Billund, the home of LEGO

 We spent a few days in Billund, entirely so we could visit Lego House, which is an interactive Lego museum, art gallery, and archive of the history of Lego. We were very lucky that our friend Grant came to join us on this adventure and we got to share the fun. 

The Tree of Creativity is four stories tall, & is made up of 6, 316, 611 bricks!!! This photo shows the top two levels. When the building was built the staircase was too small to go around the tree, so they built a new staircase (apparently it was cheaper to do it this way)

The day we arrived they opened a “Space Experience Zone” - perfect timing

This is the Masterpiece Gallery, with lego creations from invited lego artists. These three dinosaurs are respectively made out of duplo, regular lego bricks and lego technic.

Skye made a Lego friend

This is a Lego Wedding dress created by Australian Veronica Young. You can see more about it here on the Lego House instagram page

There are massive brick pits on all levels, and every seat or bench has lego incorporated into it so you can create and play whilst you rest your legs.

Jacqui, Hannah & Connor took part in Robocup with Lego Mindstorms, so it was wonderful to see a display about it in the history section of the House. 

Stan Lee

Lunch came in Lego bento boxes (& was surprisingly delicious)

Testing out the cars we made on the race track

This giant waterfall flowed into a lego brick pit

This person had spent 3 hours making this caricature carrot, just using the pieces available in the big pile of bricks. He was just finishing up on the piece of dirt for it to sit in. Each day the staff pull apart everything made in the brick pits, but also occasionally select great creations to be displayed in the gallery alongside professional lego artists. We thought this gentleman had a great chance of having his carrot selected for display. 

Every car on the airside of Billund Airport is yellow, it made playing yellow car very easy.

We stayed at the Refborg Hotel in Billund, and they had the most amazing contraption for cutting cheese for your breakfast. 

Pienza Cooking Class

 We did an amazing cooking class just outside of Pienza, at Tenuta Santo Pietro. We made the local pasta Pici (which is hand rolled) with a ragu sauce, Chicken Cacciatore and Tiramisu. All of the food was delicious and the kitchen staff and manager who helped us were all super friendly - the chef was teaching his staff these recipes and how to teach them, so they can take over the cooking classes in the future, which really appealed to the teacher in both of us.

Making the Tiramisu

Skye was very content to sleep whilst we cooked

Rolling out the Pici

All the staff were so lovely and welcoming

 

Pienza ❤

We have had a week in Pienza, which is a small hill town 2 hours south of Florence. Most people just visit here for a day or two, but we’ve had a glorious week to slow down, stroll around town, read, sketch, paint, play games, go for drives, take a cooking class and eat lots of the local food, especially pici (a local pasta) and of course gelato. 

On the way to Pienza we had to pull over to let a faster driver past, and this was the view!

Driving up to Pienza

Always say yes to Gelato

One morning the view from our BnB terrace reminded us of a scene from the game Assassins Creed.

 

View from our BnB window. When it was warm we slept with the window open - unfortunately it turned cold due to snow falling on the mountains nearby, and we had to put the heater on and keep the window closed.

Pici with Ragu

We stayed at the La Bellavita BnB and it was wonderful - the owner Elisabetta welcomed us like family and made our stay perfect.

Breakfast at the BnB was unbelievably good. Meat, fresh pecorino cheese, fresh yoghurt, croissants, cakes (which were made by Elizabetta’s husband and were sublime) coffee, fruit. 

When I had a bad PTSD day we stayed in and I painted from some photos we took on the first day.

Skye LOVED our drives, with her ears in the wind and her snout in the sun, she was in bliss.

The green windows were our room.

Lots of strolls around the walls of the old town

Italian pedestrian crossings sometimes defy logic on where they are placed.

Pici cacio e pepe (pici pasta with cheese and pepper)

We ate a few meals here -they were delicious

Hand rolling the pici at the cooking class at Tenuta Santo Pietro Agritourismo.

