After far too few hours sleep, we are up again this morning at 6!  We have a water taxi (James Bond- speed boat) due to pick us up at 7am, and take us to the train station for an 8am train to Florence.

We’re currently on that train.  Syd promptly fell asleep, Johnny is catching up on an Italian recount for his Italian teacher, Jess is fiddling on her phone, and I reckon the big fella is catching up on the news.  Sadly, I’m stuck in a seat with a burping lady, and no view.  I’d love to be able to see the countryside pass us by, but I’ll negotiate a better seat with the kids on the next leg.

Bring on Florence, for handbags & food!!

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WOW!  This place has the smallest bathroom that I’ve ever seen!!  I can JUST scissor myself into position to use the toilet if I utilise all of my limited yoga moves.  Getting out again is also a minor problem.

Heaven knows how K4 fits his knees in without them sitting on the opposing wall.  Actually, I know that his knees will be sitting up the wall, and his feet won’t be touching the floor.  Poor lad will probably need pulling out when his bum gets stuck down the bowl.  Urgh, I’ve thought that through just a bit too far!

Anyhows, they’ve STILL managed to fit in a bidet!  Speaking of bidets, I had a go at the last place, and I’m not very good at it.  Seems messy, and very wet.  I’ll keep trying.  Lol.

This place is in a reasonable neighbourhood, we’re stuck right between the minimart, the fish shop & opposite the butcher shop.  Mental note to self, better not get a hangover (apart from the location smells, the infamous bathroom has this crazy tiny tile design that sets my eyes crazy, even without having a drink).

So, back to our arrival at the train station.  The stations in Italy have been crazily busy.  People everywhere, and pushing in all directions.  I’d reckon most of them will be tourists.  The kids will have a solid introduction to beggars & pickpockets over the next 10 days.  There was a poor lady begging for food at McDonalds.  We then saw her 3 more times, as we covered the kilometers.

I hadn’t managed to book our Florence accommodation properly, I should have done it days before now.  But I was out, looking at things, and exploring.  And the internet has been intermittent with our set up.  So I got on to it when we arrived.  I hadn’t been too worried about it, as they’d got onto us last week, and I figured it would be someone meeting us at the property.

Turns out that’s not how it works.

I’m meant to provide all of the information online before we get there, ideally.  So at Macca’s, I was busy letting my crappy burger get cold, while I provided all of my worldly details, and promised my first born, before they’d give us the codes to get through the locks on the front door.  All very efficient really.  IF I’D DONE IT EARLIER IN THE WEEK!!!

Well, we got there in the end.

In the meantime, I’d put the big fella onto working out how to cover the 2kms to our hotel.  There were a couple of buses, but one lot kept driving past us, and the other was smaller than Gramps’ old camping bus,so no good for our 5 big people with even bigger backpacks. 

It was going to take us 27 mins to walk, but we’d waited longer than that already, and we were ready for a break, so off we set.  Did I mention our heavy bags?  And that it was getting up near 30 degrees?

We soldiered on for 15 minutes, all of the kids lugging their their own bags.  Monumental effort really.  

We stopped for a bit, before the big fella realised we were in a park where men enjoyed themselves together out in the open. Let's just say that they weren't playing tennis.  The pointing evidence to this was the vending machine on the side, selling accessories for a safe and slippery good time. Not racquets & balls. Well, it might have had something to do with balls. There, I've gone and overthought that again.

So we got up and moved on.  Only 250m down the road was our apartment.

Up another dodgy set of stairs, and into a 3 bedroom apartment.  Each of the kids is thrilled to have their own rooms.  It’s reasonably clean, and a bit done up.  I prefer the Venice one, but this will suit us perfectly fine.  And we’re only 10 minutes walk from the Duomo.  We’re very central.

After leaving our luggage, we went back out and started with a 2 scoop ice cream, as a lovely reward for being awesome and not complaining!  Winning! 

Back to the Duomo, to marvel at the immensity of it.  And the beautiful marble design.  And the artists around the piazza.  Stunning! I might happily hand over some money in a few days, if I can't find anything better.

Then off to the Ponte Vecchio.  By tiki tour.  We just wandered really.  By that stage, the kids were hot and tired again.  So, we filled them up with ice cream.  Again.  It’s a TWO ICE CREAM DAY!!! Winning!!! Should have got them lunch, but you know, good parenting and all.

By this stage the temp was up to 30 degrees.  And my fantastic Savers second hand trousers had seen enough terror, and gave way in the seat of my pants.  Buggar.  So we puddled home, and everyone had a rest.  And I threw my trousers out.

After I’d listened to enough snoring, I woke them all, and off we went to forage for dinner.  More walking, and exploring our neighbourhood, some shopping at the Carrefour, and an Aperol Spritz at our local later (still 30 degrees!!), we were back to cook dinner in our kitchen.

Now we’re watching Coyote Ugly, where the kids are bound to learn something new.  <insert rolled eyes here>.

15,000 steps.

BTW, the penis count is up in the high double figures (including a horse, sorry Syd!) and the boobs are in odd numbers. 🤣