Under the Tuscan Sun

I waved goodbye to Venice today, and although it is very complicated for small baby like myself to get around, and have my nappy changed, it was such a beautiful city and I am sorry to leave it.  However we must continue on our adventure around Italy so our next overnight stop is Florence.

We got up fairly early this morning to repack our bags and make our way to Florence.  We had one last trip down the Grand Canal all the way to the parking station.  It should have been one quick move, throw the bags in Silverfox and head off, back on the right side of the road, BUT mummy lost the parking ticket.  She can be so blonde sometimes! It wasn’t as dramatic as it sounds, it was just one little bump in the road.  Mummy had planned to stop in Bologna for lunch, it was much easier finding our way round Italy this time, as daddy had internet on his phone.  We stopped for lunch and an ice cream, but since we wasted time with the lost parking ticket we were a little behind schedule so we got straight back in the car and drove through Tuscany to Florence.  Mummy’s driving had really improved and she was getting used to driving on the right side and going a lot faster down the motorway.

The drive to Florence was really beautiful.  We drove through the mountains and through tunnels under the mountains.  The trees were bright green, yellow and orange.  We will be sightseeing through the wine country in a few days so I will get mummy to take lots of photo’s.  It was a bit of a photo free day as we were mostly in Silverfox.

Daddy thinks I am going to crawl very soon, I keep sticking my bottom in the air and I can get anywhere with a mix of rolling, turning and pulling myself.  I will keep practising and let you all know when it happens. I have also discovered my reflection in the mirror.  I start laughing and smiling anytime there is a mirror around.

Who is that really really goodlooking baby that follows me around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you everyone for all of your wonderful comments. I am really glad your enjoying my blog.  I am having lots of fun writing it and reading your comments puts a big smile on my face.  I am sorry I don’t get to reply to every message but please know that I read them all and they make me really miss each and every one of you.

H x

Our Hotel in Florence

Cooling off at the Lido

Just a quick update today….

I had my first trip to the beach! The beaches are very different to the ones in Australia, the sand is a lot darker and the water is not as clear but I still managed to have a lot of fun.  We caught the No 1 waterbus to the Lido and we hired a little cabana, with an umbrella and chair. Mummy and daddy bought me a floating toy so I could kick about on my own, I am really good at swimming already.  I also had a play in the sand and although mummy says sand isn’t on my menu yet, I ate some anyway.

After my awesome day at the beach we caught the waterbus down the Grand Canal to the Rialto markets.  We had a little look around and bought some fresh fruit for tomorrow’s road trip to Florence.

H x

Sand!

Swimming with my handsome daddy

mmm gritty....

My first beach swim in the Lido.

Kick kick kick...

The Tourist

Venice is so beautiful and interesting, it’s like a fun game everytime you walk out the hotel door… where will this little alleyway lead me?

Gondala's

I slept very well last night and was ready for another big adventure around Venice.  Whilst mummy was fussying about with her makeup and hair etc daddy took me out for a little walk after brekky.  Once mummy was ready she joined us and we walked all around Venice.  We looked at the very nice designer boutiques in Calle Larga Marzo, daddy really picked up the pace down that street.  Then we made our way down to Campo San Maurizo and stopped for some milk and ice coffee.  I get lots of attention where ever we stop or walk, the Italians love me.  They get down to my eye level and talk incredibly fast in Italian, I can’t understand them but I am pretty sure they are telling me how cute I am.

The Grand Canal

Just a heads up for any other baby’s out there wanting to go to Venice, it’s not very pram friendly!  There is a little bridge every couple of metres, which means daddy has to pick the pram up and carry me over, he is getting a really good work out on his guns.

Working on daddy's guns

We admired the Grand Canal after coffee.  Much to daddy’s disappointment we had to cross a big bridge to look at how beautiful it was.  At the top of the bridge I noticed there were lots of gold padlocks on the railings with initials and love hearts on them.  Daddy explained to me that couples in love are  paying tribute to their eternal love.  Couples write a message of love on the lock, affix it to any permanent structure on the bridge, and throw the key into the water below. I think mummy and daddy should buy a lock and do the same.

The beautiful Grand Canal

 

 

 

 

 

Locks of love

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gelato here is amazing….well so I am told.  Mummy won’t let me have any but daddy keeps promising to sneak me some when she isn’t watching.  So far they have tried chocolate, kiwi, peach, mango and melon and I don’t think they can choose a favourite, they are all delicious.

