Discovering Ancient and Modern Rome Ever since I studied Ancient History and art in high school, it has been my dream to go to Rome and see both the ancient buildings and famous artworks. For this reason, I think that actually being in Rome was one of the highlights of the whole entire trip. We left Florence very early on Saturday 20 September as we needed to arrive in Rome before 12 noon to enter the Vatican. Luckily, we made good time and were enterin...

Pisa and it's leaning tower After leaving the French Riviera, we spent the day travelling with gorgeous views of the water out the bus windows before entering into Italy. We passed through the small town on Pisa to enable us to see the world famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. Truthfully, this is the only thing worthwhile seeing in the town as it is filled with tacky tourist shops and men trying to sell fake designer bags, sunglasses, Rolexes and anything else t...

Oh the culture and shopping in Florence Arrived in Florence in time for dinner after our stop at Pisa. After dinner some of the group headed into a bar in Florence called "The Red Garter", no, not a strip club, it was a pub. And this pub sold cheap cocktails so of course we had to have some. A few "fruit tingles" and "sex on the beaches" later, we were up dancing when the attack of the Italian men started. Now, I've heard stories about Italian men but re...

Verona We were given the option of stopping at Verona, enroute to Venice, something which we all jumped at. Verona is most known for being the setting of Shakespeare's most famous play "Romeo and Juliet" and I was interested in checking out this town that was making it's name by drawing on it's association to a piece of fiction. Verona itself is a lovely little town with gorgeous architecture, lots of little cafes and great shopping. The first stop in...