A Poco A Poco

Language learning happens little by little... and it seems like forever. Which is exactly how long it will take. I've been speaking English for 31 years (for the first three I refused to speak) and just recently have learned two new English words.
But this isn't about English.
It's about Italian.
Sometimes I feel like I just don't know anything.

A few years ago, a friend gave me one of those Tear Off A Page calendars. Every page had an Italian phrase or idiom on it with a tiny translation in English under it. I remember not knowing anything that whole year.
One came in the mail today. And as I browsed through it, I could translate them all - all by myself! Now I wouldn't have been to say them correctly - but I understood them perfectly. And that's more than I could do even four months ago.
Today I was trying to explain how (as some people believe) that sediment on the ocean floor became a rock formation in central Italy. I could do it. It was simple. It was as if a 2nd grader was saying it - but I could do it.
Little by little. Step by step. A piano a piano. A poco a poco.