We spent most of today in ancient Pompeii, exploring all the ruins.It was really hot and dusty and we were grateful for the water fountains scattered around the site.While we were there we saw the amphitheatre, gladiator training grounds and stadium, various bakery's and cafes, temples and the cast's of the volcano's victims which was sad to see but also so interesting. Last but not least, we made sure that we did a trip through the brothel so Bek's mum could finally see the rude paintings on the walls! After we were all Pompeii'd out we had some lunch and made our way into Rome.We found a campsite that wasn't far from the city, and found it full of aussies and kiwis, some doing their own van tours, and there was also a separate section of the campsite for Contiki campers.We chatted to some of the aussies with vans of their own and had some drinks with them before heading to bed.

The next day we did some sightseeing around Rome.We started at the Colosseum and rather than doing it on our own, we paid 20 euros to have a small guided tour, which lso included a tour of Palatine Hill, which was really interesting.After walking through the ancient Roman Forum we found the Mouth of Truth and stuck our hands in like typical tourists, then walked to the Pantheon and had a look inside, then threw our coins in the Trevi Fountain.

Day 3 in Rome, and we headed to the Vatican to experience major sensory overload as we checked out millions of paintings and statues, including the Sistine Chapel and St Peter's Basilica.Our trip also included a free telling off from the guards inside the Sistine, who caught Ben trying to take sneaky photos! He made us delete them all but we managed to sneak one more in before running out! In the afternoon we met with with Bek's parents at the Spanish Steps by the Barcaccia, a boat-shaped fountain.We went back to their hotel room ti cool down and have some rinks, before heading out for our last meal together, at a little restaurant called 'The Strange Matchstick'. After dinner we went back to the Spanish Steps to take some photos, then walked to the Pantheon and Trevi so we could throw some more coins in! After that it was time for us to head back to the campsite so we had to say our goodbyes to Bek's parents, as they were heading to Athens the next day.There were a few tears and it was hard to say goodbye, but we were just happy we got to spend some time with them over the last week.We had had a great time! And yes, Ben survived meeting the fockers!

Unfortunately, saying goodbye took longer than we thought and we ended up stranded at the station because the trains had stopped running for the night, and there was no one around to help us.Luckily a taxi drove past and stopped to help, just before we were planning to go back into Rome and sleep on mum and dads hotel room floor.The taxi driver was really nice, and he knew a little English, enough that we could chat during the trip, despite Ben being told a few times to slow down because he talks so damn fast! He is such a typical aussie, talks a million words per minute, adding useless words such as 'basically' and 'obviously' all the time and forgets that he can't use slang when talking to Europeans, such as "what's the damage?" a.k.a "how much does it cost?".It usually ends up that Bek has to interrupt and apologise to the confused local and translate whatever Ben has been saying!