Florence & Forty

We had a very pleasant visit from Nick & Jamie Drew on Thursday, it was nice to catch up with them both and the girls too. Luckily it was quite a nice day so we were able to sit outside and enjoy a coffee and slice of cake while sitting in the sun at our newly repaired patio table (well done Nick for an excellent repair job.)
After showing off last week about my cake I baked another one on Friday for my mum & dad (a special request from mum) who were coming up to look after Tom & Lily while Nick and I jetted off to Florence for a few days. It seemed like the least I could do.
So on Saturday we set off to Florence
for a few days. What a beautiful place and fantastic food. On Sunday we visited the Uffizi and the Galleria de Academia and climbed the bell tower attached to the Cathedral - all 414 steps. What a view from the top though. Monday saw us go on a very long walk and see some more beautiful architecture, sculpture and views before we started to stand in line to climb to the top of the Duomo. 2 hours later we started the climb of 463 steps to the top. Boy, was it worth it, the fresco is amazing and the view from the top is breathtaking. Unfortunately, as we had queued for 2 hours we had no more time left to enjoy Florence and it was a mad dash to the train station (did I mention we had to climb the 463 steps of the Duomo with our bags? ) Our plan had been to have a late check out of the hotel so we could do the climb then go back and get showered and check out in a leisurely fashion, but alas, the queue was so huge Nick had to go and check us out of the hotel while I carried on queuing and inching forward slowly but surely towards the entrance. We made it to the station with minutes to spare and caught our train back to Bologna. After a quick walk around Bologna we headed out to the airport hotel for a shower and some dinner before hitting the sack for a well earned rest.

So on my birthday we were up around 5 30 am to get some breakfast and get to the airport for the flight home.

After driving through some awful rain and flooding we got back to two excited children desperate to wish me a happy birthday. There was a balloon, cards, cake, a delightful hat that Lily had made and a fabulous wooden puzzle that Tom had made me. Oh, yes and champagne chilling in the fridge. As I was a bit knackered I had a Pot Noodle for dinner and Nick ate some leftovers, so I had champagne and pot noodle to celebrate turning 40. Classy.