Italy

Our trip to Italy involved four stops, each so very different that they felt like separate countries.

Venice

The first stop was Venice, which we reached via a very pleasant train journey through the Alps and along the shores of Lake Maggiore. Milan Central station was a bit edgy (this is certainly not Switzerland), and we finally arrived at the Venice Santa Lucia Station as it got dark and started to rain. It all felt a bit fumbly as we managed to make our way onto the vaporetto (water bus) and along the grand canal to our stop. We employed our backpack straps for the second time that day on our trip to lug our bags over the Accademia Bridge and on to our little hotel. It was hard to believe we'd left 20cm of snow that morning. On the walk to find some provisions, we knew the place was magical, but would have to wait for the rain to stop and the sun to rise before we would be able to appreciate just how fully magical Venice actually is.

A travel blog we had looked at had said that Venice is such an amazing place for kids that you don't have to really DO anything, you just have to BE there. So, for our first day in Venice we thought we would try something different. For this day, (and depending on how this experiment went, possibly this day only...) the kids would hold the map and decide where we went and what we did. We set off from our hotel towards tourist central: San Marco Square. As soon as we arrived we realised why travelling to Venice in winter is a good idea - it was empty! Well, not exactly empty, but so much emptier than the scary crowded pictures we had seen of Venice in summer. We moseyed around the square for a while, looking at the impressive buildings and the interesting clock, when the mention of the armory and the prison cells in the Doge's Palace caught Daniel's attention so we headed there. I don't think any of us were prepared for the opulence of the walls and ceilings. I was particularly impressed by the City's hugely sophisticated system of government, complete with political checks and balances, which we assume was the main reason for the success of the Republic of Venice for over 1000 years. The ''Bridge of Sighs'' connected the courts in the palace with the dark and bleak prisons over the canal - apparently the small windows in the bridge elicited rueful sighs as prisoners had their last glimpses of freedom. The prisons were cold and eerie, and the impressive armory was, needless to say, a hit with the littlest Graham.

We followed up the Doge's Palace with a visit to the Correr Museum, just because our Palace ticket covered entry to that too. It was a bizarre place. The lack of signage and strange assembly of items gave it an eclectic feel with nothing really threading the displays together. The will of Marco Polo and Fra Mauro's map of the world were probably the coolest items on display. It was a good place to play, "What's the speech bubble?" with all the classical statues, but the parents hit museum fatigue first, and we dragged the younger ones away from the endless models of ships, out into the sun to find some coffee!

Just wandering around Venice is breathtaking. The air was crisp, but the winter sun could warm your face, and everywhere - canals, bridges, people going about life in such a different way! We'd stumbled across a scavenger hunt list for Venice which kept us all looking down watery alleyways and up at the array of buildings trying to spot: a lion with a book open (symbolising Venice in peace-time), a lion with a book closed (Venice at war), a police boat, an ambulance boat, a pointed window, a well, a garden, a golden lion, a horse, an angel, a dragon, a singing gondolier, a grocery boat, a leaning tower, a bride in a gondola and a gelato stand. We had to substitute a whistling gondolier in for the singing one, and give up on the bride, but otherwise we had a very successful hunt.

The following day, we ventured further afield to the glass-making island of Murano and the lace-making island of Burano. As keen watchers of the glass-blowing show Blown Away, there was a lot of enthusiasm to see the artists in action. We had read that you can spot the tourist traps by the callers in the front, and prices 'discounted' to over-priced, so you think you've got a bargain but you haven't. We'd armed ourselves with information on what things cost in the main part of Venice - and went out with eyes open. For some reason, we got off the ferry and went left instead of right, and found ourselves in the back alleys, with washing lines, cats, and empty grassed courtyards. We walked and walked, and couldn't spot a glass blowing place anywhere. Perhaps they had all packed up for winter? Then we stumbled past a non-descript door with glass-mosaic front steps and a modest sign and knocked. The T-shirt and tracksuit clad creators were sweating it out, making amazing Klimt inspired vases, chatting heartily, and were happy for us to watch. They gave the kids glass ornaments, and we bought a little memento from their simple showroom. Well, we thought, at least we saw the only open glass shop! Then we stumbled through a very high end glass gallery and were spat out on the main glass strip. Maybe not the only shop open then! An amazing array of offerings, from bespoke artworks from noteworthy artists, through a range of attractive pieces to fairly horrendous things like pink, orange and brown wall lights that look like reflux from the 1970s.

Burano was another vaporetto ride away and was an unexpected delight. Daniel was thrilled to finally see some grass and trees, and the colourful houses along the narrow streets and canals gave the place a special charm. AND the island had its own super-leaning tower to cap it all off. For our last evening in Venince we decided to eat out and sample traditional Venetian food, starting with an assorted platter of seafood chicheti (starters) - generally tasty and interesting, but with mixed reviews around the table. The main meals were delicious and topped off a wonderful time in the city.

