Our 9.30pm flight from Rome to Abu Dhabi was scheduled to be 6 hours but took less than 5. I was hoping that boded well for the second flight to Sydney, but that is over 13 hours 😩

Abu Dhabi airport is set out very well, but everything is very expensive! They still have their Christmas tree up, the last one we will see for another 10 months I guess.

We have all had a wonderful time and seen, experienced and learnt a lot, The kids are going home to create a Google form so we can collect the statistics on everyone’s favourite things: food, accommodation, tour guide, top three cities etc. I’m sure there will be some graphs to add in to this blog once they have collated the data! 😂

It has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend so much time together in such a large group, and thankfully we have done it well with few issues. We doubt we will be able to get all the kids to take such a long period of time off all at once again now they are moving into tertiary study and full-time work, so we do appreciate what we have managed to achieve. For those of us a little closer to retirement though, we are dreaming about a few more trips…..

While waiting at Frankfurt airport however many days/weeks ago (and after our Paris experience of missing some attractions by not booking in advance), Luke decided he did not want to miss a tour of the Colosseum so booked us all in for an 8.45am tour on the final day of our trip.

Nine years ago our trip to Europe started in Rome (via Hong Kong) in early December on a day that was 0 degrees. Today is our last day of this trip to Europe, and in mid-January we are finishing our trip on a day that is 0 degrees!

The bus to the Colosseum was a shorter trip from our apartment than yesterday, so we were there in plenty of time, but it took some nagging to ensure some of the kids understood they had to be fully packed and out of their rooms by 8am. Check out here is 10am, but because the apartment didn’t have anyone coming in after us, they were happy for us to leave our luggage there for the day, thankfully.

Our tour guide was an archaeologist who talked and taught us about the ruins of and the history of Rome for three and a half hours. She took us through the Colosseum and Roman Forum, and when she finished with us after 12pm we climbed Palantine Hill for an even better view of the Roman Forum and surrounds. (I have been taking ibuprofen for two days to get ready for today, and have a physio appointment booked in for early next week, so I was ready for lots of stairs and lots of walking today!)

From there it was definitely lunchtime, so we wandered some streets looking for a restaurant for our last lunch all together on tour. Ross and Luke don’t like to be hassled by the men on the door though, so a lot of potential lunch spots were rejected (including one where they yelled at us they would give us free champagne!) before we came across a pizzeria where we could examine the menu outside in peace.

The owner didn’t seem to speak English, so once he greeted us he left us to his sidekick who was a lot like Manuel in Fawlty Towers. The majority had pizzas but I had my last Italian pasta, a tortellini Alfredo. We then walked in the direction of our apartment promising to find gelato for dessert along the way (our LAST Italian gelato on tour….).

We all enjoyed some scoops from The Gelatist, a franchise gelato shop we have seen several times, and then walked on to our apartment. We retrieved and rolled our luggage in single file (for the LAST time…) to the train station, where we had our first real problem of the trip!

Ross, Luke and Tom went to buy tickets, paid for 9 (the maximum available in one transaction), and only 4 tickets printed from the machine. Ross then lined up for ages to ask how we rectify the situation (the train they had booked had gone in the meantime), only to be told once he reached the front of the queue that he had to go the ticket office. I went with him to play the card of needing help because we were running out of time to get to the airport on time, only to find another line similar to the RMS at home – we were given a ticket and told the wait would be 20+ minutes and they couldn’t do anything else. We did learn we could apply for a refund online, so we left the line, bought 11 tickets on the Leonardo express (one stop to the airport on a fast train), and headed to the airport.

I must remember to apply for that refund asap – it was $AUD119 for the first lot of tickets! We are not sick of each other yet and feel we could keep travelling, but we also are looking forward to seeing our people and our puppies! 😊

Since Jarrod left us, we have had to “adult” more without him here to organise us and get us to transport/activities/find somewhere for a meal etc. We have really felt his absence! And have had to take turns stepping up.

Today it was my turn to take everyone to see some of the Rome attractions. For our first stop, I got everyone on a bus to Vatican City. We had to go the main train station to buy a 24-hour pass which allowed free transport for that time period once it was activated.

