We then walked down the street to the Quattro Fontane. An otherwise nondescript corner in Rome, actually a busy intersection considering the size of the streets, where each of the four corners has a fountain carved into the building. Two of the four fountains represent rivers: the Tiber and the Arno. The other two corners, with female deities, represent strength ( Juno) and fidelity (Diana). It's unfortunate the city doesn't maintain these fountains as well as many others. Years and years of dirt and grime have collected to render the sculptures almost black!! On one of the corners is the church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, famous for it's facade by Borromini but not particularly exceptional inside.
Around the corner, we visited the Palazzo Barberini. Barberini, who became Pope Urban VIII in 1623, built an enormous palazzo with beautiful grounds. While the design was conceived and started by Carlo Maderno, after his death, Bernini and Borromini took over. It now houses part of the National Gallery of Art collection. While thumbing through volumes inside in the bookshop, we thought (for a long time) about viewing the collection, but decided to return another time when it wasn't so close to lunchtime.
Tonight, I had a date with Olivia. Over the weekend, Olivia had expressed to me that she felt Avery, as the youngest, always received special treatment. So, I promised her that she and I would have some special time alone together on Tuesday night. Of course, as this was broadcast throughout the family, Avery immediately asked for his own dinner out with mommy too.
After we dropped Charlotte off at swimming, Olivia and I drove, and drove, and drove. The traffic on Viale Parioli was completely backed up due to construction -- it took us 20 minutes to go a short distance to a pizzeria I'd been meaning to try. Unfortunately, when we finally found it (not easy to do by car due to all the one way streets) we were informed that la cena does not commence until 7:30. Oh well. I knew our old standby, La Pariolina, opened for dinner at 7, and so we headed there...which of course meant another pass down Viale Parioli and more traffic! This time, the problem was that I couldn't find a place to park near La Pariolina, and by the time I did a loop around the block, we were nearly at AquAniene. Olivia's tummy was rumbling and she decided she wanted to eat at the AquAniene cafe, so that's were we ended up: right where we started, only an hour later.
I must say that Olivia and I had a wonderful and enjoyable meal. It was interesting from the start when I made Olivia choose between getting an apple juice with dinner, or dessert after dinner. She said "mom, sometimes you make it so hard." "Life is hard, Olivia, and sometimes you need to make difficult choices" I replied. So this is how we began talking about life lessons and her study of fables in school, and the fable about the ants who work hard all summer to store food for the winter and the lazy fox who ends up going hungry. Olivia proclaimed "if you want something, you have to work hard for it" that is the lesson. I was very proud of her. We talked about Charlotte and their relationship, and some of the sneaky things they do together. We talked about the school over-nighter this spring and how she was not inclined to participate. "Charlotte is fearless" she observed, "I wish I were fearless like her." Why hadn't I started doing these one-on-one outings more regularly with each of the kids sooner? So often we are focused on "family time" and sitting down together, but I'd like to make every effort to sit down alone with each of the kids once every week from now on.
Between the pasta and the brownie, Olivia announced that she overate. At home, she practically fell asleep while she was reading a story out loud to me and Avery. Avery had had a long nap and was not nearly ready for sleep. In fact, he hadn't even eaten his dinner since he wasn't hungry earlier. So, when Josh left to pick up Charlotte, I allowed Avery to eat his (now cold) dinner, during which time he regaled me with stories and peppered me with questions.
I put Avery to bed just as Charlotte and Josh were coming home. Understandably, Charlotte is always hungry after practice, so while she had some cereal, I sat down with her. And, that is how I was able to have some time alone with each of the kids all in the same night.
Finally, when everyone was in bed. Josh and I sat around the kitchen table as he read the day's newspaper, Corrierre della Serra, and translated it for me. Small pleasures.
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