Festa Italiana has become synonymous with searing temperatures in recent years, so we're hoping that the descendants of Albert the Alleycat are correct in their prognostications for this weekend's weather ... about 80 degrees for each of the four days. For some, perhaps, 95-degree, sun-soaked days conjure images of a Sicilian summer, but I'm not that guy. After all, my idea of heaven is a bit of morning fog dipping around green, vine-covered hills with the snow-capped Alps as a backdrop. Give me 78 and sunny the rest of the day. Sorta like the photo above.

Last year's Festa was cursed with especially disastrous weather and it happened to be the year I spent nearly every waking moment of four days at the event, as part of the team organizing the Piemonte Regional Cultural Exhibit.  Although there was rain when the gates opened Thursday morning, it was nothing like the torrential storms that struck mid-day on Saturday sending thousands home. Sunday was hot as blazes, as Festas have been lately, and most potential fest-goers chose the local mall instead of forming part of a human fritto misto at the lakefront.

I'm going back this year to work with the Piemontese folk group Ariondassa again and so I'm thrilled at the prospect of 80 and partly cloudy. And 81 for Sunday's procession means I can march without having to worry about having my skin seared off by the sun.