Our first hiccup of the day was that none of us could work out how to activate the card, and the machine swallowed Ross’ card. So he travelled around with the payment receipt and a photo of the ticket machine and bus in case inspectors joined us, rather than pay another 7.50 euro to replace a card he hadn’t even had a chance to use.

Once at Vatican City, we immediately lined up for St Peter’s Basilica, which is always free to enter. The Pope is in residence and seeing crowds tomorrow, so there were not too many people there today and the line was very short.

It is the largest church in the world and very impressive. When we left there we decided not to line up for the Sistine Chapel as we have done that before, and are trying to manage the experience for all and balance the museums and churches with other attractions, and food (for the boys)!

We walked through Vatican City (which is the smallest country in the world, with a 2024 population of 517 people), and back to Italy across the bridge over the Tiber River. We then caught a bus up to the Trevi Fountain. While the others lined up to walk down to the water’s edge, Ross and I walked up the street to find the apartment we stayed in last time we were here. We also went in search of the coffee shop we frequented twice a day, but it has been replaced by a gelato shop!

From there the kids were keen on getting McDonalds down the alleyway. Ross couldn’t stand that idea, so he walked ahead to the Pantheon and found a delicious panini while he waited for us to meet him. After visiting the Pantheon, we then made our way to Piazza Navona, which was a lot emptier than I remember, of shops and people.

Ross took over as tour guide and took us to a couple of churches, including the Basilica of Santa Maria, which had MANY steps to climb but resulted in of course an impressive church, but also views out over the Roman Forum and Colosseum which we will be exploring tomorrow.

We then caught a bus back to our apartment, via a gelato shop for Abi, Sam, Belle and I. We had missed out on gelato after lunch when everyone else had it, because we were in the ridiculously long queue for the one toilet at McDonalds (single-handedly my worst experience of the whole trip….).

We enjoyed our dinner so much at the local restaurant last night that we returned there for dinner tonight – our last dinner all together on tour! 😢 An early night was then recommended, because tomorrow is our last day and a very big day with an early start.

We were quite sad to leave our lovely apartment and the town of Florence this morning. And for the first time, it was not a smooth departure! We jumped in the 23A bus when we should have waited for the 23B bus coming a minute later, even though Google just told us to get the 23 bus 🤷‍♀️.

So we took a scenic tour of some streets before we decided the bus was unlikely to loop back and we should get off and catch another one. Inspectors got on the second bus and wanted to check we had tapped on too, the first time we have had bus tickets checked.

Once at the train station, we went in different directions to grab some lunch for the trip, and were ready to board at 11.28am. Boarding trains in Italy is a bit chaotic as they do not announce the platform until up to 10 minutes beforehand, and there is not enough luggage space for the suitcases people bring.

Interestingly, officials appeared while we standing in a group waiting to find out the platform and asked to see our passports. As they scanned them into their handheld machine, they commented that they were last checked in Bordeaux, which we realised was true but also interesting that they knew that! Even with a flight from Zurich to Venice, only our boarding passes downloaded from our online check-in were needed.

Rome’s train station is close to our apartment, so we arrived earlier than our scheduled check-in time. Beck and I sat with all the luggage in the foyer while the cleaners finished cleaning, and sent the others off to explore and find a supermarket. Once they returned we unpacked and settled in for the afternoon (only to find out later that they had found a gelato shop for afternoon tea that served them FIVE scoops of gelato!!!!!).

Beck found us a restaurant close by for dinner, which had great reviews and very large and inexpensive meals. And while they didn’t hurry us away, they were keen to reset the table for people waiting as we finished.

So apart from gelato and a pasta dish for dinner, I don’t feel like we are in Rome yet as I haven’t seen much of it at all. As a travel day, we also didn’t take photos – I’m sure tomorrow will make up for it though!

Luke booked us a two hour walking tour for this morning, so our first destination of today was the meeting spot for that at 9.45am. We met our lovely guide, Aurora, at Piazza San Lorenzo (the church there was built in 1296 AD), and learnt a lot about the history of Florence and the influential Medici family (who were traders, bankers, politicians, cardinals and then local royalty, but never doctors!).

Aurora took us to all the main sites over the next two hours, including the Duomo, Dante’s home, medieval towers, the Statue of David, Uffizi Galleries, and ended at Ponte Vecchio. She taught us a lot!

