Uncle Larry arrives; Sicily and Art...

This morning we tried to get out the door early; Josh was dropping us all off at RIS before heading out to the airport to pick up Larry. Since we were at school early, Olivia had some time to show me around her classroom and explain the current unit of inquiry: explorers. Subsequently, I went to Miss Ivana's classroom for my Italian lesson. After a few minutes, we began to wonder: where is Charlotte? It was so unlike her to be tardy; and now we're talking 10 minutes. Eventually, Ivana and I took a walk around and were informed by one of the other middle school teachers that the Middle School was rehearsing for tomorrow's performance at the book fair. Okay, now we knew where Charlotte was. Still it wasn't like her not to let me and Ivana know. In any case, I had a private lesson. As I was leaving, Ivana ran after me down the hall. She had just found the note that Charlotte had placed on her desk, in Italian, that explained why she wouldn't be at class today. Now that's my daughter!

On Monday, we had received an email from the school regarding the 8th grade class trip to Sicily. They are going the last week of April. The email gave the cost of the trip and asked that everyone commit to participation by Friday. However, aside from the name of the hotel and flight times, the email gave very scant information about the actual itinerary in Sicily. Let me quote: "visit to Catania, Taormina, Etna, Museo della lava e dei vulcani....more details of itinerary later." Needless to say, this struck me as quite odd; and prompted an email of my own. Thanks for the email, but is there any more information available about what the kids will be doing for a whole week? "For instance, I hope the children will be able to visit Siracusa, with its Greek and Roman theaters, Greek temple and the old town of Ortigia?, And, perhaps they might even be able to get to Agrigento to see the famous Greek Temples there?"

On Tuesday after school, the Midddle School head approached me and said he'd passed my email on to the appropriate administrator, and she would get back to me. But today was Thursday, and I still hadn't heard anything. Since I was in school for my Italian lesson, I decided to pay a visit to the office on my way out. After waiting a while to see Signora Maffetone, I was told that Siracusa was "added" to the itinerary. If I could come by later, she would print it out for me. "Later" meant after-school, and since Josh picked the kids up today, he stopped by to get the itinerary. It was a printed copy of an email from the travel agent in Sicily, in Italian, with the details of the trip. At the top, it stated: "here is the revised itinerary including a day in Siracusa." Is it possible they were NOT going there before I inquired about it? Well, in either case, you have to give credit to the school for being flexible!!!

Meanwhile, Larry had arrived in Rome and I found him and Josh when I returned home. It was another gorgeous day, and on the way back from the airport, Josh had already driven Larry around some of the major historical sites. We had lunch outside in the garden -- it was actually hot and I felt my face getting sun-burnt.

When the kids came home from school they were excited to see Uncle Larry. They were also excited by their loot. I had ordered a bunch of clothes from GAP and Old Navy which I had shipped to Larry, so he could haul it over here. There's no place like GAP in Italy, and finding things like cute P.J.'s, t-shirts, pants and flip-flops that are inexpensive is time consuming and difficult. It's amazing how happy all the kids were with a new outfit. Olivia has been wearing her new sun-dress around the house ever since.

The girls had swim practice tonight. Josh, Larry and I had dinner with Olivia and Avery after Olivia's lesson. Then, Josh and I went out to a gallery opening. Larry demurred --as expected, he was pretty tired. We had been invited to the opening at Federica Schiavo's gallery for Rob Sherwood -- the artist who won the "Best under 30" prize in Bologna. The event was very well-attended, and Federica arranged a dinner at a restaurant/piano bar/lounge across the way called L'Arciliuto - it was a really cool place. Her gallery is really well-situated in that it faces a private little piazza with no traffic. Guests can easily spill out the front and stand outside, and several restaurants (now we've been to all three) are located off the same square -- actually it's more of a cobble-stoned triangle. It was nice to see a few people we knew although unfortunately, Darius had to go out of town on business so we didn't see him. Federica looked dazzling; and I think the evening was quite a success.