Carys:"I liked the canals and I liked the view off the bridge. I liked when we went down the canal on the boat in the sunset. I thought the Doge's Palace was a bit overwhelming. I liked the glass factory and watching them blowing glass. And I loved the colourful houses on Burano. They were so pretty. "

Daniel: "It was cool to spot all the different kinds of boats, and going on the boats, that was fun. And the square was pretty cool. The Doge's Palace and everything inside. And the glass place and all the shops. And the colourful houses - that island had grass and trees, I liked the plants. There are no trees or grass in Venice - I don't know how they actually breathe there. I wouldn't want to live in Venice, there are not enough plants. But it's nice to visit."

Florence

Another city, another train trip, this time diagonally across Tuscany to Florence. Nicola and I had visited Florence as backpacking students 20 years ago and we wanted to share the artistic delights of the city with the kids. The location of our AirBnB place was absolutely brilliant for exploring the old town centre - 10m away from the San Lorenzo Square and 250m from the central feature, the Duomo. We arrived at dusk and had an amazing wander through the streets, spotting some of the landmarks, cruising over the Ponte Vecchio and soaking in the vibe (again, we were educated that the Ponte Vecchio is an important landmark in Keeper of the Lost Cities, where Sophie and her friends join the Black Swan - so we had to have an extra good look around to check out the details of the spot). There were plenty of tourists about, but Florence still felt blissfully uncrowded. The kids had been made to hold out until Florence, the birthplace of gelato, for an ice-cream, so we were not going to miss out on the opportunity to sample some. It did not disappoint.

We started our first full day in Florence with a trip to the San Lorenzo fresh produce market, just up the street from our place. There we found an impressive array of fresh produce from the region: Chianti, mushrooms, truffle, guinea fowl, rabbits, trotters, fish, cockles and more. It's interesting when meat looks like the animal it comes from - it's a much more honest exchange, but less comfortable than the illusion that polystyrene and clingwrap give to the things we eat.

From there we wandered down through the town centre back past the replica David at the Piazza della Signoria and the startling statues at the Loggia in front of the Uffizi gallery before making the obligatory tourist stop to touch the wild boar's nose to make a wish. Our destination was the Boboli Gardens at the back of the Palazzo Pitti. We had decided to skip the palaces, churches and galleries in favour of some nature and open spaces. We had a pleasant afternoon having a picnic overlooking the city and exploring the cypress avenues and multiple water features. Not a particularly manicured garden, but an attractive space to relax, where they grew 'lots of lemon trees, olive trees, hedges, statues and bathtubs'.

By Saturday morning Florence had started to buzz with other tourists, so we had the unusual experience of having to stand in a queue to enter the Duomo. The building is so impressive in its scale and decorative white, pink and green marble on the outside, but surprisingly sparse on the inside. The cavernous space felt very reverent. We glimpsed the ruins of the preceding basilica beneath the floor of the Duomo but decided to skip the stairs to climb up into the famous dome. Once again we decided to head a small way out of town and up to the Piazza Michelangelo to see the second replica of the famous David and for the best view of Florence. We were able to do a good bit of people watching at this popular tourist spots, amused by the range of selfie styles on show.

By early afternoon, I could feel I needed to lie down again, so Nick took the kids for a drawing lesson in the square. An hour or so later, I woke up to the festive sounds of a jazz quartet coming through the window, so made myself a cup of tea, and headed down into the square to watch them jam while I sipped. A wonderful way to wake up! Our last evening we wandered the streets, absorbing the feel of Florence, another delicious supper and... more gelato! Daniel asked at some point, why are there so many Daves here? We realised he was talking about the endless sizes and colours of David replicas. We'll have to ask Mrs McCave...

Rome and the Vatican

The trip to Rome was a bit of a saga. We took the slow train via Pisa to see the leaning tower, but then couldn't even see it from the train and had to rush to catch the next train and missed it completely. Then we realised that the scenic route down the coast didn't actually pass the Cinque Terre, so we might as well have taken the direct train from Rome... By the time we reached the capital, both adults were not feeling great, and our navigation was not too sharp. We went past the stop closest to where we were staying, ended up in the arse end of the central station, which is quite gritty, couldn't find the Metro section, and then finally couldn't find the bus stop. By the time we arrived at our AirBnB, we were pretty flattened.

Our two days in Rome were a mix of sun, rain, exploring and resting. Something that we're learning is that ancient ruins are most impressive if you can imagine how they were in full flight. The kids lose interest if it doesn't elicit something they can imagine. The Colosseum is hugely impressive as it stands, but is so much more awe inspiring if some information and a vivid imagination can allow you to see what happened in the various spaces when it was at it's height. We watched some clips from Gladiator after we'd been, but I wish we had seen them before we'd gone, so that their minds were already primed for imagining all the colours, sounds and smells. By the time we hit the Roman forum, an icy wet wind was rapidly reducing enthusiasm. We mustered some interest for the temple of Vulcan ("can you get into the Earth's mantle through here?") and the massive columns of the Temple of Saturn, but by the time we reached the Temple of Romulus, the wind picked up and the youth league staged a mutiny, so we headed home to a warm, dry apartment and some tea!