Aurora left us with a pdf of her restaurant and gelato recommendations, so we went to the top restaurant on her list for lunch. We arrived there just as they were opening so found a table easily, but there were queues waiting to enter as we left. We all enjoyed our lunch which started with hot focaccia, followed by bread called fettunta, with a main course of pasta for some and beef stew for others.

The wind was whipping up by then, so we felt we should keep going before the sun went down and it got too cold. We crossed Ponte Vecchio and walked past Pitti Palace through some local streets to get to an entrance of the Boboli gardens (which was not flat but quite hilly!). The walk through the gardens took us to an exit up the hill from Ponte Alle Grazie, which is the bridge closest to our apartment we can see out our windows.

Aurora had recommended we also visit Piazza Santa Croce if we had time, where there is a church with the tombs of Michelangelo, Machiavelli and others. We decided to check it out before heading back to the apartment. The kids decided they had seen enough museums and churches and artwork, so Ross and I took them for gelato while Luke, Beck and Tom checked out the church.

Once back at our apartment we were all too comfortable to go out again, so Ross and Luke went for a walk and picked up some takeaway pizza for dinner.

The boys’ room here is so big that Sam, Belle and Oli found they could make a space large enough to play soccer 😳 while Tom and Abi helped Cooper enrol in uni, and the rest of us relaxed and compared the number of steps we have walked today (16k for me, and I tapped out earlier than others because of my swollen left ankle).

We have enjoyed our short time in Florence and wish we had planned more days here. If Belle continues with her current plan of studying art or architecture, I’m trying to convince her to fit in a study tour here so we have an excuse to come back!

We said our goodbyes to Venice at 10.45am after a leisurely breakfast and coffee and a final walk around Rialto Bridge, and caught a water taxi to Venezia S.Lucia, the train station.

A power failure in Milan meant some trains were delayed up to 90 minutes, but ours was only 5 minutes late due to an unrelated delay. It was a bit stressful because while we were there in plenty of time, the platform number was only advertised ten minutes before we had to board, but the two hour trip went smoothly.

Once at Florence’s train station, we google mapped our way to the right bus and caught it to our accommodation. As we approach each new place on public transport, it is in the back of my mind and worrying to work out how we are going to get all 11 (or 14) people and their suitcases off quickly and efficiently before the doors close and they are stuck going to the next incorrect destination. I heard Ross mention the next stop was ours on the bus today and got myself and my suitcase off promptly so as not to hold anyone up, only to turn around and find that Ross had followed me off so I wouldn’t be stuck alone, but everyone else continued on to the actual next stop. And to think I was so proud of myself for being so agile! 😂

The correct stop was only around the corner so we caught up with the others as they were entering the apartment that Abi found for us here. It is facing the Arno River with beautiful views from our fourth floor apartment. While we have had some nice hotel rooms, it is lovely to be back all together in an apartment and able to share living space.

Beck and I made good use of the washing machine and dryer while the others settled in, and Ross, Luke, Abi and Tom went in search of a supermarket and found one directly across the road.

Ross, Luke and Tom then went in search of a restaurant for dinner, booked us into one for 7pm and celebrated with a beer at the Scottish pub a few doors down from us. Dinner at Trattoria da Benvenuto was a success, and we then went in search of gelato for dessert.

We found one that had excellent reviews, but while it came close, I don’t think it quite matched everyone’s favourite gelato in Venice. It was only a few degrees outside when we left the restaurant so I opted for a hot chocolate instead, but the gelato place’s version of a hot chocolate was to give me a cup of hot fudge sauce 😩

The area we are staying in seems very good and pretty lit up at night. It is very near the Palazzo Vecchio and Uffizi Galleries. As I write this at 11pm though, I can hear some chatter on the street and several fast cars race by, so it may be pretty but not a quiet area!

Breakfast is included in this hotel as well, which I appreciate as it is one less meal we have to source. It is also a good learning experience in how other cultures eat breakfast – Salzburg had a lot of meats and cheeses, Lucerne included churros with chocolate dipping sauce, and Venice has many cake varieties on offer. Thankfully they have all also done juices and cereals, or I would not have got my money’s worth.

