As He Leads is Joy: Italy - The Big Family Holiday

Italy was our big family holiday this year. We wanted to take advantage of living so close. We or actually my husband spent hours planning, researching, finding tickets and all kinds of things to make our time there special. I appreciate all the work that he put into the trip.

We had a family friend join us. We met Bec in the States before Miss K was born, then she was in Taiwan, and has visited us through the years. It was fun to have her traveling with us.

We flew to Italy using some of our leftover frequent flyer miles but once we were in Italy we relied on public transport -- buses, trains, boats, and our own two feet. We did not take a single taxi. So we planned our packing accordingly, we packed in backpacks. Years ago when we made our first trip to China, I had the kids pack their carry-on backpacks and then wear them around the house for a few hours. I should have had Miss K do that this time as she really had a hard time carrying her bag. I ended up putting quite a bit of her things in my bag.

We passed the time waiting at train stations. The kids fed the pigeons a few times which gave minutes of entertainment.

I think the longest train ride we had was about two hours. There were a number of times that we had to change trains at various times. During some of those times we found McDonald's.

The food was delicious. I don't think we had a bad meal. We ate lots of pasta and some pizza. This was Miss K's pasta the first night we were there.

One evening J told me just to order something that he would like. I know that he likes alfredo so there was a pasta with sausage and cream so I ordered that. When it arrived, the look on J's face as he looked at his plate of "green beans" with cream and sausage. He was a good sport and tasted it and it was not green beans but rather a

Miss K loved playing hopscotch on the Roman roads.

In Venice and Florence we stayed at Eurocamp which is a bit like camping. We stayed in cabins. Our cabin in Venice was three bedrooms, not very big but large enough for us to each have a room. The camp at Venice was on the Adriatic Sea. We spent the morning playing in the sand and the sea.

We did have a lot of beach equipments with us but J managed to make a sand turtle.

Miss K ventured in deep enough to get her knees wet. She thinks she likes swimming but in reality she doesn't get very we.

In the afternoon we went to the pool or actually I should say pools. There were about five pools there -- a shallow just the right depth for Miss K, a wave pool, a lap pool, a water park pool, and another pool. There were also three big slides. J had fun going down the super fast one. Mum even went down a few times though I didn't pick the super fast one.

I think we had gelato almost every day. My husband said next time that needs to be a line item on the budget.

We ate pizza though not as much as I thought we would.

Here are the kids taking a break though this was Rome and I don't think we cooled off the whole time we were there. It was hot. We were ready to come back to summer in England where we need a hoodie.

We get water from the water fountains throughout Rome. I think it was 34C in Rome and we came home to a heat wave of 32C in England.

Miss K tried and tried. I am not sure how much water she managed to get but she did cool herself off a bit.

Chocolate and ice cream two of Miss K's favourite things.

This was a chocolate shop that sold gelato and I have to say that their chocolate was delicious.

Here is my proof that I was there. My husband and I were able to spend an evening in Venice together while Bec stayed with the kids.

Antonio was our favourite. He loved his job waiting tables and loved all the people that came there for dinner. We asked to get a photo with him and his daughter joined them.

Are you running to a birthday party and forgot to get a gift? No problem is you are going through the train station you can just buy some Legos in the vending machine. I have seen a wide variety of things sold in vending machines but I think this is the first time I have seen Legos.