Unfortunately on the way in to Florence we had a problem with our brakes. Dave put his foot on the brake, there was a weird noise, then lots of grinding noises. Since we had already paid for breakdown cover (and we were determined to get our moneys worth) we rang at around 11am; after a couple of breakdowns in communication an Italian tow truck appeared to take us to the Mazda garage. The Italian driver spoke no English and continued to talk to us in Italian alon...

Sorry. I have to continue my rant about Italian drivers. My self esteem and driving prowess sunk to an all time low in Pompeii when I was ruthlessly cut up by a nun! The worst thing is she knew exactly what she was doing as we saw her grin on noticing us in fits of hysterics at what had just happened! Pompeii and Herculaneum were both incredible and unbelievably well preserved after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the first centry AD (Herculaneum in particula...

After a bit of a rocky crossing from Split to Ancona, getting woken up by the bang and the cabin shaking every time the boat crashed into a wave, we drove across the spine of Italy to Rome. Very much enjoyed the mountain scenery on route especially as my virtually non-existent knowledge of the geography of Italy meant that I didn't have a clue what to expect. Rome itself took a little while to capture my imagination, much though I tried to see the amazing city t...