After a fairly hectic six weeks at my new job in Fleet, Hampshire, it was time for Tiger and I to head off on our Christmas getaway to Italy (and later to the Czech Republic). As Tiger has moved schools from independent to state over the summer, and I had booked our break to coincide with her old term dates rather than her new ones, she rather regretfully had to miss the final week of school. Nevertheless, I still managed to see her Nativity dress rehearsal before we headed off.
Our flight was from London Gatwick South Terminal to Florence with Vueling, who are part of the International Airlines Group, and a Spanish low cost carrier. We had booked hand luggage only and the total cost of the flights were just 139.89 Euro (£116). I trialled out a new way of getting to Gatwick in a bid to save money on the parking by getting a JustPark driveway for £26.98 booking right next to Horley Railway Station from where Gatwick was just a 3 minute and £5 train ride away and this worked perfectly. It was also quite a lot cheaper than parking in Horley Railway Station itself which is £10.40 for 24 hours.
As we only had hand luggage we were straight through security to the gate. Flying with Vueling is a little strange as they code share with Iberia and British Airways, but you are in the 'cheap' queue with all the bargain hunters! Still, no problem with the flight during which Tiger decorated every single sick bag making puppets. Upon landing we took a taxi (30 euro) to the Wyndham Garden Hotel which was £66 and extremely close to the airport.
The next morning we enjoyed our hotel breakfast (12 euro adult, 6 euro child), the absolute highlight of which was the automatic pancake making machine!
We then followed great directions from the hotel to walk to Guidoni tram station (T2) line which took us all the way to the central station in Florence (Florence Santa Novella) I'd booked my train tickets on www.trainline.com so we had a little time to kill, so headed to McDonalds just outside the station for the most amazing selection of pastries and hot chocolate before our train to Pisa - very European, nice and cheap and recommended!
The fastest train to Pisa is 1 hour and we took the one which departed 12:28 and arrived at 13:28. It was a double decker so we (obviously!) sat on the top deck.
At the other end we walked about 20 minutes to our hotel, Time Out (77 euro, £65). We accessed via codes and had a shared bathroom but all was just perfect as we were super central to everything. Pretty much as soon as we had dropped the bags we were to the central square to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Duomo and Battistero di San Giovanni. Tiger was too young to climb the tower and I was not convinced she would really enjoy going inside any of the buildings so we just walked around, to the small market.
We had dinner at Ristorante Pizzeria Novecento which was around the corner from our hotel. We had a simple dinner of pizza, spaghetti, orange juice, beer and a huge bowl of chocolate ice cream for 38 euro (£35). We also picked up a few snacks from the Carrefour supermarket.
The next morning we were up early and walking back to the train station by 07:30! It was actually quite a fresh, frosty walk where we could see some lovely colours of the sun coming up. It was also the day of the Pisa Marathon, which we deduced quite quickly as hundreds of runners were walking towards central Pisa as we were going in the other direction!
We were back on the 08:32 train to Florence and at the other end we walked from Florence Santa Novella train station to our next stop, which was a pasta and wine cookery class, booked on Viator for a total bargain price of £41.93 (the adult price is £38.48). and is also here on Tripadvisor. The class was actually billed as "with unlimited wine" but as it started at 10:00 I only had one glass! The class was 3 hours at Restaurant Cucina in Torre and whilst Tiger was the only child there in a class of around 12, she was very engaged. We learned how to make three types of pasta with Chef Eno, and then ate it all so that was lunch sorted! We loved it and can highly recommend this!
We then walked to the Duomo and found our hotel, Hotel Dali, (232 euro, £194 for 3 nights). The hotel was on the second floor of an old building just a stone's throw away from the Duomo and had everything we needed. The bathroom was shared, we had a huge fridge located just outside our room and coffee on Reception. There were stairs but also an old fashioned (rickety!) lift to get to the second floor so during the time we were there, we got used to me traveling by lift, and Tiger racing me up/down the stairs! There was also a mini market across the road which was helpful for milk and prosecco.
