Learning a new language–not so easy after sixty

It’s never too late to pursue your passion, and let’s face it: in order to stave off the feared Alzheimer’s disease we must use our brain.  This was my primary reason for trying to learn Italian, secondary to the fact that I am living in Italy.  Also, I’m not much on crossword puzzles; I would be competing with my mother, the crossword champion.  A twenty-year-old can easily pick up a foreign language, but this is not the case for a middle-aged  post menopausal woman who was always left-brain-challenged.