Last day in Florence + traveling to France
- Charlotte Martin
- Mar 13
- 7 min read
Updated: Mar 14
Well it’s our last day in Florence and of course we have to visit the Duomo before we leave! Both my kids have spots all over their faces (nowhere else), no idea what caused it but other than that, they are acting fine. They just look a bit like cute lepers 🤣
I had booked a private tour for the cathedral & dome climb and it’s the ONLY way to go. The line wrapped around the church when we got there and we were taken right in with a private tour guide and in a sectioned off area of the church.
The church began construction in 1296, but was added on to over the course of hundreds of years. The Dome was completed in 1436 and is the world’s largest masonry dome ever created. It is considered an architectural marvel.
The guide tells us about the great flood of 1966 and how much of Florence was damaged, including everything in the bottom 2 meters of the church. I didn’t get a good picture but you could clearly see nothing for 2 meters, then artwork, sculptures, etc began.
This clock was pretty fascinating. It runs on “Italian time”, with 24 hours on the clock, running counterclockwise with 1 being 1 hour after sunset. Makes sense to me!
Then we walked to the dome. It’s truly breathtaking from the inside out. We learned that the painting on it wasn’t completed until 1579 and reflects the Last Judgement. That first ring literally looks like the people are 3D! No photos do it justice.
It was then time to climb the 463 steps to the top of the Duomo. Brennan was genuinely questioning my sanity when he found out how many steps it was but agreed (reluctantly) to climb with me while the kids stayed behind with Lala and Grandad. We got about halfway up - the bottom rung of the dome - and Brennan couldn’t do anymore. Not because it was hard, because he doesn’t like heights and this dome was 600 years old 😆
So I continued the climb totally alone which was another cool thing about the tour we booked. Our private tour got their own climb time and I was the only one who did it!
Once I took in a 360° view of Florence from the top, I started to descend the same way I came up. They had just let a scheduled group go up and I’m not kidding, I probably counted 200 people heading up there before I was able to get past them to go down! I’m so glad (and lucky) I had the top all to myself!
Once I arrived at the bottom, we decided it was lunch time. We found a restaurant right by the Duomo and ordered the same food we had been eating here for a week straight 🤣 it was really starting to get old, but it was our last day so we tried to enjoy it.
We rested that afternoon and before we knew it, it was meal time again! We left the apartment about 5 minutes before it started down pouring. I was not prepared for this but thankfully Grandad had an umbrella or me and Clementine would’ve been absolutely soaked! We took shelter in a restaurant and decided to eat there while we waited out the rain. At this point I was SO OVER pasta, pizza, tomato sauce, prosciutto…it took everything I had to eat one last meal. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it really made me realize how much variety of food we have at our fingertips in America. Mexican, Asian, Italian, French - all super easy to find, even small towns usually have a couple different types of cuisines in restaurants! I was grateful to have spent 8 full days in Florence, but looking forward to our week ahead in the south of France.
6am came really early the next morning. Bren and I got ready and tried to pack up as much as we could before the kids woke up. He started his journey of making multiple trips down the 80 stairs so that everything would be ready to load into the taxi that I had prebooked. 7:30 came and went and no taxi in sight. I call the taxi service and they put me on hold for over 5 minutes and at this point we are nervous about getting to the airport with enough time. Luckily, Bren had called an uber earlier in the trip and knew they had big vans that could accommodate all our luggage. We had one within minutes and we were off.
We arrived at the Florence airport 90 minutes before takeoff - which still made me a little nervous. We were able to check all our bags quickly and security was a total breeze. Bren and I realized they didn’t even ask us for our passports before security - I guess Italians don’t take their jobs as seriously as Spaniards 🤣
We have time to grab some coffee and muffins before we have to board a shuttle to go to the flight. We are on the shuttle over 10 minutes as our departure time comes and goes. Finally, a gate agent escorts us all off the shuttle due to issues with the aircraft. We wait around for about an hour before they fix it, we get BACK on the stupid shuttle and board our flight. We gate-checked our Doona stroller but were worried we wouldn’t be able to get it before our second flight so I made sure I had the baby carrier on the plane with me.
