And so the journey begins.... Day 1

Up early, showered and we were off to start the journey to Italy. First stop was at the Martin household to drop off today’s childcare volunteer Auntie Lori. She will take over for Kelly for the day. A quick snuggle with Harper & Rory to say goodbye and then we were dropped off at the airport by Kevin.  Easy check in and then over to the currency exchange to grab our Euro order. Met up with Kyle and had a quick catch up then through security (Nexus). 

Once boarded, a quick flight over to Vancouver and then a jaunt over to the D gates.  Breakfast was at Lift which is adjacent to the huge aquarium and it was very good.

Kelly with her fish.

 

Brunch was next along with a kick starter Mimosas for Kelly… says it will help her sleep on the flight to Paris. 

Our Air France B-777 flight to Paris started to board and we settled in for the long leg of the trip.  

 

We pushed 27 minutes late at 14:53 and the flight was generally smooth and with favorable tailwinds we landed early into Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport at 07:35 local time. This gave us extra time to catch our connecting flight to Florence.   We cleared customs electronically and headed to Terminal F1, Gate F51 to jump onto our Airbus A-319.  

A gate change to F53 didn’t throw us off and we were actually at the gate 45 minutes early. A quick text to Hugh to confirm that we made it to Paris and that we would be on the flight to Florence as planned.  We walked around a bit and I will say the pastries look fantastic. Neither of us were hungry though. 

Boarded our flight and pushed at 09:13 local time.  On departure, Kelly got a good view of the Eiffel Tower so that made her morning. 

 

Look close!!

 

Clouds obscured the ground but started to break up as we approached the Swiss Alps.

Alps

 

Crops galore.

 

As the runway in Florence is fairly short, the pilot had warned of heavy braking on the roll out and he was spot on! We all survived and after getting off the plane & grabbing our bags, we met up with Hugh and Simone. 

 

They took us on a westerly drive out towards Pisa and then back up to Lucca. A stop at the Co-op grocery store for some supplies and then we headed off to the Villa.

 

It is about a 20 minute drive and is nestled into the hills. It features a big kitchen and outside cooking, eating & visiting area. Pool and other amenities are also featured.

 

 

 

Dinner tonight was at a local restaurant called Pizzeria L'Alpino and it was very good... I suspect we will be back again at some point.  Once back at the Villa, it was time to finish up the blog and hit the rack.  Fatigue has set in and I am done. I'll check this in the morning for errors. Ciao!!