She did it! And a trip to Rome, bellissima!

Has it been that long since I blogged… high time for an update!

With a lot of other things that happened I did manage to get some patchwork done during a visit from fellow Feathergirl Hubertine, she was quilting her scrapquilt while I was working on some pyramids

Enjoy making these, it is not going that fast, because I am also working on other quilty projects and also this happened!

And we are more than proud, not only did she have to work really hard to get her vwo (IB-equivalent) high school diploma, but with one extremely :-( teacher making her life very difficult, a sudden operation earlier this school year and having to re-sit one exam, she proved that she is a fighter.
So we were able to join in this Dutch tradition:

Woohoo! Flag out with her very worn schoolbag attached to it.

For non-Dutch readers, in The Netherlands when children graduate from high school between the time they hear they have passed their exams and the day they collect their diploma’s you hang out the flag and attach the bag they have used all those years to carry their books to school with.

In a nutshell our high school system works like this:  we have high schools at different levels (you take all the subjects at the level of your high school) the last year is practically completely taken up by sets of exams. You either pass or you don’t, if you don’t, then you have to re-do that last year. Completely.
But when you pass your exams, you get to graduate and the flag goes out for you.
It is a fun tradition, for a few weeks early summer you can see this all over our country, we had a few more graduates in our area:

Between the time she finished her exams and getting her results she went on a week long exam trip with some class mates. Another tradition: to celebrate the finish of their exams they party for a week at a sunny location, a bit like spring break in the US.

So that gave the Mr. and myself a chance to take a trip to….Rome!

What can I say, having fallen in love with Italy during our holiday last year, Rome was just a continuation of that, we had a super time.

We stayed at a lovely, little apartment right behind the Piazza Navona

The Mr. (having been to Rome twice before to attend Rolling Stones concerts, he is a huge fan) was one again in awe of the Colloseum, while I was so impressed with the Trevi Fountains

For both of us the absolute highlight was a 7 a.m. breakfast in the gardens of the Vatican, to be there before the Museums open, before the madness of the crowds start, in those beautiful gardens, it was still so quiet, so serene.

This was followed by a very early tour with a very knowledgeable guide (himself a painter) of the Museums, the old papal apartments, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter Basilica,  still before it got busy, great. To give you an idea, on average 16.000 people a day pass through the Vatican Museums on a daily basis, in summer time that goes up to 20.000!
So our early visit with such an extremely small group (20 – 30 people) was very special.

In one of the old papal apartments the floors were full of inspiration for a quilter!

Some other sightings in Rome….. J

Other highlights – as always with us – involve food:

Loved the markets, the terraces, the small trattoria’s, the ice cream and the special Roman dishes like suppli, a sort of croquette filled with risotto and melting cheeeeeeese, yummmmmm!

And speaking of traditions (above) I really fell for the Italian tradition of enjoying an aperativo before dinner at a terrace, loved these Aperol Spritz’s!

My love for Italy certainly continued during this trip, we saw so much beauty, had such wonderful meals, all the people we met were friendly and the city was so clean.

Bellissima!

Phyllis