Two nights ago I joined my tour of central Europe starting in Rome. There are only 14 of us, all Australian, being shown around Europe by husband and wife Susan and Kevin from Canada and England.

We had a nice group dinner together before heading for the Colosseum first thing the next morning.

After that we went on a walking tour of Rome from the Colosseum to Piazza Navona. It was great to learn about so many of the places we had walked past the week before with Mum and Dad, including the Forum, Piazza Venezia and the Pantheon. After lunch the same guide took us through the Vatican and then a few of us stayed on in St Peter's Basilica where I was able to see so much more than on my last trip inside.

Today was a huge highlight for me: I went with Julia (my roommate), Glen, Anthony, Mark and Kylie to Pompeii for the day. Tom and I had been talked out of Pompeii and we didn't have enough time but I am so glad to have said yes this time.

Along with Herculaneum, Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during Mount Vesuvius's eruption that spanned two days in the year AD 79. The eruption buried Pompeii under 4 to 6 meters of ash and pumice, and it was lost for nearly 1700 years before its accidental rediscovery in 1749. Not only is it at least five times bigger but it is ten times more impressive! Herculaneum was more of a resort town, whereas Pompeii was an important city, with it's own Forum, large temples and a large population. The weather was a hot but perfectly sunny day and the ruins looked so impressive. The plaster casts of people who died were an amazing lasting memory of that sad day in history.

What was supposed to be a two hour visit turned into four as we detoured into places we liked the look of and listened to many of the extra information sections of the audio guide. Plus we probably only saw just over half of what there is to see! It was such a fun day and a great way to get to know some of the group.