Italy

G'day Again, today's adventure saw Amelia and myself head to the city formally covered in ash, Pompeii. This involved a quite expensive train ride to Napoli and then onto Pompeii for a day of turning back the clock. Once again, the ruins and artifacts found within Pompeii were simply amazing, particularly looking at wall paintings dating back 2000 years. Our favourite had to be the suggestive paintings contained within the former brothel, some of which looked quite difficult. We are still finding it very difficult to take in that the things we were witnessing were so very ancient, especially compared with Australian ruins dating a little over 200 years. After walking around the Pompeii site for around 4 hours (my ankles and the cobblestone streets weren't the best of friends) we decided to head back to Rome via Naples. Knowing that Napoli is the home of pizza, I was extremely keen to give it a go. After some long negotiations, I finally convinced Amelia to venture into the supposed dangerous environment that is Naples (note Naples has the highest crime rate in Italy including many mafia realted incidents). I am so glad we did make it in, as the pizza was beautiful. Da Michele is the first pizza shop in Napoli and it only serves magerita and a garlic, oregano and tomato pizza. While simple, the wood oven flavours made this a unforgettable experience.

Tomorrow we are jus going to take it easy and gve our feet a rest, so we might next update from Barcelona, the city of good times !

Ciao

Today we started our day fairly early to beat the crowds at the Vatican City. We planned to meet a girl I work with at the train station but couldn't find her so had to leave without them. We lined up for about 40 mins which wasn't too bad to get into the Vatican CIty (we 'read' an Italian paper to kill time). The Sistine Chapel was amazing but my neck and back is sore from looking up at the ceiling all morning, I can't imagine how the painters felt over the 4 years it took them to do just one ceiling! There was so much detail there it was impossible to take it all in, it was so extravagent! We saw the Pope's carriages and fancy cars, including a pope mobile land rover (perhaps for safari tours?) It was quite weird to think that they have all these treasures yet priests and nuns make a vow to live in poverty. I was also shocked by some of the violence in the pictures including babies being stabbed and plentiful decapitations. We missed the Pope but also went to St Peters which was also overwhelming. Everything is so big and over the top in Rome, it is unbelievable. We resitied to the tempation to enter the exclusive prayer room and the holy offering even though Simon did want a biscuit (Simon Says - the best bit for me was inside St Peters, there was enscriptions all around the ceiling with a portion saying "Simon Bar". I knew I liked alcohol for a reason, it is my destiny}

Tomorrow we are heading off to Pompeii on the train via Napoli so that should be interesting.

Ciao

Hello Once Again, today we spent the full day walking around the wonderful city of Rome, which is nothing like Amelia or myself have ever seen before. For starters, there are buildings in the city which were made BC and are still looking good! Sure puts into perspective the leaking roof we had in our Canberra apartment 6 weeks after purchasing it! I started the day with a cappacino from the bar below us, which I drank standin up surrounded by old men in leather jackets. The coffee was gooooddddd and the price of 1 Euro was even better. Amelia and I then went down to a local market and picked up 5 sugar glased crossiants for 70 euro cents, sensational buy! After this great start, we went and visited the Colosseum. The very first MCG was very impressive, especially since it was last used in 500 AD. Trying to imagine how real gladiators {not Kouta or Vulcan} fought lions in front of 70,000 fans was inconprehendible. From here we went to see to old Roman forum, which was mosly in ruins. However plenty of colums remained and some of the structures and arches were trully amazing. The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring more of Rome's highlights icluding some steps, a fountain, gelati, pasta and the ferrari shop {scale models had a cost of over 500 euros}. But by far the highlight of the day was the pantheon, a structure made in 27 BC that houses the graves of former Italian KIngs and Raphel {the architect, not the ninja turtle}. The marble work and statues was unbelieveable but how the hell they put the marble roof up in BC is truly a mystery. Tomorrow we are visiting the Vatican City because we both are devout Catholics {well at least I know that Jesus gave us some good public holidays} with one of Amelia's workmates, who we bumped into in the Roman Forum. It truly is a small world.

As for my rant of the day, I dont really have much to complain about. However, it is amazing how old, fat American tourists walk in diagonal lines whenever you try and pass them. Perhaps they need to confirm that in fact they are the most annoying people on the planet {including Port Adelaide fans}

Ciao