Cooling down with some ice in my little blue bag

After lunch and Gelato, it was getting ridiculously hot and I got very uncomfortable, I don’t think I am cut out for this heat. Good thing I am moving to a cold country.  We went back to the hotel room for a quick nap and a cool down.

Play time in the hotel room

In the evening we walked around Piazza San Marco and admired the massive buildings and artwork. We bought some new hats and mummy tried on some of the Carnivale masks. She looked very funny! We wanted to go for a nice meal over the canal, at Guidecca how ever I had other ideas.  It was a nice boat trip over but I was still too hot and bothered so I cried and chucked a few tantrums until mummy and daddy took me home.  They had to find a restaurant that did some very nice takeaway, so they didn’t go hungry.  I think they had some very nice Eggplant gnocci – Omi would have loved it!

Piazza San Marco

 

The Carnivale masks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watching the sunset with daddy....before my tantrum.

 

Catching the boat to Guidecca

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope we go to the beach tomorrow, I need to cool down and try out my cozzie from Kerry and Joel.

H x

Where for art thou?

Day two in Italy and we are off on another adventure.  Today our road trip begins.

We have been very good with Milano’s public transport,  it has been really easy to figure out thanks to mummy’s exceptional navigational skills.  We have tried them all, taxi, bus, train and of course the plane we arrived in.  Today after breakfast we checked out of our Hotel – Hotel Madison, Best Western Milano, and caught the bus to Linate airport to pick up our sweet ride for the rest of our trip.  ‘Silver fox’ is a very nice silver Peugeot Station Wagon.  Once we had our wheels we decided it was a little bit too late to go to Lake Como, so we drove onto the A4 to get to Venice via Verona.  Sounds easy enough, unless you have never driven a manual left hand drive, on the opposite side of the road.  It took us a couple of tries to get out of the car park, mummy kept trying to change the gears near the door! It was little bit scary, the Italians drive very fast and are a bit impatient if you are going too slow.

Fun Fact #2: On the Italian Motorways you can travel 130km/h.

Verona

Romeo, Romeo where for art thou?

 

 

The love Graffiti near Juliet's balcony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few wrong turns and exits later we arrived in Verona.  It was really beautiful, such a quaint and romantic kind of city.  Mummy had told me the story of Romeo and Juliet and how it was based in fair Verona, so we visited Juliet’s balcony.  What a gorgeous building and on the outside of it there were lots and lots of graffiti, but it was graffiti about love, painted in all different colours. It was kind of pretty so we took some pictures here.

The main square of Verona was surrounded by painted buildings and lots of markets in the middle.  The markets sold all sorts of things from fruit, hats, t-shirts and fancy masks. Some of the masks were elegant and very detailed and some were a little bit scary. Daddy took me wandering through the markets whilst mummy took lots of photos.

Shopping in the Piazza, Verona

 

 

 

All the scary and beautiful masks

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the road again, we noticed that the outside temperature had reached its max for the day a balmy 43 degrees Celsius. What’s it like back in Australia?

 

Silverfox

Fun fact #3: Venice is built on 117 small islands connected by 400 bridges over 150 canals.

We parked our car in a big parking lot –Tronchetto, just outside of Venice and caught the ferry to San Marco.  Wow Piazza San Marco is massive!  Unfortunately we didn’t stop long to admire how beautiful it was because we wanted to find our hotel and have a shower, we have plenty of time for that over the next three days. It was still very hot and we had been walking around with our bags for a while.  Venice is like a maze and when you haven’t got a map for it, it can be very difficult to find your way.  We learnt the hard way when mummy couldn’t find the hotel.  We walked for ages and poor daddy looked a bit like a sweaty pack horse carrying all the big heavy bags.

Catching the ferry to San Marco

I fell asleep after a shower and a feed from mummy, but daddy told me they went out for dinner and a little stroll down some of the narrow alleys and canals.  I went along of course in my pram, but I didn’t see any of it as I was sound asleep after another big day.

H x

Milano bambina!

Goodbye very friendly and super happy Koreans, Buongiorno very tanned Italians.

Just resting my eyes between flights

On arrival mummy opened up the secret bugaboo toy chest.

We have finally arrived in Milan after another 11 hour flight, I am so glad to be off that plane.  Don’t get me wrong, mummy and daddy did a very good job of keeping me entertained, but I was very much over it, on the second leg.  When we arrived mummy unveiled the secret toys she had hidden in the bugaboo bag.

