Florence

First stop in Italy was Florence. We braced ourselves for the throngs of tourists and the price of a hotel room. As it turned out, late October was a beautiful time to visit. The crowds were not too overwhelming and the hot, sunny days called for numerous gelato-tastings.

We spent most of our time walking and taking in the statues found in the loggias and squares throughout Florence. The girls were quite enamoured with Michelangelo’s “David”, in part because, of course, that is the name of their father, but mostly because he is buck naked and his “private parts” have been reproduced on countless souvenirs, from kitchen aprons to boxer shorts, all found on every street corner in Florence. The girls tried to convince Dave that he needed to own a pair of “David” boxer shorts, but Dave does not seem to find penises as funny as his kids do.

After touring Florence’s 15th century cathedral, or “Duomo” we decided to climb up to the top of the dome for the view of all of Florence. After Bronwyn’s less than stellar climbing demonstration in the Alps in August, she surprised us all by racing Hannah up the thousands of twisting stone steps and steep climb up to the roof. Bravo Missy B! Eden on the other hand, took on the starring role of ‘the wet sack of cement’, to help us better appreciate the toil of the original workmen who built the Duomo by hand. Who invited the two year old on this trip?