Christmas in Ferrara

Italy is a beautiful place to be in the winter.  For one thing, it's actually fairly cold here so it feels like winter (unlike anywhere else I've lived!)  Just after American Thanksgiving in November, thousands of sparkling icicle lights were hung all around the downtown area of Ferrara.  It's beautiful to walk around and see everything glittering and shining.

There was a carousel set up in the Piazza Municipale that Michael LOVED.  It was so cute watching him ride around and around. We bought more tickets than we probably should have, and Robbie and I had to switch off so we didn't get dizzy holding him on his horse.

The lights all over town were really beautiful.

They also set up an ice skating rink in one of the little plazas near the castle.  We didn't get the chance to skate but it looked like a lot of fun.

Ferrara also has its own little Christmas market.  There are some stalls set up in the main piazza that sell a variety of gifts, decorations, candy, and food.  We went several times and walked around--we got a Ferrara bulb for our Christmas tree, some candy (a couple of times), and little cups of vin brule, the spiced wine they sell here for the holidays.

We also got our first Christmas tree in Italy. They do things a little differently here.  The trees are smaller and they sell them in a pot.  You buy a tree and decorate it for the holiday, then you can plant it in your garden for the next year, or even return it to the nursery.  I had never really put much thought into the millions of trees that are cut down and die in the US every year for Christmas until we got to Italy and saw you didn't necessarily have to kill your tree. We hadn't brought any of our Christmas decorations with us since we didn't know how much room we'd have and where we'd be living, so we made a quick trip to the store and got some cheap ones to make it look happy and festive.  And the best part of it being on the small-side was that we could easily put it on a table and out of reach of the one year-old who loves to grab anything he can get his hands on!

A couple days before Christmas we got our first visitors--my mom and bother Ryan came to visit! it was really fun to show them Italy.  Michael had a great time opening his presents (this was the first time he really understood what to do with them) and we had a great Christmas with lots of food and a walk around Ferrara.

Merry Christmas (a month or so late)!