Had a leisurely breakfast after a long day yesterday. Trenna was suffering from a sinus infection so it was a slow paced morning. Went to get a snack and bought pizza by the slice, cost by weight. They call it pizza to go.... The Vatican tour was a little disappointing - so much hype and expectation but not much to see in the end. My expectation of the Sistene Chapel was a huge painting of God giving the spark of life to man but the painting itself is quite sma...

Recovering from a heavy day yesterday, we had a leisurely breakfast then strolled to the Pantheon. As usual Ross's sense of direction was first class, and we nearly made it there by direct route ... Hah hah The Pantheon is a quite remarkable piece of architecture. The roof is a complete dome with an occulus (a round hole in the ceiling). There are drain holes in the marble floor, approx 80 feet below. See photo. Beautiful artworks and painted murals, carved an...

So we have left Naples and are heading towards Pompeii when our guide tells us that on our left is Mount Vesuvius and we are now entering the red zone. The importance of the red zone is that it is the first area to be evacuated in case of an eruption - a very comforting thought. Mount Vesuvius is still active and erupts every approx 70 years with the last eruption being in 1944. It is now 2011 - you do the maths and work out when it is due to go off again. Anywa...

After the big wanderings around 'ancient' Rome the last couple of days we thought about doing a slightly less exhausting tour. So last night we booked a trip to Pompeii - our first organized tour. We also booked for a private tour of Vatican City for Friday but will tell more about that in later blogs. The Pompeii tour started at 6.45am when we were picked up by a courier service. After joining the main tour group we bused down to Naples (about 3 hours south of ...

Really went 'off exploring' today. We walked to Piazza Venezia and went through an amazing building called The Imperial. This is a war museum and contained old flags, photos, paintings and film clips, right back to the 1800's. The architecture of the building was breathtaking, including the incredible bronze statues. We found a lift that took us right to the top of the building and the panoramic view was so beautiful. There we were surrounded by the Vatican, C...