Rome, Florence, Pisa and the Cinque terre in a week with the kids

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Trying to make the most of living near an Easyjet hub. We went to Italy for the half term. Starting in Rome for a few days, seeing the Colosseum and the Vatican. We met up with a friend of Murray's who lives there, it was great to meet Jane at the Spanish steps and catch up briefly.

We then caught the train to Florence, we really liked it. Great public transport. We started up at the viewpoint over the city, walked down and enjoyed walking the streets and being inspired by the artists, statues etc. We went into the Leonardo De Vinci museum, it was very interactive. He was quite the inventor, which we somehow hadn't processed. The kids even begged to go back they loved it so much.

Then we caught the train to Pisa, to base from there for a few days. We saw the leaning tower of Pisa, very impressive and enjoyed the slower pace of the city.

From Pisa we did a day trip to the Cinque terre. We started early and got a 8.30am train, with one change we were at Monterosso by 10.30am. Sitting on the beach all by ourselves. It wasn't really swimming weather, although some other tourists decided to try later on. It was just bliss to sit and enjoy the smell of the ocean, and breathe it in. I miss the ocean so much and living in Geneva with the lake is great, but the air is just different near the beach. The kids had a lovely time playing with the stones and we contemplated just staying there all day. We did finally decide to move on once a few too many trains dropped off more people, our peaceful beach was no longer just ours. We walked on the Cinque terre track 2 hours to the next village, Vernazza. It was steep, with a lot of steps, narrow ledges and cliffs. My shoes actually didn't survive! We loved it and Emma declared she wanted to hike all the way back and not catch the train. We had lunch on the marina at Vernazza. Then decided that it was a good idea to catch the train to Manarola. It was beautiful, but a bit busier. It is crazy that people have built houses etc on these rocks. We then opted out of our planned walk to another village, it was only 30 minutes. But with falling apart shoes and children already filled with gelato and still not having much energy to spare, we decided to quit while we were ahead. We caught the train back to Pisa and slept well that night.

We had a wonderful trip, we decided to take back packs instead of our usual roller bags. This was brilliant as we were moving around a lot. The kids did need a lot of encouragement, and gelato usually did the trick. An amazing trip, just an hour flight from Geneva.

Back to the last half of term 1, which has me working full time for a few more weeks covering a colleague. Murray heads to China and Syria for work. Christmas will be here before we know it.

Miriam

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