Eight-year-old Allegra stands in the garden behind her family’s little house in an old Italian village. She hears music gushing from horns and springing from strings. She sees dancers spinning in swirling colorful frocks. She sees sturdy wooden farm tables covered with platters of meat and fish, baskets brimming with bread and fruit, and trays of just-baked cakes and cookies. There are wheels of cheese, pitchers of juice, and vases filled with bright bouquets from the garden.
The linden trees’ flowers sweeten the air with their perfume. Allegra giggles as her sister, Maddalena, and Maddalena’s new husband, Luca, blush and kiss under a blue sky surrounded by the smiling and laughing faces of family and friends. Today is Maddalena’s wedding day. Allegra is certain it is the most beautiful wedding there has ever been.
Excerpt from The Wedding Trees