Today we had our free day in Venice. We caught a boat into the centre of Venice in the morning with the rest of our group. First we walked through St Marcus Square to our glass blowing demonstration. The guy made a horse within minutes. We were told that it takes twenty years for someone to become qualified and that they often start learning from as young as ten years old. To become a 'master' it took another thirty years on top of that. After the glass blowing d...

The overnight ferry has just left the port. I've taken a couple of seasick tablets so hopefully will be able to sleep through the night okay. They do pretty decent sized meals on the boat. I had a large salmon steak and chips for dinner. Then Paul bought us a heart shaped, chocolate mousse cake for dessert. Earlier today we visited Pompeii. It was really interesting. The whole village is still there and gives you a good insight into how life would have been duri...

Today we had a free day in Rome. We were given a day pass for the trains, including the Metro. We went into town at about 9.30am. Bec took us as far as the colluseum. We lined up in the queues for a ticket to get inside. It was €12 for a ticket and an extra €4 for an audio guide. We didn't bother with the audio guide as have found them frustrating most of the time, but kind of wish that we had now as there wasn't much written information inside. The colluseum...

I'm on the bus at the moment, on our way to Rome. We keep driving past huge fields of sunflowers. I keep trying to get some snapshots of them as we drive past. Not having too much luck with getting a good shot yet, but will keep trying. I think because they're everywhere they remind me of Florence. I'm so excited to visit Rome. Today we have a walking tour around Rome and are also visiting the Vatican. We have to wear church dress for the Vatican so I am wearing ...

This morning we headed into Florence. Our first stop was Leonardo's Leather Works. We had a leather demonstration here. Paul was the volunteer for the demonstration and was asked to help engrave a piece of genuine Italian leather with 22.8 caret gold. He got to keep the small piece of leather so I'm going to add it to our scrapbook when I get home. The Italian guy also explained to us how to tell if leather is genuine or not. Apparently genuine leather shouldn't ...