Can you love an Italian flower name for its meaning more than its English counterpart? Sunflower in Italian becomes ‘Girasole’ its meaning twist or turn dizzily rotating toward the sun in Italian, giving you the immediate understanding of what must be the most universally loved flowers and crops of hot yellow.
Like cat and dog people you almost feel there is two camps: one for sunflowers and one for poppies. Whereas June is the month of poppies in Abruzzo, July brings sunflowers that captivate, brightening any road trip, as if you needed it, traversing across the region. When the temperature outside is 38C+ you wonder how they stand so strong, unbowed, as we cower away in the shadowlands.
We snapped this and ‘March of the Sunflowers’ below in the rolling hills that span from the city of Teramo across to the coast. They seem to grow particularly well in the eroded field/furrows in the area that by the time you get to Atri are known as calanchi.
Author: Sam Dunham
Sam is a very lucky midlife 'mamma' to A who is 11 and juggles her work as a self-employed freelance travel and food web content manager and copywriter and EFL teacher - she is the founder of English in the Woods. She is the co-founder of the social enterprises: The Abruzzo Blogger Community and Let's Blog Abruzzo. She is currently writing the book 'Abruzzo: Folk and Food.