After a busy end to our amazing time in Siena, we dropped off 200kg of luggage with FedEx, took our final photos in the apartment and headed off for one last European road trip.

At the end of November, Mandi had a conference in Amsterdam so we decided to extend it into a family weekend away. The best flight was out of Rome, which meant me leaving Siena early in the morning with the girls for the 3-hour drive to the airport.

As we come to the end of our amazing year, I wanted to take note of the various bits of technology that have helped make this trip easier. They’re in no particular order or grouping.

When we got back from Israel, the weather had changed. It was colder, wetter and foggier. We’d only been back for a couple of days when it came time for Hayley and me to head to Rome to meet my Mum, who was visiting from Australia. We got the early bus and spent the three-hour trip watching America’s Got Talent on my phone.

After an amazing autumn living in the Tuscan countryside, we decided to take advantage of a week-long school break and head to Israel. We packed up the house (for the fourth time), put everything in storage and headed off early to drove to Rome for the flight to Tel Aviv.