For the trip back we drove a hire car to Roma and caught a plane to Londra. All the baggage came under the weight limit which was always the worry. Otherwise, plan B was Grace stays…and we’ll be back someday soon. From London it was onto Singapore then Brisbane. 30ish hours altogether over a few timezones. At one stage we were served breakfast on one plane then 2hrs later dinner on another plane. In between was Saturday! We were flying QANTAS and luckily the plane kept ALL it’s engines attached!
We made it into Brisbane (very over-dressed) and VERY tired. Immigration and customs were no worries up until the sniffer dogs started to take a liking to my bags! Meanwhile my wife had been through the check and moved on… Apparently Fido liked the Qantas lollies that were in my hand luggage.
We moved into Jim and Paula’s (Anna’s parents) for a week or so till our new bed arrived and the furniture was moved out of storage. Once again we were living out of a suitcase…All part of the adventure! After unpacking boxes and once again throwing away a lot of ‘stuff’ (things we thought we needed and had to store) we have the place back into some type of ‘normal’ routine. It has been very ‘cleansing’.
Paddy and Grace got to visit their old (and new) schools in the first few days back. Patrick went up for a lunchtime game of handball and Grace met her new teacher and Principal. She also went to her old school and had a day at school with them. We posted the last of the Brisbane School of Distance Education work and now simply await their reports.
As we write this, we’re at the Coast lapping up the surf air. It’s also pouring so it’s not quite idyllic.
This blogs purpose was to keep friends and family informed whilst we were on our adventure overseas. Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our ‘journey journal’.
Traveling with children is always a challenge. The forward planning needs to take most emergencies/situations into account (i.e. food, toilets, entertainment etc). Now, after a bit of travel, we have started to get an idea of requirements, however, there are always unplanned moments! We left for a London excursion last week and had a wonderful yet exhausting time.
The trip over consisted of a walk to the Firenze train station at 6 in the morning, train to Pisa, jostle through Ryanair and customs lines to get on the plane, 2hr flight to Stansted airport (north of London), train to Liverpool street station and finally a taxi to our apartment in Gloucester Road Kensington.
During our exit from Italia we went through customs in the usual way. Bags and personal effects scanned and a walk through the full body scanner. As we (Anna and I) sorted the bags and belongings out to go on the conveyor belt we sent Grace ahead. She went through and the scanner alarm sounded!! After the guard with the gun at her side frisked Grace, we were sure we needed to get her a change of pants!
After this all went well…up until the moment of landing in London when, through the gap between the seats in front, Grace saw Patrick projectile vomiting onto his mother!! At least no one wanted to frisk Anna or Patrick as we went through border security in London!!
As we walk through the various areas of the culturally rich Florentine streets we try to point out to our ragazzi (children/cherubs) as much about the history of Firenze and the renaissance period as we possibly can. It gives them some sort of perspective as to the importance this time has on the world in the way of the arts, medicine, astronomy, architecture, finance etc.
We often walk through the narrow courtyard between the Uffizi Gallery’s two wings on our evening walks (passeggiata - click here for our explanation) and recently we started to take photos of the various statues surrounding the courtyard. As we read through the names at the bottom of the statues, it was noted by our ‘learned children’ part of the way down the courtyard, that we had photos of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Donetello…now we just needed Raphael to make up the set!!! Madonna mia!!
Firenze is a passionate city full of renaissance art, beautiful food (and obviously smells), colourful characters and alta moda! The Florentine display of these passions is what is so wonderful about this city. This also includes their display surrounding the affairs of the heart.
There is a tradition that a loving couple will attach a padlock (Lucchetti d’amore – Lock of Love) to the railing of a bridge (in the past this has been mostly the famous Ponte Vecchio that spans the Arno River) and throw away the key to the river below. It is believed that the padlock (chains and overly large locks are apparently frowned upon) like the enamoured couple, symbolises the unbreakable bonds uniting them.
BTW-Last year the local council set metal cutters to work removing more than 5000 locks which had accumulated on the railings. It apparently took a long time because workmen were battling against a never-ending flow of loving couples…new locks were being attached faster than they could take them off.
We are hoping that this natural display of love and affection won’t engender too many curious questions from Patrick and Grace for their parents! Come si dice (How do you say) ‘Birds and Bees’ in Italiano?
It is tourist time in Firenze and this is when many locals who aren’t involved in the tourist trade, move out of the city or take their holidays…just to get away from the crowds! And there are crowds! The Ponte Vechio and Museos (Museums) are packed with guided tours and family groups. The languages which waft around in the hot air seems to include mostly German, American and English. We’ve heard only one Australian in the time we’ve been here and that was in Lucca (outside Firenze).
Since moving into our apartment in Firenze we have had visitors most of the time. Recently we’ve had Clare (Anna’s sister) and Gary stay for about a week as they trek toward Milano and Paris. Our visitors have helped us to not only continue to explore Firenze, but also to walk to the car (20 minutes away) and visit some of the surrounding towns. These have included the typical tourist towns of the area such as Fiesole, Lucca and San Gimignano.
When the weather is cooler and the crowds are MUCH smaller…we will return!
The city has so much to see, from the unparalleled collection of historic buildings housing centuries-old works of art to the legendary Ponte Vecchio (old bridge) and the multicoloured Duomo. Occasionally we’ll collect our photos and let them do the talking…
We had a visitor called Barb come and stay with us for two nights. While she was here she bought us a quill from a shop near la Duomo. This shop also has old books with leather covers and lots of other quills. There are white, pink and orange quills and lots of other colours. Most are the same size as ours, however, there were some which were about the size of a ruler (30cm).
Dad taught us how to use it and how to dip it in the ink. It is VERY messy!
Most afternoons we go down to the allyway next to our building to play calcio (soccer). We do this late in the afternoon because it is cooler. Grace, Dad and I go and Mum watches from the windows above us. The guys is the local shops/restaurants also watch and sometimes kick the ball back.
We play Cinghiale in la Media (Piggy in the Middle) and a game of 2 on 1 soccer. It is usually Dad and Grace vs me. Our goals are the ends of the ally and the winner is the first to 21.
As we play the tourists come past the ends of the ally and take photos of us. They think we are Italiano! It is when Grace says, “scambiare” (which means ‘swap’) in her best Ozzie accent, that they walk away. I wonder if they delete these photos?
We needed to get out of the house so that Anna (Mum) could study her Italiano which she has been studying at the the British Institute, here in Firenze. So, the rest of us went for a wander around the Duomo in Firenze (as you do). We came across a celebration/parade/exhibition by the Hare Krishna which was loud, colourful and interesting to watch. Paddy and Grace had a thousand questions so it must have made a ‘mark’.
The weather since we have arrived has been nothing under 20 degrees at night and mostly 35 during the day…it has been fantastico (Firenze is centred around a horseshoe of hills and holds in the warm weather and humidity.)!!! The alternative is the cold!
On our walks in the afternoons we have noticed the way people in Firenze (tourists included) cope with the calore (heat). They eat lots of gelati, granita and chilled fruit juice (Paddy and Grace LOVE this concept). Other ways we’ve seen, have been that the old men take their shirts off in public (this can be VERY scary at times), seek the department stores with air-conditioning or maybe even go for a swim near the Arno. We noticed that someone has made a business out of renting deck-chairs etc and also providing a blowup pool for the customers…all beside the Arno (on concrete) which I would hesitate to swim in (see below).
