When I woke up this morning, I forgot that it wasn't Saturday. All the kids were home, milling about, and Maria, our housekeeper, had already arrived.
The original plan had been to make a morning pilgrimage to St. Peter's and climb to the cupola -- by Avery's request. He had been asking to return there since the time of our first visit. Anything with stairs and climbing means a lot of fun for him. But Olivia had another idea. She wanted to go to the park and rent the four-wheeled bici and ride around Villa Borghese. Avery got "on board," so we revised our plan. Given that it's Easter weekend, there were bound to be crowds anywhere near the vatican anyway.
We rented the "bike" for an hour, thinking that it may not be long enough. But in reality, riding around for an hour with the kids is plenty long. We "drove" all over the park, most of the time with the kids fighting over who would get to sit in the front -- just like with the car. Afterwards, we had lunch in the garden of our villa before Charlotte had to go to swim practice.
Tonight, we were invited to a Seder for Passover -- better late than never. Our friends had wanted to host the seder once his mother arrived from San Francisco. It was a very abridged evening with the quickest Haggadah reading on record. Needless to say it was more ceremonial than observant. The company was very interesting; aside from our host, one of the guests also works for the World Food Program and has lived in Cambodia, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Tunisia, and of course, Italy. Charlotte sat with the adults while the rest of the kids had their own table. I was reminded of what a good conversationalist she is.
The kids had a good time, particularly when it was time to hunt for the afikomen. It was cleverly hidden behind a door and no one could find it -- at least not right away. It was nice to celebrate the holiday and remind the kids of our Jewishness in this very Catholic city.
Still, it was a "school night" for our hosts, as well as the night before an early departure for us, so we wrapped it up pretty early.
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