Classic view

Mr C and I took Ella and Nathaniel off to San Gimignano this morning as their parents wanted a day back in Florence without kids. Even though we were quite early we had to queue for a slot in the furthest away car park as the rest were already full.

However the walk up the hill was fine as it was only 30 degrees, much less than Florence yesterday. We got icecreams on entering the town, then they saw the well where I’d taken a picture of their mum as a little girl. We queued to spend a penny - in fact it cost us £2 to go to the loo. Then we bought tickets for the church which was lovely. It had amazing frescoes which the children enjoyed. Nathaniel spent a bit of time counting the arrows in St Sebastian. Then it was time to grab a slice of pizza on the way back to the car. Nathaniel actually ate his - he’s not a fan of junk food and they’ve eaten nice lunches out with their parents. When we came to Italy with our girls we made up a picnic and every holiday ate out once, as I cooked when we camped.

They sang silly songs on the way back, and asked why we didn’t have any George Ezra on our phones to Bluetooth from the car.

The cousins arrived back from Siena at the same time so they all jumped in the pool while I made more food. I’m using up stuff we have left in cupboards and fridge, so made a tomato and avocado mix to go on Bruschetta, and a sauce for pasta with garlic, anchovies, tins of tuna, some sun dried tomatoes and spring onions. It’s bubbling up nicely.

It’s Gin o’clock so I’m off for a quiet read by the pool while the children relax with a bit of TV. I’m really enjoying Hagseed by Margaret Atwood. At first I thought it was going to be too clever by half, and it is clever, but I’m learning a lot.