HoFlo

Jac

We are in Florence, or a least a suburb of Florence, a little more out of town than we expected. By the time we arrived and settled into our new Airbnb we weren’t just a little hungry, rather we were “I will eat anything” seriously hungry. We walked a very long way in a couple of directions trying to find a place to eat, e,g, imagine trying to find a restaurant in Derwent Park! In my hunger delirium, I visioned another Florence: Florence Henderson, TV mother of the many Bradys, suddenly appearing with a hot Thanksgiving Lunch of basted turkey and veg (I was so famished that vegetarianism would have been an inconvenient truth). Thankfully Dan saved us by her practical and patient nature and knocked up a much appreciated “mutte rigatoni”.

We’ve been seeing quite a few pigeons around public areas and train stations. The “Pidglies” (as Stella calls them) are also inside the stations, and if you thought plovers were tricky, it’s a must for young travellers to look out for swooping pigeons because they have usually spotted their food of choice a couple of coos before, and are definitely up to the task. There is also nothing lucky about being both swooped and pooped, especially when ‘Airbnb with laundry facilities’ seem to be a rare commodity!

Anyway, I’m looking forward to venturing into the hub of Florence tomorrow, to relive my Ancient History and Art days at Uni and see Michelangelo’s amazing artworks and sculptures!

Daisy

We spent time creating art on our iPads.  I made up a character called Jeff who was a bank robber. That inspired us to create a family of good people that weren’t Jeff.  We had Jeff’s girlfriend, sisters and step sister, mother, dad, step dad, step mother and cousins. The step mother wasn’t very nice and taught Jeff to rob banks.  It took a long time to draw.  Stella’s were the posh side and mine were the ‘ragged, cool and yeah baby’ side.

These are my characters:

Here are Stella’s:

Stella

I was inspired to draw this person because today we had to go on a very busy tram after we got off the fast train from Venice to Florence.

Dan

I’m a very big fan of Italian Fast Trains: quiet and spotlessly clean, with plenty of room for luggage to be stored below, above and in between the rows of seats. The rolling hills, covered with farms, villas and vineyards, literally raced by! Before I could wake myself up properly from a mid-morning doze, we were slowing down for our arrival at Firenze Santa Maria Novella.

Jac and I last visited here in 2006; the new tram lines making it extremely easy to move around the city. In less than 30 minutes we had navigated our way from FSMN to ‘Federica’ and located our 14th century Florentine detached house (HoFlo), located within a large courtyard.

The reaction of the girls to this older home was less than anticipated, especially with the traditional shutters that kept the sunlight from reaching the rooms inside! There were comments such as “this place is creepy” and “it’s so old it must be haunted…”  However, with a few window shutters opened up and lights turned on we could see the charm that the owners had referred to in their listing.

Lunch was on everyone’s minds, but it seems that in these parts, restaurants close at 2.30pm. So when out and about mid-afternoon, looking for a place to eat and getting a feel for the area, we could have purchased a car, a haircut or even whitegoods from the locals but not a sniff of pizza or pasta until 7pm (or later) when the restaurants re-open!  Suffice to say, I whipped up a quick meal for the ‘Hangry Troops’ and we spent the rest of the afternoon settling into the place and preparing for our MoFlo adventures tomorrow!