Harriet has been known to be a bit of a hypochondriac. In the past she has suffered from all sorts of illnesses, including a short bout of leukaemia. When she told Fiona and Toby that her foot was broken, they therefore assumed that she was stretching the truth a little bit and perhaps she was just sore from all the walking we have been doing. Eventually the moaning became too much and we investigated further, only to discover that her shoes were too small and she has bruised her toe. The designer outlets didn't really have anything that would be suitable but we had heard of another outlet place that had high street shops as well as Nike, Adidas etc. so that was where we headed this morning. The mall is supposed to be set out ... read more

We had intended to go to Florence today, but we tried to buy tickets online for the museums and discovered that we can only get them for next week. We would rather have tickets than queue so we changed our plans. We still headed near to Florence but instead of art today we looked at clothes. Even top designers have goods that are slightly imperfect and in Italy the factory outlet stores are designer brands. We went to two malls today and had a very different experience that outlet shopping at DFS in Melbourne.The first place we visited was the Prada outlet. It was set out like a normal shop, was bright, clean and organised and the cheapest things still cost more than the most expensive in Moorabin. If you were going to buy Prada bags ... read more

When Toby and Fiona visited Umbria a couple of years ago, Toby decided that Assisi was his favourite place and so he was looking forward to going back again today. We detoured on the way through Santa Maria Degli Angeli which is where St Francis actually died. The spot is inside a church which is a beautiful building in its own right and which has a fantastic feeling of God's presence.We tried to enter the church, but just like yesterday we were stopped because our shoulders were bare- well Fiona's were and made to cover up with a scarf. At least they had scarves here for you to wear. Harriet is incensed and keeps letting everyone know this is a Christian church not muslim. Nevertheless, once we has finished looking we bought scarves from a local ... read more

After such along day yesterday due to the early start, late bed and an extra hour from crossing a time zone, we were up late. There was food for breakfast in our welcome pack, which was just as well because Italian shops don't open on Sundays. We had read in the local information that Arezzo had a Sunday antiques market and it seemed like a good a place as any to spend the day. Toby and Fiona didn't go there last time they were in Italy so it was fun to visit a new place. As with most Tuscan/ Umbrian towns, Arezzo has steep streets that lead to the main piazza which is surrounded by important civil buildings. Each of the streets was filled with market stalls and we spent time looking at them all. We ... read more

Today was our last day in Rhodes and so for the first time we all went out for the day together- including John. We headed down to the very southern most point of the island to a place called Prasonisi which has 2 beaches at the same place. The seas from each side of the island meet here with a sand spit in between. We chose the right hand beach to start with as it had waves and looked more fun to play in. Toby and Harriet were very happy with the choice but Jonathan was affected by the salt in the water and started to itch all over. He even came up in a rash. Volleyball on the beach was a better option for him. This was the first beach we had been to which ... read more