We leave Rome on the fast train and travel at 250km hour to Venice via Florence and Padova. It takes almost 4 hours and we love every minute. The train is super modern, bathroom has perfumed fragrance and hand dryers. complimentary snack and no complaints. When we arrive at St Lucia, venice we queue for 30 monutes in the heat and catch the ferry to Lido, via every stop along the grand canal, someone has graffitied Rialto Bridge and brett is horrified! At Lido we...

Its our last full day in Rome and we are up for the challenge of the most famous ruins. We step outside at 10.30am and its already over 30degrees. We are armed with water, and hats and perhaps not enough sunscreen. We metro to Circus Maximus and walk to the entry gates, and find no queue! We wander around the forum with a poor map and an audio commentary. Palatine Hill has a mixture of ruins from 800BC to the middle ages. They have some romulean hut ruins from 8...

We get off the Metro at Circus Maximo and walk in the slightly less hot air down toward Trastavere. On the way as we pass the Forum there have set up 4 large screens for people to view the final of the euro soccer, italy vs Spain. we had not idea i was on and there are thousands obviously coming, it starts in 3 hours. We walk past the crowds and on to Trastavere, along side the tiber river. It is really lovely, crooked walkways (mostly with traffic..) and a piaz...

After returning from the bus trip we lunched next to the hotel at a Trattoria, clearly a family owned business. It was the first time we had chosen to eat inside, and realised what a treat it was to be in the cool, and to be free of the street hawkers. The food was divine, and the fridge behind Bretts seat full of fresh lettuce, huge capsicums, and other Italian foods. It was the first time I had felt sure we were getting the genuine article and not some tourist ...

We are off on our bus trip to Naples and Pompeii. On the road by 8am in a 50 seater, very modern, airconditioned bus. After the obligatory morning stop at a cafe (no doubt at verry good price to the bus company) we reach Naples at around 11am. It is covered in a dense heat fog, and you can hardly see the sea. We have a quick stop for photos in the bay and its hot again, sure thing! We then have a bus ride around the city for about 45 minutes seeing everything fro...