Last night we arrived in Venice after a leisurely drive up from Rome. We left early this morning to park in the huge carpark Tronchetto and took a ferry around the back of Venice around to St Mark's Square for a glass blowing demonstration. It was great and the glass in the shop there is all handmade on the island Murano and is of course amazing elaborate, precious and expensive. I was very excited to finally go on a gondola in Venice! There were six of us in...

After a decent flight from Rome, I touched down in Athens and was instantly feeling like a fish out of water! I realised that I had no idea how I was getting from the airport to my hostel! After giving up on buses and going by train instead, I only just made it onto the train as the doors closed. Luckily I remembered that I had printed out booking details and was able to then find the hostel with ease! Not the greatest way to start my time travelling solo but I e...

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 wi...

On Friday afternoon we arrived in Naples/Napoli. Giovanni, who owns the hostel, is a very interesting man. He gave us a one hour introduction to Napoli and the surrounding area including a safety talk that freaked me out a little and was somewhat contradictory to what we'd been told elsewhere. We also found that if you didn't do things his way it could get awkward so we never told him if we deviated from his plan! He did however tell us about the best pizza plac...

On Monday we arrived in Rome, braving the chaotic traffic to find our apartment right near the Trevi Fountain. It was a tiring afternoon, with Tom and Dad driving in circles to find a drop off point for the car and Mum and I walking in circles with countless amounts of bad advice trying to find a supermarket. Thankfully we both had success in the end and had a lovely night walking around the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps. On Tuesday we went to the Vatican ear...