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Next we went to the Vatican City, which was packed. The Sistine chapel was pretty fabulous but very crowded. St Peters Basilica was much bigger than we expected. We paid 5 euros to go up to the top of the Basilica which was well worth it. Not only did we get a better impression of the size of the church looking down on everyone in the dome but we also got a great view of Rome from the very top.

Florence was next up on the list and was a lot more relaxed than Rome. It felt a lot safer and Glynnis and Susan were happy to wander around by themselves when James fell asleep in the Duomo church (he was suffering from the flu). There weren?t as many must see attractions in Florence as there was in Rome so we relaxed a bit more. The one thing we wanted to see was Michelangelo?s statue of David. We started to question our interest after waiting for an hour in the queue but persevered. We hadn?t realised that Michelangelo?s David is from the Bible story about David and Goliath so there you go. David was much bigger than we expected and was well worth the visit. We were intrigued by the various bits that had been broken off the statue and reattached the left arm was broken off when the statue was outside and used to hit someone during a protest and someone has attacked his foot with a hammer! We also spent a lot of time in Florence looking at leather hand bags in the hundreds of market stalls and product testing Gelato (ice cream).

We then took a regional train to Pisa on the Sunday and looked at the Leaning Tower. There wasn’t a lot to take in apart from the tower and by now Susan was really starting to feel the brunt of the cold I had so kindly passed to her so we took it fairly easy and shot back to Florence. We spent our last night walking up to Michelangelo?s hill and looking back over Florence which was a pretty impressive view.

Our final Italian city was Venice. Totally different to Rome and Florence. There are no cars which made a positive change from Rome where you have to hurl yourself in front of traffic to cross the road. The streets (if you can call them that) were very small. When James was leading us to our hostel we were sure he was getting us lost as we were wandering down little alleyways (but they turned out to be streets!). Our accommodation wasn?t the greatest which probably tainted the place a little. We were overall quite disappointed with Venice. I think it’s got too touristy, too many people wandering around, too many people trying to sell you overpriced goods or gondola rides. It didn’t have the romantic air that I had imagined.

The highlight of the trip for both of us was the Colosseum.

Typically on arrival back in England it was raining and freezing cold. Susan is not looking forward to winter!

The pics are here

Hello, buongiorno
I’m writing this from an internet cafe in Rome so sorry in advance for spelling mistakes.

Things have been hectic, Rome is very busy and we have discovered the only way to cross the street is to fling yourself in front of moving traffic and hope for the best. The good news is all Romans do this also so if you time it right you can use them as human body shields.

We flew into Amsterdam two days ago. That place is a real ‘relaxed’ city, slightly dodgy though. However, with only enough time to buy a clog fridge magnet, get to almost see the Anne Frank Museum (queue was too long), walk around for 30 mins and hop back on the train to the airport. Well it was a fleeting visit. And lets not forget the chips from the famous chip shop as recommended by Lonely Planet (yummy with green pepper sauce).

So far we have been to the Colosseum and Roman Forum as well as the Trevi fountain and Spanish Steps. Glynnis and I have been trying to keep Susan away from too many shops as we try to navigate the city.

Yesterday we went to Pompeii via the train to Naples. Pompeii was huge. I didn?t appreciate how much of a lost city there was. Lots of the artefacts had been taken to the National museum in Naples. The whole place was quite interesting but I found my interest waning around mid afternoon which I later learned was the beginning of a cold. It was very sunny so we were all working on our tans and Suse and I are glad we aren’t in Bristol right now.

Since we took the train from Rome to Pompeii, there was change at Naples. So we spent late afternoon in the Museum looking at all the mosaics from Pompeii. Also the lonely Planet had a recommendation for a great Pizza place so we spent a good 30 minutes searching the narrow crowded streets dodging Vespas. We found the Pizzeria called De Michelles where the real Italian shopkeeper gave us a blas?ook of ?if you?re lucky I might let you mortal English buy my Pizza?. Anyway we got a couple and sprinted to the train station just in time to scoff the Nepalese Pizzas before hopping on a train.

We are off to the Vatican city today and who knows might let Susan do some shopping