We met in the foyer after breakfast at 9.30am and walked to St Mark’s Square. We paid 3 euro each to go inside the Basilica of St Mark, which was impressive but disappointing that once inside there were other sections and a museum you had to pay more euro to enter. We had hoped to climb the bell tower outside as well, but it is closed for renovation until the end of February. St Mark’s Square was much emptier than I have ever seen it before, eerily quiet compared to the streets and laneways around it.

From there we split up. Tom, Abi and Sam joined my adventure to find the Library of High Water (with gondolas inside ready to fill with books during floods), while the others all walked to the Basilica della Salute.

From there we all wandered back to the hotel, picking up some pizza slices for lunch on our way.

We then walked back up to St Mark’s Square to find the oldest coffee shop in Italy, Caffe Florian. It was also closed for renovation! Everyone except Ross and Luke were keen to take a gondola ride, so we found two in a smaller canal and enjoyed a half hour ride (for 90 euro!).

We then decided to split up into smaller groups to shop. We had planned to watch a glass blowing demonstration, but not all the kids were excited about it, and most of the places to do that activity were closed for the month of January. We did find one open on the island of Murano – a 25 minute demonstration in the Glass Cathedral for 10 euro each, but given we would have to add the cost and time of transportation to Murano and it was not high on anyone’s list to do, we decided to buy Murano glass on the island of Venice instead.

Jess found a jewellery shop where you could design your own bracelet, so she, Abi and Belle did that together. Beck and Tom sampled several limoncellos, and I visited half a dozen Murano glass stores before I made a decision about what to buy.

The boys had become bored with all the shopping by this point, so returned to the hotel while Luke and Ross went exploring further, walking as far as Scuola Grande Di San Rocco. Over dinner they realised they achieved over 25,000 steps today, their most in one day on this trip!

Once we all arrived back at the hotel, we met in the lobby at 6pm (which meant waking Tom and Cooper from their slumber) to find somewhere for dinner. I had found a reasonably priced restaurant in the morning which reminded me very much of one we ate in when here 9 years ago.

When we reached Trattoria da Gigi, Ross and Luke were not so keen on it because they felt harassed by the doorman (which happens in most of the restaurants here), but the doorman at the restaurant next door convinced them to eat there. He promised no service tax (which has regularly been 12.5% on top of our restaurant bills), but did provide very good service with as much bread as we could eat and a welcome juice or Prosecco. We were a little nervous because the restaurant was empty when we arrived, but by the time we finished our meals it was full and he was true to his word.

The meals were more filling than last night’s, but everyone kept some room available for gelato scoops from Suso further down the same street. Ross said it is the best gelato he has ever had (and Cooper and Tom went back for seconds – or thirds? – after the rest of us turned in for the night).

Beck accompanied me back to the restaurant after dessert while the others returned to the hotel, because next door was another Murano glass shop I needed to explore! I now have some small dishes of Murano glass to make up for missing Murano 😉

After another delicious breakfast at Hotel Cascada, we checked out and headed up to the train station. As a parting gift, the hotel handed us all a bottle of water to send us on our way with, just another example of their excellent customer service.

We caught a train to Zurich airport, which went very smoothly. We are all over the right platform and carriage and seats etc by now! Our flight to Venice was delayed leaving by 15 minutes but arrived at the scheduled arrival time. It was a much rougher flight than the others – we felt like the trainee we saw in the cockpit had been allowed to steer 😬 – but over in less than an hour.

From Venice airport we took a bus to the edge of the island and then a water taxi to the Rialto Bridge, which we had to walk up and over with all our bags to get to our hotel on the other side. The hotel is very in keeping with the Venetian theme, but is very small!

After all our different forms of transport today, it was almost 5pm by the time we completed check-in and decided to explore. We hadn’t had lunch so everyone was quite hungry and ready for an early dinner.

We made it in to St Mark’s Square and several side streets, but then returned to the restaurant next to our hotel for dinner, Riva Rialto. Most of us were happy with our pizza or pasta meals, but Ross’ was quite small so he went in search of a slice of pizza after dinner.

The rest of us crossed Rialto Bridge again to get some gelato for dessert – Beck has had gelato on her must-do list since we arrived in Europe. We are all now back in our rooms at 8pm thinking we will have an early night just because there is not much else to do! There is nowhere here to congregate as a group – we are missing our Baroque room in Salzburg! We are though looking forward to exploring Venice all day tomorrow.

