Why I want my children to have less in life

    It probably isn’t often that you will come across a parent openly stating that they would like their child to have less in life. After all, why on earth would a parent want their child to have little? Surely we ought to want them to have the whole world and more, shouldn’t we?… Read More

10 Unusual Things to do in France

    Tourist hotspots are great when you want to scrape the surface of a place but sometimes visiting the same old sights can leave you feeling that you want to do something a little different. Undoubtedly a beautiful country with many popular sights, convenient ferry crossings to France mean that you can be there… Read More

Our Big Family Road Trip: Mount Vesuvius and Herculaneum

      As we were staying only an hour or so away, one of the main places we had hoped to visit during our stay in Caserta was the ancient Roman town of Herculaneum. Herculaneum, or Ercolano as the modern locals call it, is situated southeast of Naples at the foot of Mount Vesuvius.… Read More

Our Big Family Road Trip: Orvieto

      From Padua we travelled down to a tiny area called Sermugnano in the Umbria region of central Italy. The property we rented was set within the owner’s private estate and was close to the small town of Orvieto, which is set high on vertical cliffs upon a mass of tufa rock.  The… Read More

Our Big Family Road Trip: Lake Garda… in the fog

    We have had plenty of opportunities to practise the finer art of patience during this trip.  We have also had to deal with disappointment of plans going awry for one reason or another, most usually through poor weather, or parking or accessibility issues with Jalopy. This was one of them. We decided to… Read More

Our Big Family Road Trip: My Favourite Place

    I knew we would be seeing several places during our time away.  Of course I knew it, I booked it all!  And I knew that I would probably prefer some places to others.  What I hadn’t expected was falling completely and utterly in love with somewhere, and for it to happen so early… Read More