July and August are sunflower months.  It's such a sight to behold as the sunflowers start to bloom.

They had a tough time this summer as we didn't have much rain.  Right now they are dry and some have started to be harvested.  Sunflower oil is a big product in Italy.

Summer time is a fun time for our branch as we have many visitors.  They come to our area for vacation.  We have wonderful beaches and old cities.  Above is Elder Pesci with C.J.  She actually is from Italy just up north from us.

Rebecca Bradley was in Civitanova doing tutoring in English.  She is from the U.S.

The Danish family.  I didn't get their names. We also had a family from Germany but I failed to get their picture.  We love visitors as it gives us a few more members present.

The  Relief Society had an activity at Portonovo.  Besides the wonderful beach, they have an old church there.(Chiesa di Santa Maria di Portonovo)  It was built around the year 1000.  At one time it was used by Napolean to house his troops during the war.

Tour guide for the church.

Maria Cabrera joined us along with her son, Samuele.

More pictures of the church. It is still used today for weddings and some church services.

After our tour of the church we had a picnic on the beach.  Notice the "no sand".  Just tons of white stones.  Not so easy on the feet.  Maria, Violetta, and Marina.

One Sunday in July we had a meeting in Rimini soon after church.  There wasn't time for Richard and Festus to go home (they live in Osimo 30 minutes away) and eat and then return to ride with us so we fed them dinner before going.

Most of July Kimberly was in the States.  While she was gone I worked on this blessing dress for Lance and Catie's new arrival coming in October.  It's crocheted in crochet cotton.

I had an urge to make some music so we found this music store in Chiaravalle.  It had everything.

This is only one of the walls of guitars.  It think there were 3.

I've never seen so many instruments in one store.

This was my only purchase.  I can actually play it.

Just last week we took Kimberly and two other young women from Rimini up in the 

Apennines for girl's camp.  It took way too long (3 1/2 hours) to get there as we were following others but we finally made it.  I was very car sick and wished not to travel that road again.

The girls were starting to gather.

Our faithful stake leaders Jessica and Marianna.

This is the outside kitchen.  Not too bad for being in the mountains.

On Wednesday of the same week, we drove to Modena (3 hours) for a zone conference with Elder Kearon.  You may have noticed that sometimes we do a lot of driving.

We always love seeing and visiting with the Pedersons.  They came to Italy just one month before us.  They do a great job of planning and preparing the food to feed all of the missionaries. They get assigned to do those jobs because they work with the military base and have access to the commissary. That translates into American products.

Since the meeting involved more than one zone we were able to see some of the elders that used to serve in Ancona.  Elder Gomez above.  We also saw Elders Beaulac, Hallulli, and Moa.

On Saturday we returned to the camp in the mountains to pick up two young men from our branch.  Since the end of August marks the end of holiday, the autostrada was packed with stop and go traffic.

So what do you do in stopped traffic?  Take selfies.  What else?

This was the summit of the mountain.  From sea level up.

This is the cute little path that helped us out when there were no services along the way.  Not the first time we have had to do that here in Italy.

This is a 2 way street that we passed through just before arriving at the camp.  There were little villages here and there hidden away up in the mountains.

At the conclusion of camp I just caught the tail end of a water fight.

The exit from the Rogai family's property.  They so willingly let the youth use their family property and home for their camping experience.

The Hydes (the senior couple from Prato) helped make camp a success.  We were warned, by them, that this would happen as soon as we got in the car for the trip home.  They were beat!!  They must have worked hard.

A small glimpse of an old bridge on the ride home.  I was happy to report that the bonine worked very well for the car sickness.  Success!!

August 15 is ferragosto.  Everything closes down. But that is not all.  Businesses take their ferie (holiday) sometime during August too, so many businesses just close for the whole month.  (Got a little selfie there too)

Closed for holiday 1st of August to the 30 of August.

Poldo's has very good pizza.  Do you recognize the face?  They also make a good puccia.  I'll be sure to include a picture of one of those next time.

This is the fun little box that the ristorante around the corner puts their take out pizza in.