what i love about sunday.

it's sunday and it's finally sunny here in Modena! and what a wonderful day it has been. today was my mom's school party. here school is about a 30 min drive from Modena, but it's ok because it's through the countryside and there are no words to describe how beautiful it is. i think it's because i'm a romantic but everything seems a little bit more beautiful here in Italy. even their buildings that have been left to rot in the middle of the fields have a certain charm about them. driving through the country i couldn't help but smile at the beauty surrounding me. everything was green and there were farms with grape vines or pear trees and fields that didn't stop until they hit the mountains in the distance. you can see all the small towns and sometimes just the houses that sit alone. they are bright and colorful and have pretty shutters and the flowers, oh the flowers. they are everywhere. all over the balconies and the front gates, and the yards. so many bright colors and pots covering the cobblestone driveways or brick paths. i wish i had been able to take pictures of everything. there were also beautiful houses with the big gates and trees that lined a dirt drive all the way to the front door. literally if you looked straight through you could see a big wooden door at the front of the house. the clouds were perfect today as well. they seemed to blend in the with the mountains, a few of which were snow capped. what a beautiful setting, i wanted to take off my shoes and run through the fields and pick grapes from the vines and pears from the trees and take them inside to my "nonna" cooking fresh pasta and bread. dear italy, i love you!

this picture does it absolutely no justice.

after the school party we got to drive back through the countryside for another 30 min and definitely wasn't complaining. then we went to this awesome gelato shop that was packed. i got to have 3 flavors! it was great. we went and ate in the park. giuliano (my dad) told me that sundays are a day of relaxing in italy just like in america. there were tons of people all over the place, not just the park we were in. italians are much more active than americans are. everyone was running or riding their bikes. the sun hasn't been out for quite some time and everyone was taking advantage of this gorgeous may weather. eating gelato in the sunshine and watching the cute little children running around was just great. i'm thankful for such an amazing day. i'm off to read about the reggio schools, it's quite inspiring and i can't wait for another week with my precious three year olds!