Italian lesson, or life lesson?

Today, I returned to Italian class with Miss Ivana. The lessons (this was only my second) are completely unstructured and free-flowing in order to simply encourage us to speak. She wants her students to have a love for the language and not get hung up on the grammar. She used our holiday gift to her as an example. She said she had tasted the marmalade she'd received in the gift basket and really enjoyed it; she didn't have a need to immediately find the recipe, she just savored the flavor! Now that's an Italian description of Italian!

For my part, I make many grammatical mistakes, and my daughter finds it necessary to correct me -- or mock me, as it were. After several interruptions from Charlotte, Miss Ivana interjected in English "because it's very important that you understand me." She told Charlotte not to correct me, she told Charlotte that no one is perfect and that she needs to accept me and my Italian as it is. She said that Charlotte is not perfect either and we love her just the same. She said all these things much more eloquently than I can relay here. Today's lesson was not as much an Italian lesson as a life lesson -- which is something that is much more important for Charlotte these days.

After class, I met Josh at home and we drove down to the Quirinale (the hill that's home to the President of the Italian Republic) to see the exhibit of Roman painting at the Scuderie entitled "Roma, La Pittura di un Imperio." The exhibit primarily showcased frescoes from private homes that were painted from the 1st century BC to the 2nd Century AD. The idea was to bring all these works from the same period together in one place and to understand how Romans of that time decorated their residences. Several works were from homes in Pompeii. Josh enjoyed the exhibit more than me. I just couldn't appreciate the art for what it was -- decorative. At the end of the exhibit, there was a section devoted to portraits from tombs that had been discovered in Fayoum in Egypt. Maybe it's because we were just there, but I found these the most interesting.

We decided to go home for lunch -- with the right ingredients, I make a great pizza. Afterwards, I had time to read and take a nap! A nap? I never take naps, what's happening to me?

Tonight, after an early dinner Josh took the girls to the pool, so Avery and I had some alone time. We took a bath and read a story...and both fell asleep!