Slices of Summer..

It's Watermelon season.

I love watermelon season...and so does Esther.

I think the watermelon signifies the start of the true Summer and and encompasses what Summer is really all about...it's brightness, it's freshness, it's color, the joy it brings.

As I was slicing this yesterday and Esther was trying to eat it up faster than I could cut it...it brought back a wonderful memory. I think that is the beauty of good fresh, yummy food...it triggers so many memories in us...where we ate, when we ate, who was with us...how we ate it.

THE best watermelon I have ever had...ever, ever...was in Rome...on a perfectly sunny June day 7 years ago. Perhaps now that I think back to that day...was the watermelon really the best tasting? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But perhaps it was the total experience that just saved the moment in my mind forever...as I have to admit I don't remember every time I have ever eaten a watermelon.

I was with my good friends Claudio and Marlies. Claudio is from Rome...and if you even go to Rome, please find a Roman to show you the city. It is magical. After an amazing and exhausting day touring the city on bicycle if you can imagine...we stopped at a street vendor near the Colosseum and purchased they most amazing slices of watermelon you have ever seen. The three of us just stood there in the Italian sun, devouring our juicy and lovely Italian watermelon slices as we laughed and talked about the day we just had...and I actually started to cry...as I had never experienced a watermelon so perfect before.