A Thursday Nov 24th was our day without a lesson, and so after enjoying talking to people at home we had a look in the nearby museum at an exhibition of models of Da Vinci's machines, created from his drawings. It gives a good idea of the man's genius in ways other than his painting. It is called Leonardi Da Vinci- the Genius and the Inventor.(Leonardo Da Vinci- Il Genio e Le Invenzioni.) What a mind! The claim that he may have been the cleverest man to have li...

A: Monday marked the midpoint of our time in this wonderful city. It also means we are half way through our Italian lessons- four down, four to go. We passed the morning quietly doing homework and washing, and it was lovely to talk to Clare and Mum and Beth, and also to Kerry late last night. Our classes are proceeding well and we were pleased to see Nives fully recovered from her party on Saturday night (Well, except for a bit of a cold). Our usual routine duri...

M: After a big day of walking on Thursday - including several hundred stairs - we decided on a quieter morning on Friday. It's amazing how having little to do can easily take up lots of time! Major priorities were to get in a "major" shop to make sure we were ok for the weekend. This has actually become less of an issue because we have discovered a nearby supermercato that actually opens on Sunday. The shopping list now customarily includes the odd bottle of It...

A: Four of the five terms I was able to study Beginners Italian made use of a book that was, as one teacher Loretta put it, one big advertisement for a medieval town in Umbria called Orvieto so this was our destination today- one hour and a bit on the train from Rome. The book was called "Bongiorno Italiano!" M: Roma Termini is a very attractive station once you enter. It is constantly crowded and everything you read advises great care in looking out for you...

M: Now that school has begun, you can expect less sightseeing, less frequent entries and more prosaic material. We had left some time on Monday morning to brush up on a few conjugations, but the basic plan for our four days of classes per week is to spend the morning doing domestic things and homework for a while, then to enjoy one of the many Rome walks en route to the school. Thus it was that yesterday, we headed north and spent some time near the south bank ...