we spent a couple days in florence to end our time in italy before heading to london. it was, like every other part of this trip, a circus with the kids … but soaked in some serious beauty and we made some great memories. i went to florence when i was thirteen and i’ve been daydreaming of returning ever since. it is such a perfectly romantic city.

we went first to boboli gardens. we thought that would be a good place for each of us parents to spend a couple hours with the kids while the other parent went to the uffizi gallery. as it turns out, that place is actually pretty hellish for one parent with two rowdy boys and two babies trying to nap in a two-buggies-attached-together contraption. after taking my hilly, bumpy, exhausting shift, i suggested ian forgo exploring the gardens and just let the children run wild, haha. quite a cool place, just not quite right for our purposes.

i felt like i was floating as i walked across the ponte vecchio to the uffizi gallery. and then i loved taking in all that spectacular art. i always love seeing paintings of the annunciation, since i have an angel gabriel of my own, and of course it was fun to see the birth of venus. my favourite bit was a wall of painted embodiments of virtues by botticelli. charity is breastfeeding a baby and holding a flame of fire – love that.

i also really loved this view from the upstairs galleries!

i met back up with ian and the kids and we went to see the duomo. gosh, that building is so, so spectacular! we found a little carousel a block away and the boys loved it! eve wanted nothing to do with it, haha.

the next day, we went to see michelangelo’s david! the babies slept right through their chance to see the world’s most famous statue! but the big boys thought it was pretty cool. it is truly magnificent.

then back to the piazza del duomo for lunch, and across the ponte vecchio to get some amazing gelato. eve didn’t quite grasp that that stuff on top of those cones was a really, really good treat, until we practically forced a bite into her mouth. instantly, she understood. yuummmm.

i got to take moses and gabriel to the piazzale michelangelo while ian worked and the babies napped. it was a trek of a walk, but we had a great time checking out the views and then winding through the gardens on our way back down the hill. and yes, there was more gelato 🙂

after the kids were in bed that night, i got to go out on my own in florence. that was such a treat. i happened upon the basilica of santa maria novella on the way to the duomo and then ate some amazing pizza right in the duomo piazza as the clouds turned pink and street performers came out to play. it was so nice to enjoy a yummy italian meal without frantically (literally) feeding four other mouths! i got a little lost on the walk back to the flat and tried to nestle florence into my veins to stay for a while. 

we decided we had to stop at pisa on our long drive back to zurich. that place is a zoo of tourists trying to take a photo that looks like they are holding up the leaning tower. haha. we had to do it. and we had a good last pizza meal and a good little final italian adventure.

i wish i had a good photo of the state of the car when we returned it after all those hours on the road through switzerland and italy with four little kids. it was truly a sight to be seen. but we said sayonara to that mess and, after staying overnight at a zurich airport hotel, got on an airplane to london!