Giorno 3: Lunedi, 9/8/08

DAY THREE...ON A MISSION: !!!

OK, so we awoke early and had our caffé sul terrazo! This was really nice!

Then we went off to search for a pre-school (scuola materna) for Felicia. We had done some research on the internet, but didn't have much luck. There was a place REALLY close (like 2 blocks away) called "Kindergarten Firenze", but they emailed us they were full.

We decided to go there any way to get advice, I think secretly hoping that our beautiful children would win them over and somehow a place would magically appear in the class (hahahaha)! They were really nice, and Felicia got really excited seeing all the children playing. She kept asking, "is this my Italian school?" They had a LONG waiting list, but they sent us over to another school, Maria degli Angeli, not too far on Via Laura. So, we packed the kids back in the double stroller and rolled over to the second school. This time Felicia got out and started playing with the toys while we waited to talk to the teacher. Unfortunately they were also full, but they said they thought there was space in another school. Before going on another wild goose chase, we decided to call first to confirm if this school actually had place. They did!

So, off we went to Istituto delle Suore Serve di Maria Santissima Addolorata. Rough translation: School of the nuns who serve the Holy Grieving Virgin Mary. Here is some info on it: on Wikipedia.it
It has an interesting history. In WWII, the nuns hid 12 jewish girls during the Nazi occupation. These are some good nuns!


We had to take an autobus from San Marco to get there (Via Faentina), which Felicia thought was REALLY cool. I was really starting to feel bad because she kept asking if each place was her Italian school, and I could see how sad she was when we left the first two times. It was about 15 minutes on the bus. The building is reall cool. When you first walk in, there is a statue of Mary with 6 spears through her chest. I found it a bit scary since this is a school, but I guess Italians are used to it! I'll try to get a photo next time. This ANCIENT nun greated Felicia, "Ma come sei Beeeeeeeeeeeeella!" She was really nice, but remember that Felicia has had zero exposure to catholicism, except her cousin Thomas' communion, and has NEVER met a nun, let alone, an old, italian suora! But she did awesome! I am so proud of her! She was real quiet at first, but by the end was trying to give her a hug ;)

It's not the fanciest scuola materna - some of the riding toys had broken handles - but the garden is beautiful, the nuns are really nice, and the teacher, Miss Paola, is very kind. We wish it were closer, but Felicia will enjoy riding the autobus to school every day. The other great thing is that the first day of school is the next day (for the new kids), while some of the other schools had already started. This will be good for her because she won't be coming in late.

After meeting the teacher and deciding to attend here, we walked over to Campo di Marte for lunch. We stopped by Lucio's old work to see if they need a hand, which he needs to decide if he wants to work or not. Then we stopped by two different dance schools to see if we could enroll Felicia in some dance or gymnastics. She REALLY wants gymnastics because her best friend, Audrey, is taking gymnastics, but we don't know if they have anything similar here. The first place had only gioca danza (play dance), and the second place had gioca danza and ginnastica artistica - which I'm not sure if is anything similar to a realy gymnastics class in the USA. The second place was REALLY fancy and had all these national awards for dance - it was also super expensive, like 400 euros + 50 euros/month - yikes! So we still have to figure that out. After that, we headed home, stopping off for more groceries. Then home for dinner and bed!