The Terrific3 travel blog

We all slept amazing last night and were refreshed and ready to go this morning. I slept over 9.5 hours but honestly could’ve slept longer. I’m getting the best and deepest sleep of my life here. Not waking up a million times like I usually do. No work stress or life stress or what are the next 4 years going go look like political stress. Amazing to be away from all of that!



I took the kids the scenic route to the Academia museum today, stopping by the Arno river. I plan to run there tomorrow morning. It’s so close to our apartment in Santa Croce, which is in a great location.

We walked over to the museum and got right in with our timed tickets, a few minutes early, no line or wait. The kids did great actually looking at the art but of course we were all excited about David.

And then suddenly, there he was, glancing at us from across the room, his muscles flexed, his veins prominent, his confidence gleaming, taking my breath away. We were all so taken by him that we looked at the statue for 30 minutes. I pulled up Wikipedia for the kids and we learned about how the marble was constructed, how large the statue is, how Michelangelo used only certain tools, refining it for 3 years. I love that my kids are interested and stimulated by history. We must all learn history, especially if we want to repeat the things worth repeating and vice versa. This is especially relevant in these rocky times in the US.

After the museum, we wanted to walk to Boboli gardens but made lots of stops to shop, get gelato, go to Lego store, get lunch (at this lovely cafe where it was only Italian clientele), get gelato again at the Michelin star rated gelato place next door.

This ended up being good timing as we then met my lovely friend Sheila (also traveling from Portland, and excited to be featured in my blog) at Boboli gardens.

The Boboli gardens were gorgeous, with great views over the city, and autumn leaves, and they reminded me of the green space and nature we enjoy in Portland. Do you like my new pink Italian coat? The kids call it my bathrobe 😂. We then toured Pitti Palace. It was close to 3pm and we had been out since 8am so Z was really looking to come back and have downtime and it’s another place full of art. So we spent 30 minutes there and wandered home in the drizzling rain, again marveling at all the people with their umbrellas.

Downtime and snacks at home (I made my kids eat their veggie allotment of the day as we don’t get that in the restaurants), screen time, showers, washing clothes (though apparently I put our dirty clothes in the dryer for 2 hours instead of the washer without realizing—ah the things you learn abroad!)

Our evening was spent at my favorite Florentine restaurant from my last visit 14 years ago. L’osteria do Giovanni. Unfortunately nicer restaurants don’t open until 7 and that is a late dinner for us. But the boys did great and managed to behave in a manner appropriate to a nice restaurant through most of the meal. And it was amazing!!! we ran into the family we’ve seen the past 4 days again so had to take a group photo.

In case you think I’m having a perfect vacation, on the way back, the boys were a handful, tired and happy, with Z running across the street in front of a bus, and both boys twirling their umbrellas everywhere and jumping all around, which continued into coming home and trying to get everyone settled after bed. Honestly, that’s why I keep them on a strict schedule because it almost negates the fun of the evening to have to deal with that.

Either way, off to sleep now and looking forward to a peaceful sans kids run by the Arno river tomorrow morning! I’ll leave you with a few nighttime Florence photos.