Bottega dei Ragazzi

During our first few weeks in Florence, we've been able to find a couple of gems for the kids. One is St. James Church, which caters to the English community and has a great children's library of english books and DVD's.  Tomorrow we're attending an arts and crafts play group there.  Another great find is  Bottega dei Ragazzi. On some occasions we've gone there just to play with the many games and toys, while on others we took advantage of the various workshops they offer.  It's been a good in-road for the kids to play with other children and the kids have really enjoyed the classes.  I think the teachers liked having the English kids as it gives them a chance to challenge themselves with a new language, which translates to a lot of one-on-one time for Cole, Mia, and Ella.  Below are a few of the projects they've worked on, including giant postcards (meant to be sent to children from the past) and wizard hats.


The facility they use is actually an old orphanage from the 16th century.  This photo shows one of their original fresco paintings depicting life in the orphanage.  The next photo is just a painting the students made.

After class they did a little face painting, and no this is not Angie, although it looks like her from the back.