Florence, Italy

When I tell people that we live in Spain a frequent response is, "Oh, how lovely!  You must travel around Europe every weekend!"

Well, no.

We are not on vacation in Spain, we live here.

There is a large difference.

Eston goes to school, Rory goes to work, Aurelia needs love and care, the apartment has to be cleaned, groceries have to be purchased, the car needs washing, bills have to be paid...normal life.

It is an amazing experience, no doubt, but things are pretty normal around here.

I have taken the kids on a couple of trips, but traveling alone with them is not super relaxing and I don't like Eston to miss school.

Anyway, we decided a family vacation was needed after such a long year of frequent separation.

We made a list of places...Greece, Turkey, etc.

In the end Rory only had a few days before he had to begin training for 2014 and we did not want Eston to miss much school.

We decided to go somewhere nearby and it is a quick hour flight from Girona to Pisa, so we decided to visit Florence, Italy.

We flew from Girona on Thursday afternoon and landed in Pisa an hour later.

Ryan Air has dirst cheap (we all flew for less than $200 US dollars) but you are only allowed to bring a certain amount of luggage.  

Slightly tricky with two kids, but we made it work.

We took the bus from Pisa to the center of Florence.

The bus was another hour, but we arrived in Florence before dark and took a taxi to our vacation rental.

The apartment, built in 1083, was directly across from the Palazzo Pitti.

Amazing.

We woke up on Friday morning and hit the ground running.

Eston and I had done a bit of Florence research and he was super excited to see things we had read about.

We crossed the famous Ponte Vecchio on our way across the river...

Eston marveled at the view! 

 People seemed surprised that we took our children to Florence, but I think you can take children anywhere with proper preparation.

The children behaved perfectly in art museums and then we would take a break and relax and just watch the world go by.

 One of our first stops was the Duomo.

We had read quite a bit about it and Eston was keen to climb the 417 steps to the top.

Tour books suggested leaving children under 6 at home, but I never listen to tour books.

Eston made it faster than most of the out-of-shape adults and I fashioned a "sling" for Aurelia with a blanket and managed to get to the top with her.

Worth every step, let me tell you!!

 I love how tiny Eston looks in this photo!

 I did a lot of research on the different museums and former palaces, so I had lots of stories to tell Eston.

This kept him completely entertained as we toured various places and museums.

He asked good questions and was very respectful.

We have been in lots of art museums and he knows the expectations, so it was quite fun.

Obviously we don't spend 4 hours in a museum.

I do the research to see what key things we want to see and then anything after is a bonus.

 The weather did not cooperate, but that did not slow us down!

I wore my fit pedometer each day.

On Friday we all walked 11.34 kilometers.

Saturday we walked 15.8 kilometers.

Sunday we walked 7 kilometers.

Eston walked every step of the way and never complained, though once he did ask if we were near a taxi cab stand.

Aurelia was cozy in her stroller with the rain fly on, so we actually enjoyed our rainy walks.

 We ate in some really fabulous restaurants (the Italians love children, so it was never a problem).

Aurelia adored Florentine steak and Eston ate a plateful of tiramisu.

We arrived back in Girona early Monday morning and dropped Eston off at school on our way back from the airport.

This may have been a little much for the poor guy, as he is home sick today and has been sleeping for most of the day.

Charlotte enjoyed her stay at the residencia and we are getting back on track.

Lots of laundry after such a fun weekend, hah!

We have Eston's parent/teacher conference tomorrow afternoon (gulp).

His school has several throughout the year, but I am always nervous for the first one, especially since he is relatively new at this school.

Rita is going to stay home with Rita so we can give our full attention to the meeting (and language).

Fall arrived when we were in Italy!

I had to turn on the heat in Eston and Aurelia's bedrooms last night.

Leaves are turning color and it is so beautiful outside.