It was sprinkling as we headed out today, making us thankful we had done Mt Pilatus in yesterday’s clear weather. Today we headed to a museum/ planetarium to do the “Swiss Chocolate Adventure”. This was actually a 30 minute ride with an audio guide that took us through the history of chocolate in Switzerland and how the process is conducted.

We didn’t get off to a great start as Luke, Beck, Ollie and I became stuck in the lift at the start, and the others were all ushered through a different entrance which made the alarm go off on their individual audio guides, rendering them useless. But we all made it through, learning some facts about chocolate on the way, and getting free Lindt samples as well.

On our first day exploring we had noticed a building up high on a hill with a board that said ‘Gutsch’. After collecting some Lindt samples, we boarded a bus back towards the town and went to the base of that hill. Luke had investigated and discovered a funicular that went to the top, where the Gutsch was a chateau/hotel accommodation.

We rode the funicular up in two groups and looked briefly out from the lookout area at the top. Ross and Luke had found a hike to do, so we headed up a nature path on a 10 minute walk. Twenty minutes later and after consultation of Google maps, we rejoined civilisation and found a bus route to return to the town centre.

Once there we decided to split up for the afternoon. Luke was keen on a ferry ride on the lake, some of the kids wanted to have lunch and return to the hotel, and Sam after much research had decided which Swiss Army knife he wanted to buy. So Ross, Belle and I went souvenir shopping with Sam, and stopped in a cafe in the Old Town for a light lunch.

We then returned to the hotel, where the kids played games for the afternoon, and Ross and Luke went to try out a local brewery. I read my first novel of the year, but part way through it decided if I was going to sit and read, I should probably be doing so in a laundromat! There is only one in the town, so Beck and I did another load of washing there (it might be my new favourite in terms of ambience, but is also the most expensive we’ve used yet).

It took a little longer than the scheduled times suggested, so we folded our clothes and ubered with them straight to the restaurant we had booked for dinner where the others were all waiting for us, Wolf Burger and Steak Bar. Then it was home to pack again as we head to our final country tomorrow!

This hotel’s (very official) Jones rating went up another notch at breakfast. Cereals, juices, yoghurts, meats, cheeses, fruits, danishes, churros with chocolate dipping sauce, smoked salmon, eggs made to order……. We told the kids to eat well at their included buffet breakfast because of the cost of food here, and they did!

We then rolled ourselves out of the hotel and on a public bus to Kriens, to buy tickets for Mt Pilatus. There is a discounted price for groups of 10 or more, so Luke wouldn’t let me tap out of this excursion because he needed me included for the extra discount!

I do not have fond memories of the cable car ride when we were here 9 years ago, and it not being open until 11am today because of high winds didn’t fill me with confidence. However….the gondolas started up at 10.40am, and we were safely 2,312m higher up at Mount Pilatus soon after 11am.

The reality of the beauty of our surroundings dispelled my fears. We had a lovely time up on the mountain, watched a short film about its history, had a couple of snow fights, enjoyed a delicious hot chocolate, and then descended in the cable car and then gondolas back down.

We stopped along the way at a midpoint gondola stop where the kids had seen a playground covered in snow. They enjoyed some time there on the flying fox, swings and other equipment, before the gondola returned us safely to the street level.

We then all caught a local bus back to the Old Town for some shopping. Lunch was an apple we had picked up from the hotel foyer on our way out this morning. Everyone broke off into smaller groups to shop and head home when ready. I enjoyed an afternoon nap while Ross watched a Trump press conference on CNN (oh how the tables have turned!).

We met in the foyer to head out for dinner. We had met some Aussies from Adelaide at Dachau, who had just arrived from Lucerne so recommended a restaurant for dinner to us. They couldn’t fit us in so we’ve booked there for tomorrow night.

As Abi researched where to eat on our first day here, she had an alternative ready for us for tonight – Jeff’s Burgers. Everyone had a great meal except for Luke who ordered nachos, so he went to McDonalds with some of the kids while the rest of us walked home. Today was voted one of the best of the trip so far by most of our group.