Italy
On Thursday we made it properly into the old city centre of Florence and to our planned museum from earlier — the Leonardo da Vinci Interactive Museum. We couldn't get a time slot for the museum till 5:15pm, so spent a few hours just wandering the city and
Italy
Here you go... Day 43 • 17 Oct • Naples to Rome Half an hour in Rome Before Ben's pocket is picked. Our day’s in ruins. Day 44 • 18 Oct • Rome The Colosseum, Stone arches decayed by time, Is gargantuan. Day 45 • 19 Oct • Rome “Pizza by the cut”
Italy
After visiting the Stibbert Museum, we had some belated birthday gelato for B. Both the museum and the gelato place were recommended in a blog post I found by a Florentine mum of three, and they made for an excellent day! One of the things I learnt from her blog
Italy
On Wednesday, our second full day in Florence, we walked from our lovely apartment in the Le Cure district to the Stibbert Museum. This was right up the boys' alley! What was at the Stibbert Museum? J: Paintings, armour, interesting words (things that you read) and weapons and stuff.
Italy
On Tuesday we had plans to head to a museum for our first day in Florence, but the boys were most keen to more closely inspect the river near our accommodation. We had seen a local "water rat" (castorino) on the way in on Monday night, and J
Italy
On Monday, going from Rome to Florence, we got to ride one of Trenitalia's high-speed Frecciarossa trains. While these can apparently hit 300km/h, the highest we saw was 244km/h — still pretty cool, and a much faster (1 hour 20 minutes), more pleasant and cheaper way to
Italy
On Monday (B's birthday!), we had a few hours to fill in between checking out of our AirBnb and needing to be at Roma Termini Station for the departure of our high-speed train to Florence. Our AirBnb host was kind enough to let us leave our luggage at
Italy
On Sunday afternoon, we set off to explore Villa Borghese (a big park) and whatever else we saw along the way. We meandered along a somewhat grimy river's edge... Browsed in a Lego shop... And a rubber duck shop... Caught a glimpse of the famous Spanish Steps in
Italy
Today, Saturday, we needed some downtime after a busy/stressful time of late, so we relaxed in our AirBnb all day and then went out for dinner at a local pizzeria a short walk away. On one hand, it felt somewhat outrageous to "waste" one of our three
Italy
The Colosseum is an Ancient Roman amphitheatre, built between 70 AD and 80 AD. It was used to entertain Roman civilians by getting animals or trained slaves, called gladiators, to fight each other (often to the death). Some gladiators even had their own fan clubs if they were popular enough.
Italy
While our journey to Naples from Rome was lovely (highly recommend the train... was very pleasantly straightforward and stress-free after all our airport experiences), our first introduction to Rome was less so. Within 30 minutes of stepping off the train, I had my phone stolen. We'd known this
Ireland
The next batch of haikus (these come around quickly!)... Day 36 • 10 Oct • Ballymoney to Edgeworthstown “See the Northern Lights?” We scream and bolt out of bed. Pink and green and WOW! Day 37 • 11 Oct • Edgeworthstown A day to catch up On sleep, life admin and blog. B is