It is really warm here, so I get to wear the new dresses mummy bought me recently and some cool ones I have been waiting to grow into, Yay!  Our first day in Milan was jam packed! Our day started in the very early hours of the morning,  I think I am suffering from a little bit of jet lag as I woke up at 1:30am and wouldn’t get back to sleep until 4am.  We had a nice breakfast in the hotel and then mummy had the whole day planned.  First stop was San Siro or for those who are not football fans, the home Stadium for AC Milan and Inter Milan.  It took us a little while to find it. We walked through the museum admiring all the big trophies then had a tour through the stadium.  There is a match tomorrow so we couldn’t visit the AC Milan change room, but we had sneaky peak at the Inter Milan one.

I would like to thank all my sponsors... Nike

Inter Milan change room

Look at all those big shiny things!

Next stop was Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’.  Mummy had read all about and had seen prints of it many times but I think she was very surprised how big it was. It was HUGE and really beautiful.  Fun fact of the day: It took Leonardo Da Vinci 3 years to complete the ‘Last Supper’ in 1495, however it took 22 years to restore it, and only 80% of the original colour has been restored.

Enjoying my supper at 'The last supper'

After lunch we took the tram to the Duomo (Milan’s Cathedral), which is the worlds largest of its kind.  It was massive! I felt like a little ant looking up at this stunning building. We couldn’t go in to have a look because mummy was wearing a dress and there is a dress code to enter the building – thin straps and above the knee was not acceptable.  So we took a walk through Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and had some Gelato – unfortunately I was asleep through this part so daddy didn’t have any chances to sneak me a taste.

Milano Duomo

To be honest I was asleep for the rest of the day but mummy told me that they continued their adventure through Milan,with some window shopping and visiting a Food Emporium just down the road from the Duomo.  After a quick dinner we went back to the hotel to finish the day.  I was exhausted, but it was a really fun day.  There was so much to see and learn about Milan.  Tomorrow we are picking up the hire car and either driving to Lake Como or Verona.

H x

Seoul Searching

I am Seoul, Korea! I had my first plane trip yesterday. We flew from Sydney to Seoul which was about 10 hours and I don’t mean to blow my own trumpet but I was the best baby on the flight.  Mummy and Daddy are so proud of me.  This is just the beginning though, we are flying to Milan today and from there our 2 week holiday in Italy begins.  Our very first family, summer vacation.

Although mummy was still running around like crazy packing and cleaning up our flat in the shed the day before we left, she wanted to have one last lunch with the Mummy’s group.  They threw a very nice party for mummy and I.  It was at Kristy and Cora’s house down the road from us.  They had balloons, cake, champagne (for mummy) and lots of yummy party favourites.  I got to roll around the floor with all my friends and play with Cora’s toys, she has an awesome collection of toys.  Andrew was fascinated with my teeth, so I tried to show him how they work on his fingers.  He can’t wait for his teeth to cut through.  Little Jake is starting to pull himself around the floor so he was giving us all tips on how to do it.  Cora was all dressed up in her ruffle skirt, it’s so pretty I hope mummy buys me one soon.  Skyla and I were showing everyone how well we can sit now, and I was chatting to Ethan about the Liverpool game on the weekend.   I am going to miss all my friends.  Wednesdays has been my favourite day of the week.  Jake and Cora, thank you so much for my cool presents.  On special outings in London I am going to wear my bracelet and remember my two best friends.

Thursday morning was a very early start.  It was a sad morning as I had to say goodbye to my Omi and Poppy.  Although I was excited for my holiday and big move, I didn’t want to leave Omi and Poppy.   I love them so much and I am going to miss them like crazy.  Omi was always so fun, she would get down on the floor and play with me and Poppy gives the best cuddles.  I know I will see them all the time on Skype but Skype doesn’t cuddle.

Saying my goodbyes to Cherry-Garcia

The plane trip was pretty smooth sailing.  I have a little bit of a cold so I wasn’t the happiest baby but I hardly cried and I fell asleep for takeoff and landing.  There was a baby next to me, she kept waking me up with her screaming but I think she had a tummy ache or maybe she was a little bit scared to fly, not me though I love flying.

A good time to catch up on some reading

While daddy slept, I went duty free shopping

 

Lunchtime - Plane food

 

Last night we are stayed in a very nice hotel, the Hyatt Regency and after a bit of apple and Watermelon for brekky we will be going to the airport soon for the second part of our plane trip. Next stop Milan.

H x