The story of Arlecchino

(Pablo Picasso, Le petit pierrot aux fleurs (Portrait of the artist's son, Paulo, as Arlecchino, 1923/24)

With Carnival currently being celebrated here in Italy, my boys have been learning a children's tale about the famous character Arlecchino (Harlequin in English). Arlecchino is the most popularly known of the zanni or comic characters from the Italian Commedia dell'arte. Introduced by the successful Italian actor Tristano Martinelli in the 1580s. The original story of the Arlecchino revolves around a comic incident in the lives of its five main characters.

Today I want to share this children's version of Arlecchino, the story of a poor boy who desperately 

wants to attend the carnival party but has no costume to wear.

The story of Arlecchino.
Many, many years ago there was a boy called Arlecchino, he was very poor and lived with his mother in a humble cottage. At Arlecchino's school to celebrate carnival ,his teacher decided to organize a nice party and proposed to all the children to dress up in masks and costumes. Arlecchino's friends decided to dress up on the very last day of carnival with  clothes sewn by their mothers. Arlecchino was very sad because his mother, who was poor, could not buy the fabric to make him a costume. Arlecchino's friends see how sad he is, and decide to ask their mothers to each give a piece of left-over fabric to Arlecchino's mother so that she could also sew him a costume. 
The day of the party Arlecchino was so happy and proud of his new costume, it was the most beautiful and most original.   The end

This little tale teaches children about caring, sharing, hoping, and helping. I hope you enjoy sharing it with your children.

xTracey

Chocolat!

'il cioccolato deve essere preso bollente, seduti, e spettegolando'

Yesterday afternoon I took the boys to town for a walk and a hot chocolate to warm us up on this sunny but cold day. The streets of our town of Bergamo were filled with children dressed up for the
lead up to Carnevale, which for us is celebrated this coming weekend. We pushed through the crowd
down narrow streets covered with paper confetti and streamers, turning into a tiny and beautiful alley that lead to a little courtyard to a bar named Chocolat! If you have never tried an Italian hot chocolate
before then you must if you ever visit. With a densely smooth texture and rich flavour they are a sweet experience, and whatever bar you go to either in the centre of a big town or in a small village like an espresso the 'cioccolata calda' is made with love!

                                       

We take ours with cream!

                             

Leonardo takes after me we both love anything sweet!

  

              

The Italian bar is a beautiful inviting and stylish place to be on a cold winters afternoon..

                                    We also took home some of these yummy chocolates, who could resist!

 x Tracey

Yay!!!

So here we are, finally. Two friends from opposite sides of the globe, both living in Italy, both Moms. Come along for the ride as we try to figure out this crazy thing called life(or as the Italians like to call it "la bella vita") ;) We'll be sharing tips and information about the expat life, recipes, travelling, fashion, and lots of things to do with kids. We hope you enjoy it! Tracey & Sali