After the kids left for school, I remembered that yesterday was the day to schedule parent teacher conferences at the Middle School. I was already dreading the inevitable inefficiency of having four or five teacher meetings that would not be able to be scheduled consecutively -- our punishment for forgetting to call yesterday. At least that would have been the scenario in Chicago. But alas, when I called the school this morning, I was able to get four meetings in a row from 2:50 to 3:30pm. Good thing everyone is so laid back here.
Poor Josh. He coughed all night and couldn't sleep. Fortunately, we have a spare bedroom upstairs, so I could.
Today I walked down the street --literally 5 minutes down Bruno Buozzi -- to join the Nancy De Conciliis tour of Villa Giula which houses the National Etruscan Museum. As Nancy said, it's a "two-for," not only did we get to see the Villa which was built between 1550 and 1555 by Pope Julius III and learn about the history of his papacy and that period of history, we also were able to visit the museum and listen to Nancy spew forth her knowledge on her specialty -- the Etruscans. While little had been known about their origins, and most archaeologists and historians agreed they were indiginous people, new evidence has come to the fore recently as a result of DNA testing. It is now believed that the Etruscans came to live in this area of Italy after a massive migration from the East -- Persia to be exact -- possibly as a result of a famine. In any case, we learned about the advances they made during their period in history (7th until 2nd centuries BC) -- the Iron Age -- their pottery making, wool-works, and how they were ultimately conquered by the Romans. It was a fascinating morning.
The Villa itself was of great interest and contained a "nymphaneum" which became very popular during the period in which it was built. It added to the atmosphere of debauchery and otium (new latin vocabulary word) at the villa -- a retreat for the Pope and his guests.
Following the three hour tour/lecture, I called Josh to see if he wanted to meet me for lunch at Rose Trattoria. He was still not feeling too well, but we did meet for bite. We also paid a visit to the travel agent. It appears that most Romans don't get away to the beach for 3 or 4 days in "winter" unless they go to Dubai -- only a 5 hour flight direct. Unfortunately, Dubai holds no appeal for us so we'll have come up with an alternative...even if it means doing something interesting in less balmy climes.
Tonight as I was putting Avery to sleep, he asked why we never go to the Trippi (read: Trevi) fountain anymore? and, can we go there? Certainly; that request brought a smile to my face.
No comments:
Post a Comment