Rome! Where to begin? We've had an action packed few days and done a lot of walking around the city, which has meant lots of gelati tasting as well!

Saturday was ancient Rome day. We first headed to the Roman Forum and Palatine, which were interesting to walk through, although in Italy they are not the best at giving information about what you're looking at, so we spent a lot of time looking at ruins we didn't really know much about. The afternoon was spent at the Colosseum, where we had an audio guide making it a bit more interesting. Very impressive!

That night we had a good wander around town, seeing some of the many impressive monuments Rome has on offer, such as the Spanish Steps, Il Vittariano monument and Trevi Fountain, all very grandiose! It was busy around the place being a Saturday night.

The next day we did lots more walking, heading to Campo de' Fiori and Piazza Navona in the morning, where we didn't find the markets we were expecting, but lots of interesting people and sites. Nearby was the Pantheon, which was a real highlight. It's dome is very impressive from the inside and it's hard to believe it is nearly 2000 years old!

The afternoon was spent walking through the lovely Trastevere neighbourhood, which is old and quaint with lots of nice restaurants. I sampled carbonara, a speciality of Rome and a lot better than any you'll get back home! We walked up a hill nearby for some nice views over the city. The number of domed cathedrals and monuments is amazing.

Yesterday we went to check out the Pope's digs. They're not too bad... St Peter's was really impressive, inside and out and absolutely huge! We went up to the dome, designed by Michelangelo. There were outstanding views both looking down into the cathedral from the inside and after going through the maze of steps between the walls of the dome a breathtaking view of the whole city from the top!

We managed to find a great local trattoria for lunch (difficult among all the tourist places) called Dino e Tony, which was the typical Italian family run place you would imagine that had delicious food! The afternoon was devoted to the Vatican Museum, which has way to much stuff to reasonably see in a week, but ofcourse we checked out the Raphael rooms and Sistine chapel. There was also a really good Egyptian section. After a long walk back home we had a nice Italian dinner. It's off to Naples now. Miki has decided to wow the Italian's fashion sense by wearing sneans as her boots are sore, she gets lots of stares everywhere!