In March, 2007, we visited Italy which is the homeland of Montessori, the famous educational method for children, and we had a chance to visit the Children’s House of Bank of Italy in Rome on March 15. It is located in the residential area, in a vast land of Bank of Italy. This kindergarten for the children of age between 3 and 6, and infants from 6months to 3years old, is run by the Opera Nazionale Montessori for the employees of the Bank of Italy. It was established in 1971, and is practicing Montessori method for about 150 children, with 38staffs. They cook the meals for children at school. They receive children from 7:30 in the morning until 6:30.   The image on the top left is the beautiful land and the surroundings of the Children’s House. Also, the picture on the left is the children cleaning the breakfast table. The cleaning is done voluntarily as other works done at the Children’s House. Every child comes to the House with their parent hand in hand by walking from the parking lot.
	At the residential area of Rome, there is a district called Largo Bastia. The Bank of Italy is located in a vast land covered with greens, and in the land is a huge ancient Roman Wall. First we were amazed at the size of the land, ad then, the size of the walls! After getting the permission at the gate by the guard, we walked along the Roman walls for about 10 minutes. There was a cherry tree in full bloom. Along the road, there were some cars passing by with little children, so we knew that there is the Children’s House at the direction where we were walking. This is a wonderful environment for children to spend their time of the day. It has a feeling of countryside, although it is in the middle of residential area of the city of Rome.
	It is the name plate of the Children’s House, "Casa dei Bambini". It is in the very warm color, and made of ceramic board.   The building for the children of between 3 and 6 is of two stories, and the building for little children is one floor-house, made of bricks. It was a very warm, at-home house.
	The left picture is Ms. Carla Cevenini, the principal of the kindergarten, who had a very impressively warm and tranquil manners, On the left, with a teacher who interpreted and gave us a tour of the house. As we go out of the back of the house, there is a huge playground for children.
	This is at the entrance of the House. There was a huge display of children’s artwork, on the wall. 　The furnitures at the waiting room were very cute and cozy.
	On the walls of a vast hall, there were a huge painting space for children. Although it was rather early in the morning, there was already a little child in a smock painting. She must have come in this morning with a wish to paint on the huge painting space. The paints settled on the hall seemed very convenient for children to paint. There was an art teacher standing by and quietly watching her paint.
	Montessori educational materials are neatly put at the side of every room. Children come in to choose the work they want to work on for the day. There are educational material for numbers, space, map, letters, shapes, colors. And other than those, there are also works for daily household works such as washing clothes, ironing, table setting. There were also some wooden doll houses and dolls to play with. The works for children in Montessori is not a group teaching, but putting emphasis on the interest and wishes for work of each individual child. There was also a music room, where children who want to practice music can use.
	This is the cafeteria, where the early children just finished their breakfast.
	This is the bathroom for children. The bright color tiles on the wall are beautiful.
	This is the bedroom for nap. Two-story beds are for children between 3 and 6, and the picture below is the bed for little children. Each bed is marked with an animal sticker for each child.
The picture on the right is the Children’s House which was the first House Dr.Maria Montessori started on Via del Marsi on January 6, 1907. At the entrance, there were some pictures of Dr Montessori in her youth. This is the 100th year since the very inauguration of the Montessori school. There are many conferences and celebrations in commemoration of the 100th year of Montessori all over the world.   In Italy, the Celebration, entitled “Montessori Centenary Conference”, was held on Jan.6 and 7, 2007, and were carried out under the auspices of the President of Italy. 　http://www.montessori.it/english/centenaryconference.htm   In the United States, there was a conference held celebrating the 100th anniversary of Montessori in New York on March 1 to 4. In Japan, there is going to be the Central Celebration of the 100th Anniversary in Tokyo on October 27 and 28. All the world is praising the works and the method of Dr.Maria Montessori.   In Italy, there are altogether 250 Montessori schools. These are nursery schools for 0 to 3years old, Children’s House for 3 to 6, and Elementary Schoold for the age 6 to 11. Dr.Maria Montessori, who was one of the first women in Italy, taking a degree in medicine, realized that the educational method for the handicapped children is also useful for the children with no disability. "Every child has life power that comes out from within themselves" This is her belief. She trusts the potentials of every child. And in her method, education should not be something that is taught to them but the teacher who is an observer waits for the child to elaborate through the material of development his/her self education. This is a wonderful teaching method of education that cherishes each child.   We found in this trip and in the visiting tour to the Children’s House in Italy that the Montessori method is now deeply grounded into the culture of Italy, which is such a wonderful thing, and is such a promising thing for the next generation to succeed the culture and the country. We strongly hope that Montessori method will be widely known to all over the world for the world peace and happiness.
	As we arrived at Rome, we took Leonardo Express to Termini Station. With an art teacher from Japan. He came to Rome this time to see the works of Caravaggio. The airport of Rome is named after the great genius, Leonardo Da Vinci.
	We took Eurostar from Rome to Naples, which was very fast and comfortable.
	In this trip, we were amazed at the wonderful art , architecture and culture of Italy. We visited the Vatican and climbed to the top of the Cupola of the St. Peter. At the top, we could see almost all Rome in one sight. Maybe you can see many people on the top of the Cupola on the left.
On the way of climbing to the top, we saw walls covered by wonderful mosaic art. You can see all the details and shade and shadows even expressed by mosaic art. We now found out that mosaic art is one of the very important part of the art history in Italy.
Also, there are beautiful tile arts on every building. The patterns are all very complex geometrical patterns. We suppose geometry in Italy was developed along with the architecture.
	With Mario Miccho at his Seafood Restaurant in Castella Mare.
	Looking like Mt.Fuji is the Mt.Vesuvius. During our stay, it was covered with snow overnight because of the cold weather.
On the right is Civic of Honda. This must be the special European version. We can never find this fashionable design Honda in Japan.
	Special lemons of Italy. They are so big that they look like grapefruits.
In this trip to Italy, we truly enjoyed the rich culture of Italy. Among them mostly, we were strongly impressed by the wonderful educational method of Montessori. Rome was not build in a day. So let's learn from them to produce big Fruits!

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