Junketing

J and R's birthdays have been celebrated in style...big M had a conference in Firenze so we spent R's birthday there and then headed down to the beach at Tirrenia near Pisa for J's birthday. An early start to get to Stansted, as usual then huge queues to check in and get through security. Got to the gate with plenty of time, then they changed the gate on us, so traipse off to the new gate. Then just before the boarding time they changed it again, so stampede down to the new gate. With no seat allocations everyone wants to be first on, so it is very hard for the priority boarding people (small people, elderly or disabled) to force throught the press to the gate to get on first. The airline staff kept ordering people away from the gate - quite funny to watch.
We decided to catch a train to Firenze from Pisa - there is a station in the airport so it is pretty easy - so bought tickets and rushed to the platform...our train was standing there already and the clock showed it was leaving immediately so we ran with luggage and kids and threw ourselves in to the first empty compartment. After a while it became apparent that the clocks were in fact showing the departure time rather than the current time and we had quite a wait! The hotel was only 200m from the station at the other end, very convenient and extremely luxurious. M was promoted to Professor by the hotel, but she didnt complain.
While M was conferencing on Friday I took the kids down to the river and the Ponte Vecchio. This is the oldest bridge in the city as all the others were blown up in WW2. It is covered in jewellers shops which little M thought was wonderful. We went to il Giardino di Boboli behind the Pallazo Pitti for the afternoon, lots of space and statues, then headed back to the hotel -not soon enough to avoid torrential downpours which continued for the next 2 days!
We went to dinner with all the conference people on Friday night which was not so successful...J fell asleep before the food arrived. Little M had quite a good time playing with wax off the candles and the wife of the organiser thought she was very sweet (as she said, she was 'waiting for grandchildren').
On Saturday we walked over to the Duomo (cathedral) and climbed the campanile - again in pouring rain and then hung about in the hotel room. Little M and R were both a bit second hand, both had bad head colds since the flight over.
Sunday we headed off for the train to Pisa, well worth the effort. Stuck the luggage in the left luggage at the station and walke over the river to see the leaning tower. Little M was really excited by it. We went and looked around in the duomo before collecting luggage and getting a taxi to Tirrenia on the beach.