Percorsi d'Italiano

With Olivia at home, I realized that home schooling is not for me. I have a hard enough time getting the kids to listen to me when I ask them to pick up their clothes, let alone when I try to give Math instruction. After two pages, I let Olivia talk me into doing the next two pages tomorrow! When Josh returned from his ride (actually, shortly before he returned, but she is almost eight!) I left for my latest attempt at an Italian lesson.

At the AWAR gala at Villa Taverna a few weeks back, I bid on, and won an Italian lesson from

Percorsi d'Italiano language school. I had called and scheduled my lesson for today. I loved it.

It is a really a great concept. Instead of sitting in a classroom for two hours, you learn the language while walking the streets and coming into contact with every day life. I met the owner and my instructor for the morning, Giuliana, in front of a restaurant in the Testaccio neighborhood. I carried a clipboard with the lesson plan. As we walked, I learn the history as well as other interesting things about the neighborhood. At the same time, we covered the vocabulary, and grammar I was carrying on the clipboard. We checked out Monte Testaccio, we strolled the market, we talked about different types of lettuces, calcio, and saw the xxx, Rome's answer to low-income housing -- except the apartments are in a palazzo. I really enjoyed it. Her philosophy is that life is a journey (a percorso) of constant discovery, and learning a language should go beyond the assimilation of grammar rules.

I liked really liked Giuliana. She is Napolitano but is married to a German (one can see some of that in her) and also has three kids. It was a great way to spend part of a day and I hope to do it again.

It was an incredibly hot day. Both yesterday and today it was in the 90's. And because we were walking around, the sun must have been shining down my shirt because later I discovered a sunburn between my breasts! ( I would've said cleavage but that would be inaccurate).

Later I picked the kids up from school; Charlotte had gone on a field trip to see the Edward Hopper exhibit today. Josh and I have still not seen the show, but Charlotte said she really enjoyed it. Once home, I made a few phone calls to the States. On the business side of things, I am already in the process of completing applications for health insurance so that it will be in place by the time we return to Chicago. Needless to say, it's annoying and time consuming. Should I bother with dental? Both the dentist and orthodontist are "out of network." Given how easy things have been here, it underscores how craziness of the entire "system" is in the States.

After Charlotte went to swim practice, the four of us enjoyed a nice dinner out in the garden. Then, Olivia and Avery got ready for bed while Josh and I took a bike ride into town. We rode over to our new gelato place, Buccianti's, near the Pantheon. Then we sat in the Piazza del Pantheon and enjoyed the view -- the sqaure, the obelisk, the Pantheon, and the full moon -- and our gelato. The uphill ride home wasn't too bad.