A wonderful “Pasquetta”

Pasquetta, literally “little Easter”, is the Monday after Easter Sunday. It is one of those days on which Italians know they must do something special, usually a taking a day trip somewhere more or less crowded or having a huge picnic!

I am not a huge fan of day-tripping on days like Pasquetta and Ferragosto, when 90% of my fellow countrymen get on the road, but I love picnics and barbecues!!!

So we took it very easy, and had an Italian-style barbecue (no hamburgers or hotdogs… well, hotdogs for the kids… but only pork ribs, steaks and sausages) at my parents’ place in the countryside.

The countryside in Tuscany is really beautiful right now, with the bright green fields, the first early spring flowers and the fruit trees in bloom.

Too bad that for the first half of the day, the weather was not as good as we would have hoped. It was cloudy, windy and it ended up raining too.  So we had to gather around the fireplace with a glass of wine in our hands!

The sacrifices you have to make to adjust to the rhythms of Tuscan country life…

In the afternoon, though, around 4pm, the sun came out and the temperature went up. The light was just beautiful and the day turned in the perfect April day we had hoped for. We then decided to go for a walk.

This part of Tuscany, called Alta Maremma, an area on the border between the Siena region and the Maremma plains, is full of great “strade bianche“, country lanes, mostly closed to traffic and ideal for easy relaxed walks in the beautiful countryside.

So we put our rubber boots on and followed our dog! A friend, and my sister-in-law with two of her children and her husband came with us on this fabulous walk.

I am not sure who was happiest jumping through the muddy puddles,  our dog or our 7-year-old niece Chiara! They both certainly  had water all over themselves!

The kids loved the walk: we had to walk through a little stream, we saw cows, and… even a huge parrot! Surprising Tuscany!

And when we got back, it was the perfect time for “merenda“, an afternoon snack, and another good glass of wine! A perfect Pasquetta in the countryside!