According to the countdown app on my phone, there are 55 days left until we fly to Italy for the start of our 111 days in Europe. To say the time is sneaking up on us is no exaggeration. It seems the last 8 weeks before we leave will be the busiest: tying up loose ends at work for my husband, and completing the last, drawn out stages of my nursing degree.

So who is going on this trip?

Jess (18 years) will be travelling with us for the first 5 weeks. She will fly out of Heathrow at the end of October and will return to Australia to complete her gap year at St Philip’s College in Alice Springs. Intially devastated that she would be on her own for Christmas, she is now resigned to the fact she needs to earn some serious coin in order to have a smooth transition to university in 2016.

Hamish (4 years). To be honest, Hamish’s age, short legs and temperament have caused us to carefully consider the pace of our extended trip. Where possible, we have booked week long accommodation in apartments and plan to have ‘days off’ where we can spend time doing normal things we do at home. He will turn 5 when we are in Italy.

Rod (50-something) is largely funding this trip due to long service leave which he has accrued working as a secondary teacher at Cathedral College in Wangaratta. 8 weeks to go and so far he has been happy to go along with any suggestion I have made. Disturbing.

And finally me, Belinda, 43. This idea started one day last year when we were thinking about how we could combine Rod’s long service leave and my final nursing placement. We were basically going to travel around Australia, perhaps live in Darwin or at the Sunshine Coast whilst I completed my placement. He and Hamish would do just whatever it is boys do when there is no Mum around. However, it was proving difficult. I think I said something like, why don’t we just go to Italy – and there the seed was planted.