How to spend a perfect family holiday, according to mum-of-two Jaelle Ang
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How to spend a perfect family holiday, co-ordinate to mum-of-two Jaelle Ang
This past summer, the CEO of The Smashing Room finally realised a long cherished childhood dream when she took her two young daughters to Florence.
Jaelle Ang, CEO of The Great Room, with her daughters in Florence. (Photo: Jaelle Ang)
04 December 2022 06:30AM (Updated: 21 May 2022 04:40PM)
The Italian Renaissance and its great architects filled my childhood bookshelves and imagination. Simply Florence...
Florence became its own honey matter. I imagined information technology to be a mysterious, romantic metropolis by the Arno river that was bathed in Tuscan golden hues. Even every bit a child, it felt hard and soft to me, Old Earth but contemporary, small-scale yet great. Merely for 1 reason or another, I never made it there.
Then, earlier this year, in the midst of opening The Great Room'due south new outpost at Raffles Arcade, I decided to take a break and finally visit Florence with my 2 daughters, seven-twelvemonth-old Ying and five-year-old Xuan.
I immediately felt like I'd come home. It was every bit if I had lived here in another life, such was the sensation of peace and the instant dear I felt. My whole life has been about surrounding myself with beautiful things and I now know that information technology doesn't get much more beautiful than Florence.
Everywhere I turned, I felt La Dolce Vita chic and realised, finally, why people come to Florence, once more and over again. Information technology's to savour life. Considering great cities impress with thousand gestures and so seduce you lot slowly. Florence is so en pointe that mode. It'due south a city to enjoy on pes since much of it is pedestrianised. And at that place's so much to appreciate.
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What I love about about Florence is that I never had that "beginning impression" moment. For me, the city kept unravelling and revealing itself. For instance, we're big architecture and art fiends, and Florence'due south diminutive size means everything is hands attainable, with most of the main sights lying inside walking distance of one another. One minute, we're inhaling some Michelangelo; in another breath, we're poolside cooling downwards with a gelato for the kids and a Negroni for me.
Nosotros stayed at the 4 Seasons Hotel, which is set up in the magnificent Palazzo della Gherardesca. Autonomously from being possibly the best hotel I've ever stayed in, information technology allowed me to take in Florence in a romantic and languorous way. Information technology was such a treat to walk through the sprawling gardens, olfactory property lavender in the mornings while chasing butterflies, and curiosity at the majestic Duomo at sunset.
How I wish I'd been to Florence when I was v or seven, the age my girls are now. Still, seeing that golden bauble through their eyes lifted me emotionally, intellectually and aesthetically.
The memories unfold. We were in Florence in early summer, probably the all-time time when you're travelling with two immature girls. Our favourite risk was our "walking picnic" to the Mercato di Sant'Ambrogio where we grazed on fruits, focaccia, prosciutto, cheeses, and stopped at street stalls where Florentines watched with entertainment as two little Asian girls wolfed downwardly the local beef tripe stew.
We loved the Museo Pinocchio e Dante which combined the girls' honey for fairy tales, technology, puppetry and illustrations. The Boboli Gardens made me experience lost and found at the same time. We also indulged our love of flowers and botanicals at the original cloister of the Officina Profumo Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella store. We came back to Singapore with scents for special people in our lives.
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Of course, I had a long must-come across list, but I missed the Galleria dell' Accademia and Michelangelo'due south David. The Uffizi museum, though… Well, that was truly the highlight of our trip even if we barely scratched its surface. Every hue and brush stroke came alive and, for the first fourth dimension, I learnt to capeesh Renaissance art beyond the visual grandeur. We saw masterpieces, explored the history of the Renaissance and its intriguing cast; and how the Medici family wealth, feuds and secrets produced fine art and legacy that outlasted the family unit.
Leaving Florence after our vii-day holiday, I felt nourished and blessed that my family unit and I had seen and experienced and then much. My skin was caramel-hued and warm from the sun, and my lips all the same tasted the bitters of my Negronis. And I was already imagining spending many idyllic summers hither in a pied-a-terre, either something that I would restore as a labour of honey or, only maybe, the 16th-century Palazzo Tornabuoni with its golden backdrop of Firenze. "I'll be back," I promised myself.
Because I want to get lost and provender for wild edibles with botanists in the countryside, explore individual museums, go on wine tours, and discover my way into artisanal studios that Florence keeps hidden from the prying eyes of tourists – such as the Museo Stibbert which has an amazing collection of armour from the 15th- to the 17th-centuries, including pieces from Japan.
Because Florence moved me in ways that, even now, I find hard to clear. It made me wonder, especially, how we tin can live our decorated lives and embrace technology and commercialism, while nevertheless beingness cradled by cute surroundings, joie de vivre and inspiration. A worthy pursuit, possibly, in Singapore?
More than anything else, Florence manifests, for me, the idea of "boring is fast". My most enduring retentivity is of meandering slowly around Florence, feeling like I was travelling through centuries of stories and beauty. I call back the scent of lavender, eating with my children, and of engineering pauses that allowed us to live just a little more beautifully, a little more, a little larger.
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/people/jaelle-ang-the-great-room-176861
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