Chocolates, Take Two

Tony got all dressed up yesterday and went down to the Comune to ask Gianfranco how things are going for his citizenship. He took Axa with him, but Raj and I stayed home, since Raji has finally come down with the chicken pox too. When Tony arrived, the Mayor happened to be there, so Tony greeted him on the way in. Then he delivered some nice chocolates to Gianfranco.

The chocolates were genuine Chiusa Pesio artisanal chocolates, made by a charming lady and her daughter in the only chocolate shop in town. She gave us all samples, and then put an assortment of chocolates (artistically arranged, of course) on one of those attractive little gilt-paper trays they use for sweets here. Then the chocolate-maker selected a pink sugar rose to go on top. She wrapped the whole thing in cellophane, and then spent a while deciding which color of ribbon should go on top. Later she added an intricate little paper flower, and finished it off with another, different-colored bow. It ended up quite a presentation. And she didn’t even know we were taking it to the man with power over our citizenship!

Gianfranco was pleased with the chocolates (who wouldn’t be? oh, wait–Teresa!), and he gave Tony the news we were hoping to hear. He has sent off his letters to all of the consulates to ask if anyone in Tony’s direct line ever went in and renounced Italian citizenship. Once they all respond, it will be as easy as transcribing the names and applying for a passport. We can hardly believe our good fortune!

Once Tony actually gets his citizenship, this blog will be released from its vow of search-engine invisibility, and nobody will ever need to log in to read it again. Hooray!

In other news, we’ve been researching homeschooling methods and curricula. Thanks to my mother, I have a strong foundation in John Holt (she even gifted me the entire set of 20 years of Growing Without Schooling magazine). This year I acquired The Well-Trained Mind. I was very attracted by the idea of teaching Latin as an indispensable subject. That’s how I fleshed out my own knowledge of English grammar. However, Ms. Bauer’s rigid and lengthy style of teaching such interesting subject matter seems a little extreme to me.

Yesterday I ordered Charlotte Mason’s six-volume set of books on her educational theory. When I was a teenager, I remember my penpal Dori talking about Ms. Mason. I like her ideas of spending a very short time on each subject (10-15 minutes) and reading several books simultaneously but slowly. I do tend toward book-gobbling myself . . .

We are tired of having no books. All we brought were our Italian language books, scriptures, and Axa’s set of Beatrix Potter. We have most of the latter memorized. So I ordered some fairytales and other books off amazon.co.uk. I got Wind in the Willows for one cent! (That’s two cents in American dollars, but I think it’s still a deal.) I also ordered the complete set of the Chronicles of Narnia, since Carla lent us her copy of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and Axa loved it. I’m looking forward to reading Prince Caspian to her.