Our local guide Willy showed us around The ruins of Pompeii where an ancient Roman city has been unearthed from the ashes of a volcanic eruption. For lunch we enjoyed authentic Pizza Napoli.

After Pompeii we were off to Florence. Here we had another local guide who took us on a walking tour around the city including the Statue of David. Then we had an hour and a half to shop for some of the famous Italian leather goods. Stayed at Art Hotel Miro.

Today we drove south to Sorrento on the Bay of Naples. We hopped into some mini buses and drive across to the beautiful seaside village of Positano where we saw steep hills covered in houses with an amazing view of the water. We walked down to the beach and touched the Mediterranean for the first time. There was no sand on the beach...just pebbles. Later we drove back to Sorrento and looked through some really nice shops before stopping at the Grand Hotel Moon ...

Today we met Paulo again and visited St Peter's Basilica and toured through the Vatican. We also saw the Sistine Chapel which was much bigger than expected. Afterwards, we went on a tour of the Colosseum. For dinner, Calvin had arranged for us all to eat at a really nice Italian restaurant where there were singers and really entertaining Italian waiters who wanted to kiss all the girls.

It was fairly late by the time we made it to Rome. We met our local guide Paulo who took us on a night walking tour. We saw the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon and we had dinner at a sidewalk restaurant in Piazza Navona near the the Fountain of the Four Rivers.  Then after looking around the shops we retired to our hotel for the night. (Hotel Area Roma)