Unseasonably chilly

We've finally been hit with that cold snap that's been affecting the rest of the world. It was 45 degrees when we woke up this morning and the temperature did not get much higher than 60. I know that doesn't sound too cold but the floors in our villa are primarily tile. I've always been a barefoot kinda girl -- not much of a slipper person -- but I can see I'm going to have to make some adjustments.

I had my Italian class today. We meet every Tuesday and Thursday for 3 hours although we never start and finish at the scheduled time. Class is supposed to be from 10:30am to 1:30pm. By 1:30pm, despite snacking on almonds and nut bars, I am starving for lunch. But we don't finish until at least 1:45pm, so I routinely find myself eating lunch in the middle of the afternoon. Next week, having seemingly given up, the school has called the class from 11am to 2pm. I'm definitely packing a sandwich to eat during the break!

For today, however, Josh picked me up -- having spent the morning with his parents wandering around Trastevere -- and the two of us enjoyed lunch outside in our garden. Even in the low 60's, with the sun shining and flowers and plants surrounding us, it was a perfectly lovely day to dine outside. At least for lunch.

Despite all the eating, I seem to be losing weight. Not that I've weighed myself, but my pants are falling down. Maybe living in a 3-story house (now 4-story with the addition of the room in the lower level) had its advantages. It's like doing the stairmaster without ever going to the gym. Even the kids are complaining and now keep their toothbrushes and toothpaste in the guest bath next to the kitchen so they don't have to go upstairs to brush their teeth after breakfast.

Olivia had a field trip to a Rome Post Office today. The class learned how all the letters are sorted. They each wrote a letter to a classmate and mailed it at the post office.....now this ought to be interesting!! The Italian post is notoriously poor. Letters take weeks to make it next door and packages routinely go missing. All the guidebooks advise guests to send their postcards from the Vatican Post Office so that they will arrive at their intended destination. However, despite the dodgy reputation, we have received three packages thus far while in Rome. Of course these are packages that were pre-announced by the senders and so we'd expected these. But, I suppose it's entirely possible that some kind friend has sent a letter or package meant to surprise us - in which case, we haven't received it...yet.