Florence

Day 1 of our Italian adventure started at 3am. We tried unsuccessfully to transfer the kids into the car in their jammies without waking them. Toby was beyond excited and stayed awake all the way to Manchester. Eva did have a bit of a snooze. 

We boarded the flight with no problems. Toby bagsied the window seat and we had some amazing views of the mountains. After a jam packed bus ride to the train station we were disappointed to find out that all the fast trains were booked but resigned ourselves to spending a couple of hours on a slow train to Florence. Mike made our first faux pas ordering me a Latte, which came as a cup of hot milk! I kept thinking the kids would go to sleep at some point with all the travelling but they were like little dynamos! 

Apartment in Florence was lovely and very central but on a quiet street. We planned to let the kids sleep for a couple of hours and go out late afternoon and stay out for dinner but after an hour of them stomping round the apartment (through which I did have a sleep) we decided not to waste any more of our precious time in Italy and headed out to explore. 

Absolutely loved Florence. We did next to no research on where to go and just wandered and it was lovely. We went up to a viewpoint (up lots of steps up which Toby ran up!) and there was an amazing atmosphere up there  with buskers and lots of people just lying about on the grass enjoying the evening sunshine. We ate antipasti, pasta and pizza at the bottom of the steps sat out on the street and felt very content indeed. Kids finally flaked at 10.30pm!