ibdsupport

Current Mood: blogging & relaxing

Yes we arrived back in England yesterday morning at around 12.30am. Finally reached home about three hours later after chaotic scenes at the airport. Staff all very overstretched with all the new and additional checks which now have to be done, or rather had to be done as I see the terror threat has been downgraded to code orange. Unfortunately we were due home the day the terror alert was announced and only found out a few hours before our flight was due that it had been cancelled. Nobody from Ryanair was available to advise us on what to do but the airport ticket office were able to book us on the next available flight which was 10.30am on Saturday night, 48 hours after our original booking. They also found a hotel for us not far from the airport. We spent the next two days twiddling our thumbs as the weather was appalling and we had no money to do anything!

Aside from all that, we did have a wonderful time in Italy. We spent two days in Venice, a stunning and spectacular city. Three days in historic Bologna (our favourite) which is much less touristy and has a fantastic atmosphere about it. The shops and the food were to die for! Then five days in beautiful Florence which I’m sure is a much better place to see any other month but August! It was absolutely packed so rather than spend too much time in the centre, we took the train out to the Tuscan villages and towns which were much quieter.

To be fair we did choose to go to the touristy places so we were expecting everywhere to be very busy. Our absolute intention was to see the other side of Italy. So at every opportunity we went away from the centres and explored the little alleyways which led to less well visited trattorias, caffes, markets etc. We wanted to eat the food Italians eat, not the food the Italians think we want to eat!

I have lots of photos to share but will just post one as a starter. A view of Florence seen from a town high up in the Tuscan hills.