My mum’s birthday is coming up at the end of November, and as a surprise I am writing a special post dedicated to her, to show her and share with you just how amazing she is, both in her extraordinary achievements and in every little everyday detail which makes her a great mother.

My mamma’s name is Nicoletta. She lives in Rio Saliceto, where she (and I) grew up. It’s a small town of 4,000 people located in the north of Italy, in the Emilia Romagna region, between Bologna and Milano, as I like to say when someone asks. She is an admiral mum of 6 kids; 5 girls and one boy. She is our rock.
My mum is not your typical Italian mamma: the main reason being that she had a lot more children than the typical Italian family. Usually Italian families would have one or two kids, but my super mum (and dad) decided that this was not enough!
It is great fun being part of a never-ending family. As you can imagine it does get manic during the holidays … and it is a huge commitment to whomever turn it is to do the dishes!!There are 5 of us now away from home, with the exception of one of my sisters who still lives in Italy, albeit not too close to home.

Straight after graduating from high school, she started to work as a clerk in a local bank. She married my dad at 21 and by the time she was 25 she was blessed with 3 of us. After child number 5, my mum decided to give up her career at the bank and go back to school to start university. She graduated at 43 while pregnant with our little sister Didi (also known as #6) and now works at the local church and teaches Italian to children from different countries.

She had the strength to raise a wonderful family, and the courage to go back to university. I would like to think that my siblings and I have inherited these amazing qualities, and that they are partially what has helped me making the difficult decision of following my heart, after nine years in banking, and create my Italian boutique confectionery business.