For our first evening in Florence, we booked our Uffizi Gallery tickets via City Florence Tours on the Headout app. We had to pick the tickets up from their office around the corner but then were straight in via Entrance Gate 1, which seems to be the one for pre-booked slots. The price on the tickets themselves were 12 euro plus 4 euro in fees, whilst I paid 19 euro so a slight markup. I have no idea if this was a good deal, but everything worked perfectly. Whilst we did enjoy the Uffizi, it was perhaps less engaging for an almost 6 year old and we definitely only scratched the surface by whizzing around in and hour and a half.
We ate dinner at Ristorante Lo Scudo which was fine, but fairly unremarkable really but nice for two plates of spaghetti, a beer and an orange juice for 39.50 euro (£33) and we followed it off with ice cream from the gelateria for £4 each.
On Monday 16th December, we got up for a photo shoot which was combined with another couple from 09:30 to 11:00. I booked this via Airbnb experiences for £74.80 and, although it was a little interesting at times sharing our slot with a very glamourous Italian couple (!) this definitely kept the costs down and we got an amazing 40 edited photos!
Later in the afternoon we had a really great 3 hour Airbnb experience, just the two of us, with a Polaroid tour with teacher Francesco (£102 for 1 adult, 1 child with an early bird discount). He was so good with Tiger and we really enjoyed a fabulous walk around Florence looking at the architecture of Florence and capturing it in Polaroid photos. We started at Piazza Santa Maria Novella, went via the Piazza del Duomo, the Piazza della Repubblica (which had a carousel in it), Piazza della Signoria with its fountains, the Pontevecchio bridge from a secret balcony and finished with gelateria (in freezing temperatures!) at Santa Spirito Square. We each had 8 polaroid photos as souvenirs we had taken and loved the whole experience.
On the walk back 'home' the hotel we stopped and had a typical but very tasty meal at Osteria del Proconsala. Everywhere I was going for cheap options but this actually seemed to be one of our cheapest meals. We had spaghetti, marguerita pizza, a beer and orange juice for 34.80 euro. Here, though, tips were not included so I gave them 40 euro.
On our last full day in Florence, Tuesday 17th December, we had a truly outstanding experience. The day started early ish as we had to walk to a meeting point at Piazza della Calza in Florence at Bar d'angolo which was about a 30 minute walk. It was terribly beautiful though as it was early morning with fantastic light so we stopped a few times to take photos. We were picked up at 09:30 but Daniele, together with a single lady from Korea and a Brit/US couple. It was a short 30 minute drive to Daniele's family farm which has been in his family for 12 generations, in the Chianti hills.
When we arrived, we met another US couple who had their own car so met us there. We had a truffle lesson from Daniela, his wife from an old book and then all went out in their woods hunting for truffles with their adorable three dogs. We found so many, a whole bagful, worth thousands of Euros! It was a beautiful, crisp day and it was an amazing fun walk. We went in a circle, via the vineyards on the way back before sitting down for what was absolutely the most amazing meal of our trip with truffles, truffle oil, and wine! Tiger was actually very good and let me enjoy the meal with the adults (thank you iPad!). Far later than I was expecting (which was a great thing!) we were dropped back to Florence and walked home. I was full of wine and food and, helped by the night drawing in, put Tiger to bed very early (she was fully asleep for 17:40!) but it also meant that we both had lots of sleep as we were picked up next morning for our flight home at 5am! I had debated with myself a little over booking this tour as it was 'expensive' £231 (£132 for me, £99 child price) but we all said it was worth absolutely every penny!
Our flight back to Luton was at 08:20 on 18th December and we had a 05:00 taxi pick up (taxi was, I think, 35 euros) so I cheekily got Tiger ready for bed as soon as we got back to our room (it was pitch black outside, she was tired out, and she didn't know the difference!) and she was asleep for 17:30. It was strange journeying through Florence in dark but a very pleasant flight back.
Once back on UK soil, we went home, chucked all the washing in the machine, had a nail appointment, headed to Luton for the night in our favourite Luton Town Premier Inn, caught 'Paddington in Peru' at the Luton cinema and were back at the airport for our next leg of the trip, to Prague!
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