March 27-28

Our fourth family trip to Europe got a very relaxing start, as we booked our flight to Italy on a Monday, which gave us a full weekend (and Monday morning) to ease into our travel. Besides the busy itinerary itself, the most unique characteristic of our trip was the decision to use hiking backpacks instead of suitcases – primarily so we could hike part of the Italian coast. As I start these summaries, we’re on a train to Milan, following our 5-hour hike. More later, just a spoiler alert!

So with three hiking backpacks that we purchased from REI in January, we had to pack everything for the trip into packing cubes that would allow us to carry them for more convenience, not less. Luckily, after last year’s bike trip to Netherlands, we know how to pack light!

After preparing our house and dropping Maggie off at her kennel, our flight from Chicago to Rome was smooth and uneventful (unlike the somewhat scary Uber ride to O’Hare), and we arrived in Rome Tuesday morning. We strapped on our backpacks after customs and took the 30 min train to Roma Termini station, where we dropped off all backpacks at a luggage storage place at the station.

From there, we did a quick two-hike around Rome with the extra time before our scheduled train to Florence. We headed directly to the Colosseum, walked by some Roman ruins, checked out Trevi fountain, and got some squares of pizza. Our first impression of Rome wasn’t the best, experiencing more congestion along narrow, dirty streets, but we knew we were there on a busy weekday and were probably spoiled a bit by our prior family trips to Europe.

We arrived in Florence and hiked with our backpacks to our hotel, which was directly adjacent to the Duomo with a window and bedroom loft overlooking the Florence bell tower! The location was truly amazing. We dropped our stuff and explored the city, including the bridge with shops, and we had our first of many Italian meals at a tiny restaurant with a very nice host-waiter. Dan had pasta with mushroom sauce, Noah had pasta with tomato sauce, and Tammy forgot what she had.