I gave up the idea of "having it all" when I was 35. I was single, never thought I would get married - let alone have a family one day. My career was going great, I was exercising and maintaining my perfect body, going out with my girlfriends, traveling the world and fixing up my house.

Flash forward to 2010 and I am married (5 years), have a 4 year old son and a successful career. My perfect body has long since left me, I still want to see the world, grow my career, enrich my relationship with my husband, raise my son to be a great man and make my home look and feel like Martha Stewart was just there. I spend a majority of my time "striving 2 B supermom" which means I am trying to find a way to juggle a career, marriage and family and maintain some level of sanity!

Is it really possible to "have it all"? Most days are full of laughs, stress, craziness and some fun, but it's overwhelming to try to fit everything in before bedtime. This is my world - my daily strive to become "supermom". It's a combination of my stress, happiness, shortcuts and planning that help me get through the week. This is for all you gals "striving 2 B supermom" too!

A Day Trip to Florence, Tuscany

So we set out for Florence for the day. It was about an hour drive from Casa Cornacchi. We decided to navigate ourselves to Piazzale Michaelangelo to park and get started. I chose this location because it was not in the center of Florence, it has FREE parking, it offered amazing views of the city and it offered bus service into the historic, old center of Florence. I am not usually a fan of any type of bus tour, but since we were only going to be there for the day and my mom can't handle all the walking, we decided on a Hop On Hop Off bus tour around town. Little did I know this would be such a big hit with my son. He still talks about riding on top of the big red bus in Italy. He loved riding on top and they allowed us to bring our stroller on the bus making it easy to navigate with a child. The cost of the bus tour for the day was 20 euros per person.

Here are the amazing views from Piazzale Michaelangelo in Florence:
Once on the bus, we rode to the Tournabouni stop and then headed for Piazza Della Republica. I knew there was a carousel there that my son would love. It was a great way to start out with something I knew he would love after a car ride. Here is Piazza della Republica:
We walked from the piazza towards the Duomo. Wow...I have seen it twice before, but it is still so impressive when you see it........
After seeing the duomo, we headed for my favorite shopping spot, Mercato Centrale. We shopped for some scarves, purses, jewelry and a wallet while my little one snacked on gelato.
By now, we were getting hungry and my little one fell asleep in his stroller after a gelato snack, so we headed for lunch. We found a small restaurant and thought we would give it a try. The restaurant was called Antica Ostera Napul: Cucina Napoletana (Via Guelfa, 50129, Firenze). It offered a lunch special which consisted of a 3 course meal for only 10 euros per person! It included wine and water too in the price. What a steal for a lunch in Florence....Sounded good so we went right in with my little one sleeping in the stroller beside our table.
The meal consisted of a primi (pasta course), secondi (meat course) and a dessert course. For the primi we each tried something different: Ravioli in a Rosa Sauce, Gnocchi Bolognese and Neapolitan Risotto (risotto with peas).
We tried two things for the meat course: chicken with balsamic sauce and a veal with peppers. Both were tasty. A great lunch was followed by a nice dessert too. The staff was very nice, but did not speak much English, but that was not a problem for us as we speak some Italian. I think this was a great value for a sit down lunch in Florence and the food was very good! I recommend giving it a try.
After lunch, we got on the bus again and headed for one of our favorite piazzas, Piazza della Signoria. My little one was up and hungry, so with a slice of pizza to go, we explored the beautiful piazza and checked out the statues, gorgeous architecture and fountains. What a day!


What a way for my little one to see the art and enjoy pizza!
By now it was late afternoon and it was time to head back. We hopped back on the bus to Piazzale Michaelangelo. One at the piazzale, we enjoyed our last views of beautiful Florence and headed back to our Tuscan paradise at Casa Cornacchi for dinner.
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