Animals of Emilia Romagna, Italy

The last time I was in Italy, I did a work exchange at a farm in Emilia Romagna, the northern region that includes Bologna, Modena, and Parma. I look back on this period fondly: the weather was gorgeous, the family included two young English-Italian girls, I worked with a lovely Help Exchange couple from Australia, and the farm had lots of animals to help take care of.

The goats were particularly adorable photo models:

One of the newborns:

The farm also had a couple of cows, another animal I hadn’t spent much time around before.

I interacted with the cat and dog the most (obviously?), and loved how they were so sweet and comfortable with each other.

Dog in back, cat in front = cat-headed dog 🙂

What a lovely time that was, with all those animals and a welcoming host family!

I look back on these photos and it’s funny to think about where I was then, and how different things were. My relationship with Andy was up in the air, I had no permanent home, and this was years before I had Juno in my life. I loved my twenties because I was so independent, but I’m simultaneously so grateful for the stability I have with Andy and our silly pointy-eared, bandit-masked, blue-eyed pup now.

She likes to thwart efforts to put furniture together (because who wants to lie on concrete or grass when they can lie on a table?):

This post is E for Emilia Romagna, part of this year’s Blogging from A to Z April Challenge. I’m publishing a post every day of the month except for Sundays! Come back tomorrow to see what I write for F!