The cooking class staff were so lovely and kind and they LOVED Skye.

At the cooking class we cooked Pici with a tomato and garlic sauce, Chicken Cacciatore, and Tiramisu.

Aeropol Spritz

Our hotel for our last night in Italy (Florence) is so dog friendly that they provided Skye with a bed, a blanket, food bowls, dog poo bags and a toy. We all felt very welcomed.

The view of the Arno from our hotel room window for our last night in Italy.

Florence!!!

 We’ve had the week here in Florence and have loved it. We could easily stay another week or two. In 6 days we walked 55km, which is impressive because we didn’t arrive until 8pm on the first day.

This was the view out our hotel room the night we arrived

Just around the corner there was a live band busking where a market is during the day - it was a lovely welcome

“Florence For Peace, Two Peoples, Two States in the Middle East”

(Sign on the municiple building)

Piazza della Signoria - with lots of statues to enjoy

Apparently it is “school trip to Florence season”. We saw some primary school aged kids (in either bright hats or high-vis vests) and many many high school groups. It was fun seeing their reactions of the sights of Florence.

The Duomo

Our favourite gelato shop was Vendhi - lots of long lines, but worth the wait (even the locals eat here according to our taxi driver who recommended it to us)

The sun setting on the Arno, with the Ponte Vecchio in the distance.

Stephen took this beautiful photo as the sun was setting on the Arno one night.

I did a painting class one morning - at the local library!!!

Apparently you can buy your dream duck in Florence

We visited the Lego store…and didn’t buy anything (but it was fun to go inside)

I splurged and bought myself a leather jacket

We ate quite a number of meals at this Osteria and really loved it. Great food, quiet location, exceedingly kind staff, lots of Italian people & not too expensive. Perfecto.

The Florentine steak was delicious

Steve had the lamb chops and they were delicious too

Sometimes your PTSD throws you a curve ball and it’s a day in two sets of noise cancelling headphones in the hotel room doing everything you can to calm your nervous system down. Thankfully Steve is a great companion on these days, even if they are super quiet.

Our breakfast each morning ❤

The Palazzo Vecchio - one of the buildings in Florence that dominates the skyline. It was the offices of the Medici family, and then the government offices (still in operation).

One morning over breakfast I sketched the Palazzo Vecchio, which was a lot of fun

The Galileo Museum was mind blowing - so much on the history and evolution of science

This is Galileo’s middle finger - he is literally giving the finger to the church even after he has died

The view out our hotel room window. It was wonderful to just watch the city walk by.

This photo doesn’t do it justice. Our room at the Relais Calvalcanti Guest House was perfect. They were so welcoming, the location was wonderful and the room was just the right size for the three of us

There is a lot of great street art in Florence

The bottom floor of the Palazzo Vecchio is magnificent

Although the statues were quite dominating - reminding people coming to do business with the Medici family to not screw them over, or there would be swift and severe consequences

Carved into marble was a monument to remember the people who died from Covid. They will not be forgotten

The Duomo Museum had a statue by Michelangelo. This was meant to adorn his tomb when he died, however he never finished it. Michelangelo smashed the statue, when he discovered flaws in the marble (it was restored after he died). The statue is named The Deposition and is of Nicodemus, Mary Magdalene and Mary Mother of Jesus, bringing Jesus’ body down from the cross. Michelangelo gave Nicodemus his own face, making it a self portrait.

In 1564 the Medici family constructed a private walkway from the Palazzo Vecchio to the Pitti Palace (The Vasari Corridor). Over the top of other buildings, over the Arno River, so that they could walk from work to home (almost 1km) without having to come into contact with regular people. You can read more about it here http://www.museumsinflorence.com/musei/corridoio_vasariano.html

We had a lot of fun playing Yellow Car in Florence

We are now moving on to Pienza, a small Tuscan hill town, and we are looking forward to not having to walk so far each day! Skye is loving all the new smells.