Fabulous Florence - the advertisements

Ciao bellas!

I hope you are traveling well my friends.

I cannot thank you enough for all the thoughtful, kind and lovely messages you sent me after my last post. Sometimes I can't work out why I feel the need to publish my blogs to the world, and that post reminded me, big time. Instead of feeling judged I feel supported and understood and I feel very grateful indeed. I have a feeling that I'll be reading back over those comments several times in the next few weeks.

Bringing you guys along with me to Tuscany was a wonderful idea, I'm so glad I did. Now would you like another glass of wine? Or some bread for your pasta sauce?



OK so in my last post I mentioned that while I was slowly losing my mind with all the what's and why's and if's, my girls were sitting across the table from me writing advertisements for Florence. Because we're traveling during school time we've been trying to set them writing and reading and art tasks to complete occasionally. I'm afraid their maths might be a bit neglected though.

I like it best when they can all work on the same thing and then share it with each other at the end.

The Florence ads were to be written in their journals. First they had to brainstorm all the things they could include; places we'd been, things we'd seen, people we'd met, how they'd felt, any history they could remember...and then turn them into pieces of writing that would encourage other people to visit Florence.

They were to write them quickly so we could get to the pool and still be back in time to make dinner.

I love how every time we do something like this, each of them comes up with something so different even though we all experienced the same thing. It really makes me feel like School Of The Word is a valid thing.

So are you curious? Would you like to read what our girls wrote?



OK, since you asked so nicely, here's Indi's...

FLORENCE, THE PLACE FOR YOU!

Have you been thinking of taking a trip somewhere this summer?
Are you wondering where to go?

No matter the circumstances, I can guarantee that Florence/Firenze is the perfect place for you!

Florence is one of the biggest cities located in Northern Italy. The weather in summer-time is hot, there's music playing everywhere you turn and the architecture is insanely beautiful.

My family of five spent a week in Florence while on a trip around Europe this summer and found ourselves amazed by everything in this fantastic city.

An easy way to find accommodation in Florence is the Airbnb website. The website gives you a range of options of where to book and enjoy your stay to the fullest. We lived in a beautiful apartment with the most incredible view of the Ponte Vecchio, Florence's oldest and most famous bridge. We all agreed it was our best view yet.

My family of five ranges in ages from seven to 44 and there was most certainly something in Florence for everyone.

We enjoyed wandering around the sites with no plan at all, and we also loved the few things we planned and booked; which included a cooking class where we had the opportunity to make our own pizza, pasta and gelato from scratch and enjoy a lovely meal with our class afterwards.

One of the highlights for me was the food. The food in the city was simply wonderful and everything you could hope for in Italy.

We found ourselves overwhelmed by the beauty of the city and constantly felt like we were living in a postcard or a movie.

The Florentines were wonderful and accommodating and mostly spoke good English.

From the food, to the street art, to the buskers and the amazing gelato and even the sound of the Italian language, Florence was an unforgettable experience for us all.

We visited for one week, which we found was a perfect amount of time to see everything that we wanted to see.

Summer school holidays are peak season for tourists, so I would suggest considering a retreat to Tuscany, Florence's outskirts and beautiful country-side, when Florence gets too crowded for you.

Whether you have a family, are on your honey-moon, or are just looking for an adventure this summer-time, Florence is the place for you!!



And Jarrah's;

FABULOUS FLORENCE!

I highly recommend visiting Fabulous Florence.

The amazing views to the amazing food.

The walking distance from out of town to in town is quite a lot for kids to handle, so I recommend staying somewhere as close as possible to the sites.

For dinner I would suggest pizza or pasta, and for desert gelato. But look out for the enormous piles of gelato because they have gelatin in them.

For breakfast there isn't really anywhere for simple muesli, or bread or toast, so I would recommend going to your local super-market to get supplies.

As for sites, you should visit the Pitti Palace. It is a good walking distance from town and it is very interesting and fun and from the top of the gardens there is a great view of Florence.

As for shopping, there are usually people set up all over town selling junk so watch out. Some are a bit pushy. But there are good shops for kids, teen-agers and grown ups. It does not matter what age you are, you will find something.

Finally, overall I had a great time in fabulous Florence and you will too.



And Pepper's;

STAYING IN FLORENCE

We woke up in Florence, had breakfast and went somewhere but Dad didn't tell us where we were going. We ended up in a cooking class. We signed our names on sheets and started cooking. First we put flour in our bowls and mixed in egg and made dough. Then we made and decorated the pizza and cooked it and ate it.  Yum!

You should come to Florence and make and cook pizza too.

The few things that they didn't mention that I'd like to include to remember - the 104 steps up to our apartment, the ridiculous queues for the Duomo (Bren called it the Dolmio), the organic gelato (watermelon was the best but no-one was brave enough to try the red-wine flavour), the buskers on the Ponte Vecchio, the pick-pocket test, the fabulous farmer's market, the leather market, the empty piazza where we practised our cart-wheels, the paper marbling, that time me and Bren drank cocktails while the girls ate gelato and ran around a fountain in a piazza...

Big love to you guys, I hope you are feeling happy and healthy and inspired.

xoxo