It’s June. Seasons go around and we are entering the summer again. As it already feels so hot to walk around the city during the day (how would I survive again this coming midsummer scorcher?), our daily “passeggiata” has been shifted to the riverside walk.   Fortunately, we live by the river and are surrounded by lots of greens that give us shelter from the reflected heat of the sun. So, during the day we go for a short walk in the woods along the river, and in the early morning or in the evening, if we feel like, go for an hourlong walk to the upstream crossing two bridges. I like walking on the bridges, especially the suspension bridge which was recently reopened several blocks up from our street. There is a panorama from the bridge in which we can spot some couples and flocks of birds (and even fish!), and cool air breezing up from the river. It’s really refreshing and I feel that the summer has come.  It’s been a while since I became a citizen of the world, and now I...

Flowers are blooming and birds are singing. It’s spring everywhere but it’s still pandemic. How I wish we could go on a picnic to the beautiful parks or on the hillsides. Lately, Bologna was re-designated as the “orange zone” but we are not yet allowed to gather with wines and panini in public areas. But hey, I had a book that brings me picnic vibes. It’s one of the series of this iconic children’s literature born in Japan in the 60s and now translated in many languages. The protagonists are little twin mice, Guri, always dressed in blue, and Gura, dressed in red, respectively (that’s how we recognize which one is who!). In this book, they go on a picnic with tons of food they had prepared for lunch. I love this book. For example, it makes me giggle that they set the alarm at twelve for lunch, and when Guri says “now it should be lunch time already,” the clock still ticks ten. To wait another two hours they start jogging and then go into a little adventure in the woods. As I proceed th...

Joy of reading:  today I want to start by talking about it. What is it for you? Perhaps it is to gain knowledge, to be opened up to a new world, or to come up with some inspiration. Perhaps, if reading a picture book, it is to please your eyes with beautiful illustrations. These are commonly experienced by reading print and digital books, however, there are many other joys reserved for print books only. For this, I would always favour print books, no matter how much our everyday life is to be digitalised.  For example, I can easily go back and forth between the pages at my own pace; sometimes slowly, some other times quickly jumping from one to the other. Other joys can be materialistic. I like the texture of books bound in fine paper, warm colours printed on them, and smells of ink and paper that become peculiar with age.  And this precious book by Dahlov Ipcar, an American painter and author, gives me such joys of good quality. I found this book at a tiny book...