Arrivaderci Roma!

We arrived safely in Rome. Another great hotel - on the first afternoon we walked to the Trevi fountain, the pantheon and Piazza Navona - how good is that? There seems to be a surprise around every corner, a fountain or a random column...

The next day we were booked on a two day bus trip to take us to Naples, Pompei, Sorrento and Capris. Pompei was the main place we wanted to see - but we were nervous about going to Naples on our own, so we opted for the organised tour.

Naples - Napoli - was really unappealing. The fact that it was a really foggy day didn't help - the tour guide on the bus would say things like, "if you look out the window to the right - oh no, really you can't see anything". But, anyway, Naples just seemed to be high rise flats packed way too close to each other, all coated with crumbling render, dripping with dirt and decorated with random drapings of washing lines.

They took us to view the Bay of Naples - but, because of the fog all we got to see was the stray cats climbing around the shore. And Vesuvius was also hiding behind a veil of fog... And, of course, being tourists on a bus, we had to be taken to somewhere to be parted from our money, so they wasted time taking us to a cameo factory.

Finally, we got to Pompei - and it was terrific. If only we could have skipped Napoli and spent the whole day there. There is just so much of it! Oddly, one of the things that got to me most was standing on the roads and seeing the wheel ruts left by the Roman carriages - it made it feel like they really had just been there yesterday. But, really, there were much more impressive things than that, mosaics and wall paintings.

Then it was off to Sorrento and a boat trip to Capris the next day. Unfortunately, still foggy and the seas were too rough for us to get into the blue grotto. But the island itself was still pretty - steep, scattered with mansions and surrounded by amazingly blue water. And Winter was a good time to be there - as the crowds must be pretty extreme in the Summertime.

Back in Rome, we took a trip to the forum and the Colusseum. We felt that the forum could have done with a signpost or two to explain what was what. But the Colusseum is just so large, it can't help but be impressive.

It was sale time in Rome as well - and that was impressive in itself. The roads around the Spanish steps were closed to traffic because of the crowds. People were queued up outside the Gucci shop to get into the specials. I tried to find some Dolce and Gabbana for Matt - but even at half price, the jeans were about $160, which seemed like too much to me.

I was able to find Matt a bargain at the market stalls though. I found him a belt with a rotating disk in the middle of the buckle with an Armani logo. The stall holder demonstrated that if you rotated the disk, the other side had a Versace logo. Two for the price of one! What a bargain for 7 euros.

Then I had a lovely surprise - Karolina and Mark had flown over from London and we caught up for dinner on Saturday and Sunday! It was just great to see them and to chatter about this and that - share travel stories. It was so great of them to travel all that way!

Then it was time to catch the plane back home - with our suitcases crammed with too many bits and pieces. I think we were all glad to be heading home - pretty much tourist attractioned out. And never wanting to wear our shoes or see any of the clothes in our suitcases ever again.

We arrived in Sydney at 9 pm and got through Customs at 10. The plan was to stay in Sydney overnight - but somehow the thought of getting those suitcases in and out of another hotel room was just not appealing, so we set out for Canberra straight away, arriving in the early hours of the morning.

It was so great to see the boys again. Poor Thomas had to confess that someone had thrown up on my bed at the New Years party he held - but it was OK because he had washed everything and if he hadn't told me, I wouldn't have even known. And somebody dropped a bottle on the edge of the bathtub and took a big chip out of the enamel - but, hey, we never use the bath anyway, so I figure it doesn't really matter so much.

The house feels like it is mine again now - it has me kind of mess instead of boy kind of mess.

Now I just need to work a lot of hours so I can save up for the next time...