Everything feels a little bit better when the sun shines

Florence, November 2010

Sunshine makes me happier. I  am not someone who likes sunbathing but just being able to wear a t-shirt in the sun makes me happier. Right now it is raining heavily here. Yesterday was a mixture of heavy wind and rain. It has got colder. I had to go out and buy hats, scarves and gloves. The clocks have gone back so it starts to get dark earlier. It is almost four o'clock and getting dark already.

I miss the sunshine. A few weeks ago I had a lovely holiday in Italy and I loved the sun there. We went to Pisa (rainy), Florence (rainy / sunny) and Rome (sunny). Whilst we had fun in Pisa watching M jump up and down in puddles around the Leaning Tower everything seemed happier walking around the Colosseum in the sunshine.

Florence was a good example of how the weather does make a difference when you are on holiday with a two year old. One day it rained the whole day. Everywhere was packed with tourists all with umbrellas. I lost count with how many times I got hit in the head by somebody else's umbrella. We had a pushchair to push so just had raincoats and when I had my hood I couldn't see very much. Not that the views were that great in the heavy rain.

When it was sunny in Florence it was lovely, yes the streets were still busy but it didn't matter. We wore t-shirts (the locals still wore coats) and we climbed a hill and ended up in a park where we had a mini picnic. We could see the whole of Florence from the park (see the photo above taken from the park). We ate ice-cream without feeling silly. Everything seemed a bit better in the sunshine.