Carys: 'Hey! I actually liked the walk - just not the cold."

Daniel: 'I absolutely hated it. It was the worst thing in the world."

We wrapped up extra warm the next day as we headed towards the Vatican. We joined a massive queue that seemed to grow as we tried to find the start of it, and hid from the rain under the patchwork snake of umbrellas as we shuffled through security. Hoping we'd end up in St Peter's Basilica eventually, we followed the crowd left, past the basilica and into a beautiful, modern auditorium - only to see: the Pope speaking on stage! We'd stumbled into a Papal Audience, and it was so interesting to feel the informal vibe as children waved and called 'Papa, Papa!' and delegations from different countries cheered when he mentioned them, as the Pope's message was translated into about 8 languages. The Basilica is endlessly impressive, but this is the Vatican alive at the moment.

St Peters and the 7km of Vatican museums would take months to fully appreciate, so we decided to identify a few 'not to be missed' items, and took our learning from the day before to do a bit more prep beforehand. We made a Vatican Bingo sheet, that included the Porphyry Basin, the Raphael Transfiguration, the map room ceiling and spiral staircase. We had spent a bit of time talking about the significance of each piece in the morning before we left, so when we found them, there was more recognition and we were all keen to linger longer at these chosen few and saw lots of details we hadn't noticed before. In such a wealth of possibility, less is more was true for all of us.

We picked a few special things to see on our last day in Rome. First stop was the Trevi Fountain. Even though it is an absolute hive of tourist attention and surrounded by souvenir shops, the fountain is beautiful and the pale blue water is so attractive, you almost want to jump into it. Next stop was the Pantheon, made all the more interesting by the fact that it was raining through the hole in the roof! Last stop, and to lift the spirits somewhat in the pouring rain, was Mr 100 Tiramisu. As the name suggests, this place actually has 100 variations of tiramisu to choose from. Unfortunately, this may have been our kids' highlight from the whole of Rome...

Amalfi Coast

Amalfi is also just around the corner from Naples and Pompeii, so we took a day trip on the train to visit the famous ruins. Mount Vesuvius was snow-covered when we arrived and the dark rain clouds loomed, but we donned our audio guides and set forth into the ancient town. We were all struck by how massive the place is. Around 65 hectares of the town has been unearthed from beneath the 4-6m of volcanic ash that covered it in 79AD. It is not possible to visit the whole place in a day, but fortuntely the helpful tourist info guy gave us a map of the 'highlights package'. What makes Pompeii so special is that the whole town was preserved at the moment the volcano erupted, complete with the gruesome figures being buried alive, food in pots, money on tables, and decorated walls (including lots of latin grafitti). It is incredible to walk along marbled verandahs, looking at the bright colours of the murals just as they were almost 2000 years ago. I was particularly impressed by the cobbled streets: dead straight, edged with uniform high kerbs and punctuated with bollards at intersections to prevent carts from entering the residential streets. We all found the outing very interesting, but spent less time there than we would have liked because the rain came down and it threatened to get very unpleasant.

Our last outing was to the town of Amalfi, five towns further west along the caost. Before we had arrived we had been looking forward to taking the scenic bus route along the coast to visit all the pretty towns. The reality was something entirely different. From the first bus trip from Salerno to Cetara we realised how crazily narrow and winding the road is, with the bus driver having to hoot at every corner to warn oncoming cars. With car sickness being a general family failing, all of us started to feel a bit queasy on that first short trip. The trip to Amalfi was much longer, but we faced it bravely and all made it in one piece. We wandered around the town, up and down the jetty and along the steep coastal paths. When the rain came down we ducked into one of the few open restaurants and enjoyed some authentic Campagnia cuisine. The place is beautiful in the winter, we can only imagine how charming it must be when the sun is out and it is warm enough to swim in the crystal clear water.

Our last day in Italy was a mammoth travel day across Italy to the Adriatic coast to catch an overnight ferry to Greece. We said goodbye to our comfy pad in Cetara and boarded the vomit bus for Salerno. We missed the stop and had a bit of a trek back to the train station, where we boarded a train for Caserta, just outside Naples. There we had time to grab the best pizza in Italy before boarding another train to Bari. We are becoming pretty pro at train travel, so had booked seats and settled down to our routine of schoolwork, kindles, card games, music and chatter. In Bari we negotiated the rather confusing system of having to bypass the ticket machines to go into the cafe to buy bus tickets from the lady behind the croissant counter (?!) and got on the bus, which, much to our pleasant surprise, dropped us right outside the ferry terminal for our next adventure.