Daisy
Today we went to get on a train pretty much first thing. But the ground was saturated so we took off our shoes when we were on the train! Now the next thing I needed to do was go to the toilet. I walked down the aisle and into the cubicle. I was in the toilet but the toilet floor was covered in wee and I had no shoes on because my shoes were very wet! Well, now my feet were covered in wee! I thought
I’d better wash my feet so as not to get any more wee on them. I put my knee on the toilet, turned on the tap and I started to wash. When I finished washing my foot, I dried it with toilet paper. Then it was time for the rapid switch…Yes, yes, yes! The whole process again except that I did the splits this time! After that, the next step was opening the door. That was very hard because I didn’t want to get my feet dirty again. So, I unlocked the door and took one ginormous step out!
Soon after that we arrived in Rome.
Dan
245km/h and the train is making a swooshing type of sound. From time to time it sounds like popping, as the train passes another or picks up more speed. The rear camera on the train flashes up every minute or two and, out the window, in the distance, I can see ‘slow line’ trains and stations occasionally littering the landscape. We’re not stopping anywhere else today; Rome is destination 101 for Train 9125.
All of us have now realised we are on the back end of the trip after 3 weeks away and only 2 more stops before home. Today I realised just how much the girls have grown up over this holiday; confidently navigating train stations, trams, subways and souvenir hawkers (Daisy’s bargaining skills are phenomenal). Their personal reflections on what they are learning, and life in general, have often surprised me but also made me feel extremely proud that they are able to think with such depth, feeling and empathy.
In looking at today’s photos, I am also surprised that we haven’t reached church saturation point! However, often it isn’t us adults leading the sightseeing way. The girls genuinely want to explore each location and, when they see something that looks impressive, or a cluster of souvenir stalls in close proximity to a building, they are keen to go and see what all the fuss is about! As a result, today we saw the Cathedral, Baptistery and Chapel of St Lawrence (including holy stairs which must be navigated by the knees) and Stella must have sat and prayed at 10 different chapel / churches in the climb up Via Sacra (from the colosseum). Tomorrow we will continue our Rome-ing!
Stella
Hooray to day is our last day in Florence. We awoke to a lovely breakfast, yum. But wait, there is no toothpaste – waah! We’re all going to die! We hurried to get on our Tram
We got off at the Train
station wanting to get on the train to Rome. Our one problem, it was just pouring with rain. Umbrellas
up ladies…oh but wait for it, we did not have an umbrella! Oh then, in that case we’re definitely all going to die! We got completely and utterly soaked to the power of 100% and the worst possible thing that practically happened was that my socks got soaked. But, on the train it was a lot better than outdoors.
In Rome it was pouring too, so we went for a not very peaceful walk in the rain waah. We went in to a café. The worst thing that happened in that silly
old shop was that it played the worst song ever – Perfect by Ed Sheeran – twice! Today was fun.
Jac
We almost had to hire a gondola today to cross our road to the tram. There was a huge downpour this morning, puddling the roads and footpaths, and putting the Flo into Florence. The sound of rain was lovely on the old house’s roof, and if we weren’t in Italy with a sight seeing agenda, then it would have been a perfect day for reading a good book and trying to win (or at least navigate the never ending rule changes) a game of cards or a board game with the girls. However we had some stuff to do in Rome.
As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, the pigeons and their small bird allies can create havoc, and today Santa Maria Novella train station looked like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”. Dan’s nerve endings are frayed when it comes to swooping birds and this morning she couldn’t wait to escape to the safety of seat 13A on the fast Italia train heading for Rome. Yesterday, Dan needed some ‘animal free space” after she was simultaneously swooped by a hungry pigeon and barked at by a small dog!
I’ve never been one to say “I’ll take charge of that map” or “I’ll show you how to get there”. It’s one of the those areas of life where I prefer to be a follower than be a leader, and this also seems to sit pretty comfortably with others as a way of preserving their patience and sanity! However, my confidence is growing. A couple of days ago, by seeing a “hell of a big dome”, I led us to Santa Maria del Fiore, and today I successfully found the Colosseum by seeing “ a hell of a big wall”.
I think this strategy also worked for the three wise men when they spotted “a hell of a big star”. I admit that this new found directional confidence may be limited to structures over 50 metres, however I’m backing myself to be the first to spot the Big Pineapple, Big Banana and the Big Prawn on our next Australian road trip.
As has been the trend with all our stops, Daisy and Stella have been attracted to the souvenir stalls and shops, so we have frequented quite a few. Rome is no different, however the souvenir shops have taken on a more religious feel. One of the souvenirs, I particularly liked was the “Holy Spinner”, not to be confused with the similar sounding, “Holy Sinner”.
As we were leaving to come home, I found a key to some kind of modified crowd greeting vehicle. I’ll try and track down the owner.