We board the plane and again, have to use the infant seatbelt. Clementine is really not too happy about it but she does okay. It was about 90 minutes to Barcelona and we had about a 90 minute connection at that point due to the delay.
When we arrived in Barcelona, we did NOT get our doona stroller from the gate check. They informed me it would go all the way to our destination. I was a little uneasy about this but trusted the process. As we walked into the main terminal, we saw signs for the Golden Arches. I’m not going to say we ran towards them but we got there as fast as we possibly could 😂 Silas and I destroyed some chicken nuggets and fries. They had an interesting spicy Asian BBQ sauce that I think would work well in the US! There was also a cool outdoor area at the airport where we got some fresh air and Silas ran around a bit.
We started walking to our gate and realized we were at gate 20 and needed to walk to gate 62…and we were departing in 35 minutes. There was no tram or moving walkway, and the gates are about the same distance apart as any American airport. I had Clementine in the carrier and we started walking fast, but Silas really couldn’t keep up. Lucky for us, the airport had these little stroller trolley carts (which the flight attendant had told me about). We grabbed one, threw Silas in it with our backpacks, and we were off to our gate at a much faster pace. Seriously, more airports should have these!
We board our flight and Clementine was past due a bottle and a nap - so we fed her quickly and she was out the entire flight. It was a short 40 minute flight to Marseille and we saw great views of the Mediterranean as we landed. There was a beautiful view of some cliffs from the airport with what looked to be ruins at the top of them. I snapped a pic and asked my buddy “Claude” and it confirms they are ruins from a medieval fortress dating back to the 10th century 😳 I know I’m going to like this place.
We grab our bags and head to the rental cars. Thankfully, France wasn’t as strict as Italy with the international driving permit, so we were able to rent a car. And yes, all of our luggage DID fit, but we do have to upgrade to a bigger car with a 3rd row 😆 It was a little rough at first trying to navigate French road signs (nothing is in English), but Bren got the hang of it quickly. It was a one hour drive to our country house in Saint Remy and we saw amazing views of the Alpilles mountains on the way. We even saw a snow-capped mountain!
As we drive up to our rental house, Brennan is clearly relieved we are not staying in the middle of a stone-covered city. This little house has a big green yard, a pool(!), an old swing set, and looks out onto the French countryside, with a view of the Alpilles from the kitchen window!
It is beautiful and so serene, exactly what our family needed after Florence and before we head to Spain. Our kind hosts even left us a bottle of champagne in the fridge!
As I get the kids settled and unpacked, Brennan drives to the grocery store to get food for dinner and some basics. Silas smashes his finger in the door and gets to watch an episode of Paw Patrol to help comfort him. When Brennan gets back, I made a sandwich on French bread (now THIS is what good bread tastes like) and grab some aged cheddar chive chips that he bought. We all sit down to eat, even Clementine, who has a high chair here! Then it was bath time and off to bed.
As we were winding down for bedtime, Silas is being goofy and making Clementine belly laugh like I haven’t heard before. I think they were both so tired, they are just giggling nonstop and it makes me and Brennan laugh out loud. Just a simple moment that we all needed after a long day.
Both kids rooms are upstairs and our room is downstairs…and they are pretty treacherous wooden stairs. We didn’t get the chance to talk to Silas about the stairs before he goes to sleep, so Brennan sleeps with him just in case. The last thing we need is him falling down the stairs in the middle of the night!
There are certainly worse things in life than sacrificing your bed to sleep with your child at night. This week-long trip is actually our first family of 4 vacation without any other family members. We will cherish each moment and memory made here in this magical place for a lifetime.
Tchao! 🇫🇷
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