Spring is definitely my favourite season. It's been sunny almost every day over the weeks here and my son enjoys playing outside a lot. Our eyes have been pleased by spring blooms in pink, yellow, white, and now in violet of wisterias and hyacinths in our garden.  In the lovely afternoons, I purposely take him for a walk so that he falls asleep on the stroller. If I succeed, I have a bit of me-time in this garden for one hour, more or less. So, I am writing this article in the sunny spring garden, hoping to finish it up before he wakes up, and remembered that I wanted to show you this Italian picture book titled NEL GIARDINO (IN THE GARDEN). We found this book during the past winter in the city library. He immediately loved it so much that he started to read it in the park on our way home. Does the image he is looking at reminds you of something? For me it looked like one of the paper-cutting artworks by Henri Matisse, or simply a pair of leaves or seaweeds in different colours. Th...

Another winter vacation has passed and we are back to the ordinary days. I hope my readers have had a nice holiday season. I had a relatively peaceful holiday mostly spent just with my son and my husband. For the Christmas we skipped the family gathering and went to South Tyrol. My two-year-old son was super excited to see a bonfire for the first time on the Christmas Eve, when as an Italian tradition the owner of our hotel was burning things that were old.  He was dancing around the big fire and it was quite a primitive scene. The following days he enjoyed excursions in the mountain; walking on a frozen lake, running up and down the hills covered with snow, and seeing 360 degree panoramic view of  the Dolomites.  Having returned from the vacation, his Roman cousins joined us for a few days in Bologna. For the parents it was a bit like being in a jungle to have three boys in the house, but was certainly a great time for my son. They are older than him and always open him ...