Our self-drive tour continued from Pisa to a town on the Italian coast called Arenzano. Rossco really found his passion for driving in Italy once we hit the Autostrat getting up to speeds of 160kph in the little Lancia, whilst my fingers gripped the seat in horror! Arenzano is part of the Province of Genoa and is a holiday resort for the Italians. It is full of holiday villas and clubs/restaurants that are packed to the brim in summer. We stayed at Punta San M...

We caught the train early from Rome to Pisa this morning and picked up a car to start the next leg of the trip as a 'self-drive', with a few challenges along the way. Our first challenge was finding the car rental dealership which for travelers convenience was located at the airport, except we caught the train. A taxi ride later and a few spins on foot around the airport to locate the desk we were advised that you need to catch a shuttle bus to the rental car p...

We were excited this morning to be going on a day trip to Florence. We caught an early bullet train from Rome Termini and arrived in Tuscany in 90 minutes. Our exploration of Florence commenced at Piazzale Michelangelo, a spot high on the hill in Florence with panoramic views of the whole city. The views are breathtaking. There is also a monument to Michelangelo; it's a copy of David in Bronze flanked by copies of the Medici tombs. A beautiful spot to comme...

We were both really looking forward to visiting Vatican City or "Popeland" as we had fondly renamed it. We arrived to a ghastly long line for tickets that traversed a street or two! Lucky for our forethought in purchasing "skip the line" tickets, we missed the queuing and headed straight for our security checks as we entered. We were fearful of an extended 'talkfest' like we experienced at the Colloseum however we were pleasantly surprised and delighted that this...

Today we ventured back into Ancient Roman times. We commenced our time travel at the Colloseum. We had no idea how this Roman Monument would impact us. Commissioned by Emperor Vespasian in AD 72, and completed by his son Titus in AD 80, it held 55,000 spectators who were seated across 4 levels based on rank in society. The site on which it was built was the old site of Nero's palace. As Society now despised Nero so much the Emperor wanted to distance himself...