KTMusings

We had a very good travel day yesterday - got up and had breakfast at the hotel (Abby takes down about 8 pieces of bacon! And some cucumbers - ha). We keep lucking out on the rain - it was supposed to be raining pretty good for our walk to the train station, but was totally dry. We sat around there (no chairs/benches anywhere!) for over half an hour since our train was delayed. But knew better what to expect and didn’t have the stroller (yay!).  I still had some surprises in my bag - I bought some mini play dough sets and the girls did that a bit and then watched tablets. We had lunch on board (PBJs, bananas, the snacks from the train) and arrived in Venice close to 1. We found a restroom - it took credit cards, which was nice, and I’d tap my card and then send the girls through one at a time telling them to wait for me on the other side!   Walking out of the train station right up to the Grand Canal, I couldn’t stop smiling! It was drizzling, but we got tickets quickly and ho...

Pretty similar day to yesterday - everyone slept ok,  made the most of our extra hour. We went down to breakfast (crowded today!) and then back to our room - the girls like to brush teeth after breakfast instead of before. We left about 9:45 to walk to the Leonardo Divinci Interactive Museum. It was pretty cool - had a bunch of Divinci’s inventions you could try out. Our tickets were for 10:30 and we got right in and spent about an hour there. It wasn’t a very big location, but had probably two dozen things to try out.  When we left we headed back to the Duomo plaza for gelato (what else?!) - the girls are getting good at picking two flavors for their cups! And Jeff and I even got some this time.  We then headed towards the Ponte Vecchio - I truly thought it was more souvenir shops, but it seemed to be all high end jewelry. And complete back to back people. Couldn’t even get a pic on the bridge (there’s one part halfway across where there aren’t shops and you can actually...

Everyone had their best collective night of sleep yet! We all slept through the night - I was awake at 7, but had my eyes closed and I even heard Abby climb out of her bed next to me and then climb back in and put herself back to sleep for 90 min (she later told me that was in the middle of the night - God bless the babies who can’t tell time yet!). We all got up about 8:30 and got ready and went down to breakfast - it was fair: Lauren had pancakes (reheated in a toaster), passed on her hard boiled egg (Jeff ate it). Abby tried something kinda like Frosted Flakes, but didn’t like them. She ate 5 pieces of bacon and they each ate a kiwi. I had coffee and a chocolate croissant and a little scrambled egg. Jeff ate eggs and bacon and then made a ham and cheese sandwich. And lots of OJ for the girls! We then walked towards the Duomo and the girls legs just wouldn’t work. They popped up a bit through Piazza Santa Maria Novella because there was a craft market and souvenir shops. Practically ...

Today was a travel day, and all went smoothly from that perspective - the rain let up for us to walk to a taxi stand with all our stuff and then our train was on time - we had 4 seats with a table between them for our 1.5 hour ride to Florence. When we arrived we were only a 10 min walk from our hotel. But the day was really rough. I think my anxiety around traveling with all our crap on a train meant the girls fed off that and were not listening, talking back, arguing over who got to ride in the stroller (answer - no one, I carried the darn thing from the train station to our hotel. Seriously considering leaving it here - I want it for getting through the airports when we get home, but otherwise it is definitely not good to have here). I lost my patience a lot as did Jeff.  We relaxed in the hotel room for a while when we got here and fhen left around 5 to find dinner. We were spoiled in Rome city center with everything open all the time, several restaurants we found here close af...

Everyone did great sleeping through the night (except me, I slept terribly ). Woke up to our alarm and the girls did pretty good getting moving for our earliest start yet. We walked about 5 min to a taxi stand and caught a cab right away. It took about 10 min to drive to the Colosseum, so we got to slowly make our way down to it and take some pictures before Francesca arrived at 9. We went right in and spent about an hour inside exploring the first and second levels.  Francesca brought the girls a box of candy that looked like a mini pizza, which of course delighted them. Jeff and I got to ask lots of questions today … the girls did better walking all on their own since we had taxied over and it was the first thing of the day, but nothing held their interest for long. After the colosseum, we walked across to the Roman Forum and spent another hour+ in there. The girls had the most fun hopping across the big stones they used to make the street (and I kept saying “wait, these are real...

Actually tried hard to reduce steps and give everyone some down time today, so not much to write about.  We went to bed late, but all slept through the night for the most part! Got up at 10 again … tomorrow is going to be a rude awakening (literally) when we have to set an alarm! Girls and Jeff ate a banana and then we walked to the bakery around the corner … I was a bit overwhelmed and just blindly pointed at a pastry - the small place was packed - they sold bread, pastries, pizza, and some pre-made pasta dishes - clearly a popular choice around here. We walked a few blocks and got the girls gelato. Abby’s promptly fell out of her cone and they replaced it for free - so kind.  We then walked up to Piazza Novanta and sat at a restaurant - the girls each got a mojito (their new fave!), I got a coffee, and Jeff got a calzone. We used their bathroom about 4 times - yeesh. Lauren really wanted to see the Trevi Fountain again, so we walked over, but it was closed - big bummer. We t...

Well, the goal today was fewer steps for the girls’ sake … and we failed.  We had a low key morning; everyone fell asleep for about 3 hours last night and then was up again. I was bad and was reading while everyone slept, and just as I finished my book, everyone woke up. Lauren has been great about putting music on her tablet and getting herself back to sleep. Abby not so much. So, everyone slept in again, got ready, had breakfast in the apartment , and we headed out about noon.  I really wanted to take a taxi, but Jeff insisted we could walk and stop for food along the way <insert eye roll>. We got as far as the river and stopped for gelato. Abby got strawberry and disliked it so she traded me for my coffee/whiskey cream - and ate all of mine!  We made it to a piazza near Vatican, stopped for more food for the girls, then put Jeff’s backpack in a locker and headed up to the Vatican gates. There was a sandwich shop across the street and Jeff and I split a sandwich. ...