Itailian Road Trip

Hi there, hope you're well. This blog is a long time coming. Having a 2 year old and enjoying my running has taken up so much of my time. When going out and about, I've been more concerned about spending time with the boy, so I've not taken as many photos as I would had liked.

​​Anyway, last year my wife and I went to Florence along with our son. He was only 1 at the time. We went due to her sister getting married there. We both enjoyed the trip and our son was well behaved. He was also very good on the plane both to and from Italy.

So we flew in Bologna first and picked up the car we had booked for the week. We then drove to Florence to where we had been due to stay, which was Fattoria di Maiano, located north east of Florence. This is a drive of around 90 minutes. The drive was nice, lovely country side views.

The weather wasn’t as hot as we would have liked, it rained too, but we still have a great time. The wedding was amazing and the reception at Fattoria di Maiano. The view from the grounds over looked Florence and was a stunning view. As I had a 1 year old, I didn’t take to many photos on the day, so I've not got any photos of the view alone. The only photos I have are ones with people in them and didn’t want to share those. I wanted my wife to enjoy herself at her sister’s wedding.

We stayed in Italy for about a week. The 2nd day after the wedding, we moved to an Airbnb apartment in Florence. It was nice enough for what we wanted, and was able to travel into the city centre easily via the tram system they have. Quick and Easy.

​​Looking back, we probleerly stayed in Florence a day longer than we did, but wouldn’t change anything we did like it. Florence is beautiful. During our stay in Florence, we took a trip to Lucca. When we got there, we rented out some bikes. I took the boy and we took 2 trips along the wall of the city. The distance around the city is approx. 4km, so we rode over 8km. The seat for my son was on between me and the handle bars. He very much enjoyed being on the front of the bike. I would recommend renting out a bike. The price isn't bad. If you're staying longer than a day, then you may wish to either rent longer but I'm not so sure what the cost would be.

After we have finished with the bikes, we walked into the centre of the city. As it was lunch time, we went looking for somewhere to eat. We found a restutart and got some pizza. I can honestly say that we have had better pizza. We have anti-pasta, which the boy enjoyed eating as well. My father-in-law was in the city, so he came and found us. Once we finished lunch, we went for a walk and got some ice cream. You can't beat Gelato ice cream.

The day, overall, was a good day. The drive was good. The motorways are quite good when travelling along the toll roads. I guess you get what you're paying for.

We spent one last full day in Florence and went for one last walk. We walked to the The Boboli Gardens and we most likely went the long way round and seemed to travel along an every lasting upward road which was getting steeper and steeper. Once we got to the top, went through the gate and paid to get in, the view was worth it once we got into the middle. The weather wasn't amazing and later started to rain. By the time we got back the apartment, myself, my wife and her sister were wet to our bones.

The day before we had been due to get our flight home, we drove to Pisa. We wanted to see the tower, so thought why don't we just fly home from there. We dropped off the car, went to the Airbnb apartment which we only stayed in for 1 night and walked towards the tower. It did take a while to get here, and was a hot day. Felt like the only place in Italy that was raining was Florence during the week we had been there. Due to the time that we got to Pisa, dropped the car off and started our walk, if was lunch time half way to the tower. With this, we got lunch and settled down to rest. After lunch, we started on our walk again and got to the tower. It was so busy. As we had a child with us, we didn’t go up the tower, but we did go into the Cattedrale di Pisa. This was much better than the one in Florence may I add. We did enjoy our stay in Pisa, but we did have some issues with an American chain fast food restaurant. The baby changing area wasn’t private and was in the middle of the walk way for people to go to the male or female loos. Still waiting to hearing back from them.

All in all, we all enjoyed our trip. Loved every minute of it, and would love to do another road trip again. If not in Italy, somewhere else.

For more photos, please click here.