Most of the Benson family live in Coventry. Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county.
The programme on which the lottery draw is shown is “Win Your Wish List”. Win Your Wish List is a British game show that first aired on BBC One as a National Lottery show from 27 December 2014 to 7 May 2016 with Shane Richie as host, as The National Lottery’s Win Your Wish List.
The Bensons leave on the cruise from Southampton Ocean Terminal.
Sophie gets an internship at a magazine and she is asked to write about the 75th anniversary of the Coventry Blitz. The Coventry Blitz was a series of bombing raids that took place on the British city of Coventry. The city was bombed many times during the Second World War by the German Air Force. The most devastating of these attacks occurred on the evening of 14 November 1940 and continued into the morning of 15 November.
The first stop of the ship is Barcelona, and the family see the Parc Guëll, La Sagrada Familia and Las Ramblas.
Park Güell is a privatized park system composed of gardens and architectural elements located in Barcelona. With urbanization in mind, Eusebi Güell assigned the design of the park to Antoni Gaudí, a renowned architect and the face of Catalan modernism.
The Sagrada Família, is an unfinished church in Barcelona. It is the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world. Designed by architect Antoni Gaudí , his work on Sagrada Família is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
La Rambla is a street in central Barcelona. A tree-lined pedestrian street, it stretches for 1.2 kilometres connecting the Plaça de Catalunya in its centre with the Christopher Columbus Monument at Port Vell.
The ship then stops at Ajaccio. Ajaccio is a French commune. It is also the largest settlement on the island. Ajaccio is located on the west coast of the island of Corsica, 390 km southeast of Marseille.
In Ajaccio they visit A Cupulatta, a tortoise reserve and Poriccio, a resort.
A Cupulatta is a nature park in Corsica. Located about a 30-minute drive from Ajaccio, A Cupulatta shelters more than 100 species on site, and studies, breeds, and cares for turtles and tortoises from around the world.
Porticcio is a beach resort on the coast of south-west Corsica, a short distance south-east of Ajaccio.
Then they stop at Rome, and they visit the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Spanish steps, the Bocca della Veritá, the Colisseum.
The Trevi Fountain is an 18th-century fountain in the Trevi district, designed by Italian architect Nicola Salvi and completed by Giuseppe Pannini in 1762 and several others. It is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world.
The Pantheon is a former Roman temple and, since 609 AD, a Catholic church on the site of an earlier temple commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD). It was rebuilt by the emperor Hadrian and probably dedicated c. 126 AD.
The Spanish Steps climb a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the Trinità dei Monti church, at the top.
The Mouth of Truth is a marble mask in Rome, which stands against the left wall of the portico of the Santa Maria in Cosmedin church, at the Piazza della Bocca della Verità. According to enduring medieval legend, it will bite off the hand of any liar who places their hand in its mouth, or, alternatively, any who utters a lie while their hand is in the mouth.
The Colosseum is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world, despite its age. Construction began under the emperor Vespasian (r. 69–79 AD) in 72 and was completed in 80 AD under his successor and heir, Titus (r. 79–81)
When they are in Rome, Chelsea wears similar clothes to the ones Audrey Hepburn wore in Roman Holiday. Roman Holiday is a 1953 American romantic comedy film directed and produced by William Wyler. It stars Audrey Hepburn as a princess out to see Rome on her own and Gregory Peck as a reporter. Hepburn won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance; the story and costume design also won.
The next stop is Florence. They visit Piazza della Signoria, Santa Croce, La Scuola del Cuoio and the Duomo.
Piazza della Signoria is a w-shaped square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. It was named after the Palazzo della Signoria, also called Palazzo Vecchio. It is the main point of the origin and history of the Florentine Republic and still maintains its reputation as the political focus of the city.
The Basilica di Santa Croce ( is a minor basilica and the principal Franciscan church of Florence. Being the burial place of some of the most illustrious Italians, such as Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, the poet Foscolo, the philosopher Gentile and the composer Rossini, it is also known as the Temple of the Italian Glories.
Scuola del Cuoio was founded in Florence in 1950 thanks to the joint initiative of the Gori and Casini families (Florentine leather artisans since 1930) and the Franciscan friars at the Basilica of Santa Croce, with the mission to teach war orphans artisan techniques for producing leather.
Florence Cathedral is the cathedral of Florence. It was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to a design of Arnolfo di Cambio and was structurally completed by 1436, with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi.
They visit other towns in Italy. In Pisa Jack and Lily see the leaning tower. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of Pisa Cathedral. It is known for its nearly four-degree lean, the result of an unstable foundation.
They also visit Portofino and the Castello Brown. Portofino is a comune located in the Metropolitan City of Genoa on the Italian Riviera. The town is clustered around its small harbour, and is known for the colourfully painted buildings that line the shore.
Castello Brown is a historic house museum located high above the harbour of Portofino, northern Italy. Its site has been used for military defence since Roman times.
They also visit Cinque Terre. The Cinque Terre is a coastal area within Liguria, in the northwest of Italy. It lies in the west of La Spezia Province, and comprises five villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. The coastline, the five villages, and the surrounding hillsides are all part of the Cinque Terre National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The next stop is Aix-en-Provence where the visit the Cathedral of Saint Sauveur, Quartier Mazarin, Musée Granet and the Church of Saint-Jean de Malte. Aix-en-Provence is a city and commune in southern France, about 30 km north of Marseille.
Aix Cathedral in Aix-en-Provence in southern France is a Roman Catholic church. The cathedral is built on the site of the 1st-century Roman forum of Aix. Built and re-built from the 12th until the 19th century, it includes Romanesque, Gothic and Neo-Gothic elements, as well as Roman columns and parts of the baptistery from a 6th-century Christian church. It is a national monument of France.
The quartier Mazarin is a district in the centre of Aix-en-Provence. On the initiative of Archbishop Michel Mazarin, city plans were devised in 1646 by Jean Lombard, director of public works, to extend the city ramparts to the south. Following a grid plan of streets, the quartier contains a large number of hôtels particuliers originally built for the nobility and wealthy merchant class.
The Musée Granet is a museum in the quartier Mazarin, Aix-en-Provence, France devoted to painting, sculpture and archeology.
The Church of St. John in Aix-en-Provence is a Gothic Roman Catholic church, the first in Provence. It was built in the 13th century, mostly in the 1270s.
Kirsty and Jane have dinner in Avignon. Avignon is the prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of Southeastern France.
My Reading Journal 