We are on a plane at the moment. We just left Rome and are heading to Belgium for Pukelpop - music festival. Apparently the weather should be a bit cooler which will be a nice change! Rome was sooooo hot!

Our accom in Rome was nice - bit of a hike (45 min walk on uneven, pebbled ground) into town and situated in what seemed like Little India/ChinaTown!!! But still all good - felt a little uneasy walking the streets at night though so we kept that to a minimum! We stayed at a lil B & B - it's name was Asian Delight. We thought that sounded kinda like a Brothel!!

We went and saw the Colosseum which was pretty cool. Admittedly we were a little disappointed as it was very brown, dusty and ruined (I guess it is a 'ruin' after all). The thousands of people traipsing through didn't really add to the ambience of the place! We went on a guided tour which cost 20 euro each, which wasn't worth it, but we did get to skip the line up for an entry ticket. Our tour guide was slightly mad. She was chubby with wildly frizzy blonde hair, screeching voice with heavy accent and constantly laughing hysterically at her own weird/crappy jokes. Very odd to say the least! Sadly, the original structure was stripped of all it's nice marble & statues and the like when the Christians ordered for it all to be used in a church. All said and done, was still another box ticked.

Vatican and St Peters Basilica = AMAZING! It is Italy's biggest, richest and most spectacular church. The line up in the sun was a little average and I was originally refused entry because my dress didn't touch my knees. But I DID NOT wait for an hour in the extreme heat to be told to leave. So I stepped to the side, hunched my shoulders down and pulled the dress down as far as I could manage so it nearly touched my knees!! I slotted myself back in line and through out every Italian word I knew to try and soften the guard, which might I add, worked! Once inside we were gobsmacked! Not actually by the church but by the woman hurling her guts up in the corner?? Probs not the most ideal place to vomit! The church itself was by far the most amazing church we have seen, and believe me - when travelling with Tim, you see a dam LOT of churches that's for sure!!

We thought Rome was a great city. It was very different to walk around the City and see ruins built nearly 2000 years ago. There aren't many places they can boast that. The old town was great, plenty of cosy little restaurants and Trattoria's (not called Italian Restaurants in Italy, like at home) and pubs/café's. We did sample quite a bit of the great food and ice cream - Nocciola being both our favourite! We had a quick look at the Pantheon, a 2000 year old temple now a church which has no covering on part of the roof. It's unreal how they built some of this stuff 2000 years ago, big high ceilings and domes. The Spanish Steps were full of tourists and annoying people trying to sell useless crap. Some of the fountains were pretty cool to see, but the number of people made it hard to appreciate them fully. What can you expect though!!!

Tim went to Palio in Sienna so I had my first night alone since we have been away. I was ok and very brave but pretty happy when he returned and he said he missed me J so that's nice! And wait for it, AT LAST Tim would like to participate in the journal and here it is…

OK. Well Jaz has finally roped me into doing an entry so here it goes. I must start with a disclaimer that my entry most probably will not be as emotional as Jaz's. Anyway I digress.

So on the Monday, 16th August I left Jaz on her own (I was very worried about this but she assured me she would be OK) and boarded a train back to Florence. Our previous hostel had organised a day trip to Siena, about an hour away by bus for Il Palio horse race. This horse race takes place twice a year, in July and August and is a no holds barred race.

Basically Il Palio had been going for about 500 years and the Sienese people take it very seriously (as you will read about later).

Siena is divided into 17 sections which they call Contradas. Each year they have a ballot and 10 of the 17 Contradas get to run in the race. The other 7 just watch and hope they get into the August race or next year. The horses are also drawn by ballot, so if your lucky you get a good horse, if not, you get a crappy horse. So in the morning of the race, all the Contradas get dressed in their colours and clothes from the 1500's (quite funny) and march around the streets with drummers and flag bearers. They all then attend a church in their area for a blessing of the horse and the jockey. The jockeys are not from Siena, but are bought in especially for the race. So a few weeks before the race they put special sand around the town main square for the horses to run on and when we arrived it was very muddy.

We arrived into town about 2pm and had a quick look around before making our way into the centre of the square before it was locked at 4pm. At about 6pm all the teams made their way onto the track for a march past. We had a good 3 hours of sitting in the hot sun in the centre doing nothing. At about 7pm they bring out the Il Palio, which is a big painting that they all want to win. It's carried around by these bulls which were massive. About 2 foot taller than me. Once all the teams were in place, the horses and jockeys came out and the 30,000 people in the centre and the 30,000 in the surrounding buildings all went deadly silent. At this point, 2 minutes before the start, each Contrada's lane is drawn out. The inside is the worst, the outside the better. 9 of the horses line up and one lucky one gets to stay out the back and run whenever it wants, once it hits the main box, where the others are lined up, all can start running.

Now a few more details. Ok so each Contrada has its allies and enemies. Basically if your Contrada doesn't win, but your enemy loses too, you're very happy. If you lose and your enemy wins, you are very very mad. And coming second is worse than 3rd-10th. So before the starting box and in the starting box the jockeys on the good horses start trying to bribe the jockeys on the crap horses, to get them to take out other teams and what not. I'm not exactly sure how it all works but our guides reckon they could pay the other jockeys up to $100,000 to take out other teams.

So finally all the teams are lined up, however once they are, they can try move places in the box, to be next to their enemy to take them out or take them out for the Contrada on the better horse and take the bribe. After about 5 goes at starting, mainly due to the jockeys actually having fist fights with the other jockeys, the race is actually started. The horse at the back flies past and they all start running. By the first corner 3 of the teams are too far back to be in it. The whole crowd is yelling and waiving their team flags, pretty much going mental. The race goes for 3 laps of the square and is over in about 50 seconds. A lot of time spent doing nothing for a 50 second race. Half way around the 1st lap and one jockey is thrown off, leaving the horse to run on its own (still allowed, if it wins, it wins). After the 1st lap only really 2 horses are in the race. The jockeys are allowed to do anything to the other horses/jockeys except pull the horses reins. A lot of punching and whipping was going on at the start and throughout the race. Very funny to watch. I can't remember which Contrada won, but the winners went wild and ran onto the track and took down the Il Palio. They all partied through the streets, back to their area for a special church ceremony, then to party all night.

Now I'm not sure what happened, but within 30 seconds of the race finishing, 2 of the Contradas were on the track, shirts off and yelling at each other about the start a massive all in brawl. This went on for about 15 mins however the brawl didn't erupt and the teams dispersed back to their areas. We saw 15year old girls balling their eyes out cos they lost, old men yelling and trying to fight and old women crying. Something must have happened but we never found out what. As I said earlier, they take it very seriously.

So basically that's Il Palio. Sorry if my description was a bit all over the place, but I'm still trying to work it out fully for myself. It was awesome to watch, the whole place went mad for 50 seconds. At 11pm we had to be back on the bus to head back to Florence to the hostel. All up it was a great day but was pretty expensive. But I'm glad I did it. Il Palio - Tick.

Wowee, any questions anyone?? He certainly doesn't miss a trick this kid huh!! I better leave it here because this one is a lengthy one!!

Much love to everyone, Jas & (finally) Tim xx