Arrival in Singapore

The lure of one last Italian style breakfast was enough to ensure everyone was up early.

Delicious pastries, juice and coffee, and then it was back for one last climb of those 90 stairs to brush teeth and collect our luggage before catching our Uber to the airport. The Uber was good value as the alternative was to walk to the taxi rank and hope that there was a big enough taxi (the majority of taxis are smaller vehicles) to take us to Roma Termini which would've been busy and then onto the bus to the airport. Navigating Roma Termini with luggage and children is no mean feat, especially when it's hot and peak hour. Nothing worse than arriving at an airport hot and sticky for a long flight.

Rome airport was really busy but things seemed to flow well...until we found a nice quiet spot to sit...and then at 11:40 we realised our plane had boarded! A mad dash followed, and we got to the gate just before the dreaded 'paging' message was made. We quickly made our way onto the plane and 10 minutes later were pushing back from the gate.

The flight was fairly uneventful except for a spot of turbulence around Indonesia. The only problem with leaving at midday is it's not conducive to sleeping.

We landed early at 5.42am and by 6.30 we were at the MRT station on our way to our hotel. We arrived at 7.30 but unfortunately couldn't check in until 2pm. A change of clothes ensued and we dropped our luggage off and headed off to find an air-conditioned facility and coffee before we hatched our plan for the next few hours. Today is a national holiday in Singapore so it's probably a good day to recharge and catch up on a bit of missed sleep.

It's amazing how time can drag when you want it to go fast. We ended up taking the MRT to the Gardens by the Bay and walking through them. Very tropical and lush. Eventually at 2pm we got into our hotel.

We are staying in China town. Dinner was in a food hall. Nice fresh Chinese type food followed by watermelon and pineapple and all fed for $5 per person!!

It's now 5.52pm and the next test is 'how long can eyes stay open'. By 5.56 that test was over despite the winner reassuring us only a few moments ago that they weren't tired and couldn't possibly go to bed that early (and no it wasn't dad) 😍😴Read more