Today we covered nearly 14 km and it was worth every step with the Vatican museums, Sistine Chapel, and more time with Nives on the agenda. I'm so grateful to Mick for his foresight and patience. Among other items he had pre - booked our entry to the above and so we took great delight in walking past all the groups lining up, and all the usual tours, and walked straight into the Vatican Museum. Rick Steves kept us well informed again as we walked around this vas...

Mick again: This visit has a very Vatican theme. Today's main objectives were to embrace - literally - the heights and the depths. As is always good practice, we began at the bottom with a tour of the 'scavi' the excavations under the Vatican, including the putative remains of Peter. To get a grasp of the complex and fascinating history of the Vatican Hill, originally outside the city, near a racecourse which became a site for Christian martyrs, which then bec...

Mick again: Today was very domestic really. We had invited our friend Nives over for lunch. She first came into our lives as my Italian teacher- found on Gumtree in Sydney, with regular lessons in a cafe in Burwood. She had not long arrived in Sydney after 6 years in Japan. Then, when Anne and I spent some time in Rome in 2011, we did a fortnight of lessons with her as she had established her own little language school here. We were looking forward to catching ...

Mick here: In yesterday's thrilling instalment we dealt with our last day in magical Venezia. Today we'll hear about the trip to Rome, our new digs and our first day in the Eternal City. With only 7kg packing is easy and quick. A final trip on vaporetto 1 - the slow trip down the Grand Canal saw us arrive in very good time. We had booked on the Italo treno at 11am - a first experience on the newish private railway. We were on the Naples train, via Bologna, Flor...

Anne here: Today we visited three interesting buildings, had a two minute gondola ride, a wonderful lunch and finished a great day with a concert. We kept walking the three bridges and several steps from our unit to the Teatro Fenice- Phoenix Theatre- just about every day so decided to check it out. There is an audio- guided tour which explains the history of this well named theatre. Fenice refers to Phoenix and as did this fabled bird, the theatre burnt to as...