Apparently, last summer, I found myself visiting Newport (RI) exactly the day before the visit of the Italian ambassador in US. In the Mansions I could breath some “Italian renaissance” air. Really cool place to visit: Mansions, town, cliff walk, beaches.

Recently I read an article claiming that the ice in the Artic sea has grown really fast this year going back to the level of 1979. And honestly, I felt happy for those poor polar bears that are obliged to swim for many miles for moving from one site to another (with the inevitable lost of many cubs).

Then I discovered this website and thing became a little more clear. In fact after a rapid initial increase, January extent remained well below normal. I would suggest to take a look of the last 30 years trend.

… at the end of the rainbow is Europe…

November rain…

The interesting thing about planes is that they are all almost the same all over the world. Right, when you change countries and continents you may find different cars, bicycles, public transportation… but plane are not that different. And when it is cloudy you could be wherever: Italy, Quebeck, Quatar Austria, USA, UK… wherever. Also safety procedures are the same… sure the language spoken by the crew can change, but at the end you will often have the English version of the story.

Right now I am sitting on this plane, a McDonnel Douglas MD80. Under me Europe hidden under a ocean of puffy clouds… and I can easily read the label on the phone close to me: “TELEX Minneapolis, MN, USA”… I was exactly in the same spot (same kind of plane, same sit) one year ago flying from Boston to Atlanta. Dejavu.

In Italy is warm (25C/77F) and really sunny. I am sitting on my armchair in front of the big window and everything look like summer. Yesterday, I could finally ride my mountain bike to go to the office while wearing a simple t-shirt…. I know, nothing special here… but after the long winter in Boston I can appreciate that much more than before. But don’t get me wrong… I already miss Boston.

… you know that days you go out in the morning and the face becames immediatly painful and almost every breath is a bit painful too. Do you know what I am talking about?. And when the wind blows in the face ehm. It’s only -13° with some wind (one week ago it was -14° or 15°). Maybe it is normal for friends living here or in north Europe. But for me… damn… it’s coooold.

Click to enlarge.

I landed in Boston yesterday afternoon. Today I had many meetings. At 8pm, at the end of the Semantic Web meeting at Stata, I went out and…. surprise… snow!!!

Yeah, this is the same old picture… but, as you can see the water is frozen and the snow covered the ice.

Reading the “Financial Times“, I realized that European Community is going to publish an “exhaustive” European Commission report on the effect of climate change on the continent (Europe… obviously). A few hours later all the Italian news websites were publishing the news (some examples here, unfortunately in Italian [1][2][3]).

Meanwhile, a bear and its two cubs, which were supposed to sleep, were walking on the ski tracks in Madonna di Campiglio (Italy)… the grass is green… and the temperature is really warm all around Europe…

I wonder how many citizens are going to change their habits in the next years… and how many countries…

I am living in Boston since one month and one week. Temperature is getting colder in the latest days, but the sky is always awesome. The weather is always changing fast giving the sky amazing colors. Mark Twain once said something like: If you don’t like the weather in New England wait a minute and it will change.