We headed back into Rome today but straight to the Vatican where we planned to spend the day. We saw the Pope give the morning mass from the square (spoken in many languages before finishing in Latin) and then went into the Basilica before it got too busy.  We sat down to eat lunch in…

Our first day in Rome started at the Colosseum. Not as big as I thought it would be but very impressive. Queues to get in were long but we had prebooked tickets and not too crowded inside We moved on to the Hill and Forum which took us ages to get our head around the…

We were away by 9 and standing in front of the leaning tower of Pisa 90 minutes later. We walked up the tower. Much easier climb than the recent Florence tower.  The cathedral was closed for Mass until 2pm (public holiday today for Day of Assumption) so we grabbed an easy lunch nearby Gorgeous cathedral….

Todays plan was to visit the Duomo and Tower. We arived at the Tower at 10 and headed straight up.  Starting to get into the flow of keeping the kids interested in yet another “old and beautiful piece of rock” by making sure they understand why people have built it in the first place. Plus…

Today we took an 8am train to Siena to see the first day of the four day build up of the Palio. I had booked a tour guide to take us round the area and teach us all about Siena and the Palio. We met our guide Margarita with her preplanned identifier of standing on…

Today we headed into Florence and immediately fell in love with the area around Duomo We had prebooked tickets for David so after seeing the queues for the tower and Duomo ordered our tickets for those attractions for Sunday to skip the queue. Quick trip to the train station to get our tickets for Siena…

Today we headed to Florence via Imola. I’ve wanted to see the memorial to Senna for a long time and this was the perfect opportunity. We parked the van by the track entrance and walked through the park. Impressive how far and wide fans had come to paid tribute. There were several from a couple…

A wet start as the rain started at 5:30am. This wasn’t too bad as we had decided to go into Venice early to go to the bell tower, St Mark’s Cathedral and Rialto Bridge. It showered heavily throughout the morning, but didn’t put the tourists off.  The bell tower gives fantastic views of the city. …

A more relaxing start to the morning as the bus into Venice did not leave until 9am so Tonya made scrambled eggs on toast for the kids.  The bus only takes 10 minutes and then we headed through the streets to St.Mark’s Square. Its a crazy layout and takes a good 20 minutes to walk…

An early 7am start to Venice today going via a toboggan run in Bad Durrnberg to help break up the 7 hour journey. We got there just after 10am and headed straight in Great view at the top and then we were away on the 2.2km slide down Onwards to Venice another 4 hours away…

Today we went to Vienna starting with a 10am tour at the Opera House. Nice to have a proper tour guide rather than an audio device. He took us round the entire place including the massive back stage area. Tonya wants to come back for the opera one day because everyone at the House are…

Today was great and delicious. We set off early and stopped off at an outlet shopping mall, to pick up some bargains. We then travelled a few more hours until we reached Zotter Chocolate Factory.  We spent a couple of hours around the organic farm. We played welly golf – throwing Boots into different obstacles-…