Wine tasting

Despite the fact that I woke up early, organized and packed the kids' lunches before they were even awake (rare), I couldn't seem to get myself out of the house this morning. I puttered around until almost 11am -- a luxury, indeed. When I finally did get outside, I went to the gym. I have this new-found obsession of weighing myself, and I'm happy to report: one kilo down, two to go!

Subsequently, I did the marketing and joined Josh at home for a late lunch. He had gone on a ride in the morning and reported that he was finally feeling like he was getting stronger. I kept telling him that he shouldn't judge himself inside a year of his injury, and we are coming up on the anniversary of the accident later this month.

This afternoon, we excused Charlotte from school an hour early so she could attend a swim practice. Her regular 6:30pm swim practice today had been cancelled due to the Lazio championship meet being held this weekend on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This is one of the two meets from which Charlotte is excluded from competing by the Italian National Swimming Federation. The other is the Italian Nationals which will be held in Emilia-Romana at the end of the month.

While Charlotte was at swim practice, Olivia had her friend Federica over after school. This little girl is a real doll -- one of our friend-favorites. We encourage Olivia to invite her Italian friends over to play even though they do speak English with one another. Still there are a few subtleties that can only be conveyed in Italian and we do want Olivia to be comfortable with and around other Italians of her age. As part of the cultural exchange, Federica was treated to her first peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Morris came over and cooked dinner for everyone (including Federica who stayed for dinner). Josh and I wanted to have a bite to eat before heading out to a wine tasting event that we'd been invited to on the Via Veneto at the Hotel Regina Baglioni. We certainly didn't expect the largess that awaited. Aside from the four wines from the Estate of Castelnuovo Tancredi, a huge buffet of all types of meats, cheeses, olives and breads was on offer. In addition, hand-cut Prosciutto was being served (spalla and coscia sitting right there at the end of a large table) and was the most delicious I've had. Apart from all of these savory snacks, were two varieties of pasta. It was a shame we ate dinner beforehand, but who knew? Our hosts were Lee Skelton (AWAR member) and her husband Guido (Italian last name). Please view the website of this incredible estate they own in Tuscany: www.castelnuovotancredi.it Not only did we know some of the other guests but we met some new and interesting people including a woman (American from California) involved with Oman in the Middle Eastern De-Salinization Project which Charlotte would be researching over the coming weekend (but more on that later). Largely, however, it was an Italian crowd.