My friend Marco has taken me to task for not speaking Italian - and he has a point. You'd think after almost 2 years here I would be more fluent than I am but sadly I seem to be one of those people that just doesn't have an ear for language.
The guys at Monty Python had it right! That's how language was taught when I was a high school student back in the middle of the last century. We followed the good old British method - an native English speaker taught you another language. They also probably taught you math or history. And all languages where taught if though they were Latin - dead! Reading and writing would suffice you really didn't have to learn to speak those languages! (Read phrase in italics with a slightly curled upper lip.) After all you spoke English and even in strange foreign countries - like Quebec - they would understand you if you spoke loudly and slowly enough.
04 maggio - San Ciriaco di Gerusalemme