La casa di nonna

4-9-2009

Today was a beautiful day in Tuscany. This morning I helped the girls with their homework and played with Peter in the garden. Memory has become a favorite pass time and I usually play at least 6 games of memory per day with the girls. Now we are playing our games on a blanket in the garden. Fantastic. I am finally starting to feel better. I should be over this horrific cold after the weekend. Thank goodness. If I get sick again I'm going to die.

I was able to use the Internet for a little bit this afternoon. There is an office near the house and Camilla showed me how to connect. That was nice. Afterwards Camilla took the girls to a nearby ranch for a horse back riding lesson. It was pretty adorable. Anna actually fell asleep on her horse. Amazing. Haha.

After the riding lesson Camilla dropped us off at the nonna's house. I really like nonna. She is so relaxed and she doesn't boss me around like Camilla. She knows I'm going to help her, do what I am supposed to and watch Pietro. I don't think she would think it was necessary to tell me how to cook spinach. She has a warm smile and it's really sweet to watch her play with her grandchildren. Today she hid presents all over the house and they played fuoco\fredo while the babies hunted for the gifts. Afterwards we all walked around her enourmous garden, ate persimons and picked lemons. She has the most beautiful peonies and Anna had the idea to make a boquet for her mother. She and nonna selected the prettiest pink peonies and I almost cried it was so beautiful. Peonies are my new favorite flower. I wish they would grow in Florida.

Next weekend Camilla and Federico are going to a wedding and I will stay with the children at nonna's. I'm actually excited about this, except I do hope we can manage to have an ordinary dinner. All of this motherly domestic stuff is making me long for home and Nick. I just want to get to my house and work on making it a restful haven for my family. I think I will be forever changed by this experience. I really like the way Camilla runs her family and I will probably inherit a lot of her habits. She is an excellent mother and even though I have my qualms, she's a remarkable person.