to the ears of everyone. Summer, of course, is the season of the open air concert, here in Trevignano (north of Rome) just as all over Italy. The other night the Quartetto d'Archi Romano, a Rome based string quartet, had to fight hard to make themselves felt as they performed a mixed programme of Mozart, Cole Porter and Scott Joplin to the background accompaniment of cacophonous cicadas.
The string quartet were performing at Trevignano's open air cinema, splendidly sited on a rocky promontory which overlooks both the village and shimmering Lake Bracciano beyond. Their concert was to mark the closing ceremony of the village's own International Short Film Festival (Festival Internazionale del Corto di Fiction), one of a number of initiatives which make the cinema a focal point of cultural and community life.
The cinema has a curious history in that throughout its 55-year existence it has been run by the Palma family who, in the daytime, runs the village's main garage and service station.
A couple of years ago, a celebratory booklet was produced retracing the cinema's history and recalling, among other things, how Fernando Palma used boats in the late 1940s to transport heavy stones necessary for building the first permanent picture house across the lake.
Despite the crisis which hit all Italian cinema houses in the television dominated 1970s, 198Os and 1990s, Trevignano's cinema continues to prosper, much aided and abetted by the enthusiasm and energy of Fabio Palmo, Fernando's son.
This summer's short film festival featured more than 50 films and or videos, including an entire Spanish section (from the Cinema Jove festival in Valencia), contributions from Italian state television RAI and, indeed, an Irish film - Damien O'Donnell's 35 Aside (winner of a prize at a similar festival in Clermont Ferrand, France).
Along with 75 other such festivals, Trevignano's short film festival benefits from vital European Commission funding and support. Equally important, however, is local support.
The overall Trevignano enthusiasm for cinema has always surprised me. It is perhaps simply a reflection of the obvious consideration that the cinema is one of the few cultural pursuits offered by the village. Yet, even in the high summer heat of last week, villagers turned out to watch short films by unknown directors, many of whom were glad to get the chance of a showing.
That point was one underlined by Kirsi Kinnunen from Finland, director of the Tampere Festival and a member of the jury, who joked that Trevignano must have one of the highest per-capita cinema going populations in the world. By the way, the winner of the major prize at this year's festival was Clinicamente Fabbro by Matteo Pelligrini. Maybe a name to watch out for.
In the meantime, the festival is yet another reminder of the time of year. It's back to the ice cream parlour and mind where you leave the plastic coat hangers.