I tan and I do not get sunburned. The sun and I have always got along well together. That was until the skin cancer issue began appearing in the newspapers.
A few years ago I decided to get my moles checked out at a London hospital.
A fair-skinned Polish doctor examines me.
‘I’m Italian”, I warn her. ‘I’ve spent my whole life in the sun’.
She looks at me half appalled, half incredulous, she checks my skin thoroughly with a magnifying lens and says: ‘Remember, the sun is your enemy. Use a SPF 15 cream in winter, a SFP 50 cream in summer, cover up yourself as much as you can and always wear a hat’.
If she had invited me to sit in the electric chair it would have been simpler.
I did not dare confess to her that, when I was a teenager, I was an Eutra-girl. Eutra was a cream invented by the Swiss (who remain famously pale) to soften cows’ udders for milking.
It was believed it aided tanning and it had no SFP at all (cows do not get tanned nor sunburned). Now you can buy Eutra only if you contact a (Swiss) dealer, but years ago, this product was our summer must-have.
The fact is that for us Italians, the sun is as important as the air we breathe. We need it to survive. ‘Our’ sun pervades not only our beaches, but also our literature, our art.
This issue is full of sun, energy, and wellbeing. And because sun improves our mood, hopefully you’ll find something fun to keep you entertained on the beach.
You’ll find our what bankers and miners have in common, what you should never wear in summer, what the sun can do for the environment and much more.
Have a great summer. I look forward to seeing you in September. Bronzed of course.
