Yesterday we came back to Civitella from Pisa to spend the Easter holidays here. We woke up to a wonderful spring day, and to the chattering of the swallows! They are back! I think I heard them on Monday, but I didn’t see any. This morning, however, I saw one going back and forth from the nest we have under our eaves! And many more were flying around chasing flies and other small insects!

We also woke up to find the plum trees in the back of our house covered in a cascade of delicate white flowers! So beautiful! The trees are quite tall and I literally had to walk under an arch of flowers to take our dog out!

Too bad the saying “una rondine non fa primavera” (“one swallow does not make a summer”) is true. Dark clouds are gathering quickly. We had planned an Easter BBQ at my parents’ place in the countryside but it looks like this year Easter will come with rain… we’ll see. In the meanwhile, I have decided to bring spring into our home with some beautiful light pink and yellow tulips!

Yesterday, we celebrated Palm Sunday, or la Domenica delle Palme, as we call it in Italian. It’s the Sunday before Easter, and the official opening of Holy Week (Settimana Santa). Palm Sunday commemorates an event mentioned by all four Canonical Gospels: the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem in the days before his Passion. However, as in many other cases, “the sacred and the profane” mix in our culture.

In many churches throughout the world, palm leaves are blessed and offered to the people at the mass. Not in Tuscany, though: here we get “l’olivo benedetto“, a blessed branch from an olive tree.

The choice of the olive tree over palm leaves is obvious: palm trees are not really common in Tuscany, whereas olive trees are and they are pruned at this time of the year, so it is very easy for churches to get some branches to bless and give away.

We keep them as a blessing to our homes (well, to the homes of those who believe at least). People who don’t go to the mass, though, in small communities like ours, are probably getting a branch anyway: kids go door to door delivering bags filled with the blessed leaves and in return they get a few euros for the church. Everybody gives something, even those who don’t believe or who do, but never go to church (lots of those in Italy).

The olive tree pruning season is a big deal and has a ritual of  its own. Every farmer has his own secret tricks for pruning: it’s a very important operation, which can determine the success or the failure of the harvest.

My dad loves pruning olive trees. He waits for the perfect time, prepares his tools, and finally spends hours in his olive groves every day. Complicated years like this are an interesting challenge for him: first it gets cold, then it gets warm, then it snows, then it gets really warm again! He’s always proud of himself when he gets the timing right!

He took a course once. And he spent the whole time mocking the instructor, because he believed that the techniques being taught were not suitable for our area. Apparently he was right, because he always gets fabulous harvests even if he does his own thing. And he loves poking fun at the other people he met in the course (most of them were new to olive growing) and who follow the “rules” and get poorer results!

After pruning the trees, the branches need to be moved away from the trunk of the tree. Most people burn them or give them away to some company who uses them to make compost. My dad uses them to make his own fertilizer. And that’s what awaits us over the Easter holidays, I guess…!

Today I had a very stressful morning so, when I went out to go to work, I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that it was a sunny spring-like day.

I don’t think I totally realized it until I arrived in Piazza dei Miracoli. In Pisa, the unmistakable sign that the spring has finally arrived are the students having lunch and relaxing on the lawn by the Baptistery. Today there was even a group of school kids playing football in a corner of the square, by the city walls.

As usual these days, I felt a bit jealous of all the people on holiday, so I started looking at things around me trying to focus on things I might take for granted and leave unnoticed.

I loved the contrast of the white marble of the monuments of the Piazza and the blue sky.

I also loved the distinctive  medieval features of the back of the buildings on Via Santa Maria. Their façades are less interesting in my opinion. They have been renovated, polished and often covered in signs, shop windows, gadgets on display and restaurant tables and menus.

Seen from behind though, they are “more real”, and I like to guess what sort of people live or used to live in there.

My favourite building looks really old. You can see the bricks under the crumbling plaster. It has a small backyard hidden behind a high wall. From the street, I can see a very tall pine tree, and through a small, rusty gate, a semi-abandoned garden, with some junk and an old swing. I guess a family with children once lived there, and that a long, long time ago they planted a Christmas tree in their garden, next to the swing. Now the swing is covered in rust and weeds and the tree is at least 5 meters tall.

I loved coming out of the office after dark and walking in semi-deserted Piazza dei Cavalieri and Piazza dei Miracoli. I have always loved the square after dark: so peaceful, so quiet.

What I didn’t like though, is the fact that it was much darker than usual. I think they are trying to save a few euros by reducing the lights.

In the craziness of everyday life, there are small things that have the power to slow things down and make us think. I am back at work after the Christmas holidays and I am working as a substitute teacher in a very (VERY!) difficult school. I am always running here and there, correcting stuff, preparing lessons… I’m exhausted.

But yesterday, I took my dog out and all of a sudden I realized something: while we stress out with the many unnecessary drama we put ourselves through everyday, time passes and nature takes its course, and after the bad days, even the apparently insignificant things around us that often go unnoticed can bear the promise of better days to come.

I found myself standing in the warm springlike sun, looking down where my dog was sniffing the ground. I noticed that the first thin, tender, shaky, bright green blades of grass have started peeping out  from under the layer of mud left behind by weeks of incessant rain. I raised my eyes, and I saw that  the branches of one of the trees in the next garden are already covered in small lumps that will soon become buds and then leaves or flowers. In a corner, by a pile of old broken tiles and other abandoned building materials, a cloud of minuscule bugs were flying frantically in a sparkling cloud.

And then I saw it: a bold wild daisy, fully in bloom, bending under my dog’s curious nose! A real taste of spring in the heart of winter. These last few sunny days have made us forget the boring days of heavy rain in Tuscany, and even if the “real” spring is still far away, it’s nice to see that the coldest time of the year is almost over!