RomaNatura

It's funny how after 9 years of living here and actively searching for things to do with our children for the past 8, that we are only recently finding interesting and fun things for them to do. It comes in drips and drabs, but the things we have found lately have been fun for them. Everything from the free arts & crafts workshops at the Casina di Raffaello in the Villa Borghese park to the recent "city nature" outings we have discovered through RomaNatura.

RomaNatura is an organization responsible for the care, maintenance and promotion of historic natural protected areas within Rome. Most of these places have villas, archaeological sites, nature walks and an area for educational projects with children and/or adults.

Yesterday we signed the girls up for a workshop at the Valle dei Casali - an area just south of Monteverde. There is an educational organic farm, an organic (but not vegetarian) restaurant and a lovely greenish area with lots of trees and open space for children to run around before or after the workshop. Viola was immediately attracted to the flowers - she loves all things green and was immediately in her element.

The topic of this workshop was "Disegnare un Albero" (Design/Draw a Tree). The children sketched a tree and then with wire used their sketches to create a small "tree" using all kinds of recycled objects to make the leaves, branches, trunk, etc. Here are Giulia and Paloma working diligently on their project -they take these things very seriously!