Day 221, 10 February 2013, Florence (Firenze), Italy. Planning on the fly (still!) we checked the guidebook stashed on the iPad and discovered the "must do" items in Florence. And then we set out. First off we went to the Uffizi Gallery. Low season being what it was, we weren't about to spend €4 each on top of the €6.50 entry price just to reserve entry in advance... it was only a 40 minute queue and then we were in. There is a surfeit of religious art ...

Day 220, 9 February 2013. Roma to Firenze, Italy. Packing Day. Almost feel like we can't call it travel day because it took 6 hours or more to get to and from Naples & Pompei and the speedy Frecciargento train is going to whip us to Florence in just 90 minutes later today (at 250 km per hour!) Another cracking day of Rome winter weather. Very similar to Sydney's winter climate actually! Thankfully our next few trips are on trains and they don't mind if ev...

Day 219, 8 February 2013, Vatican City, Italy. It was up and at 'em eventually today and we trundled off to the metro and headed to St Peter's around 10.30 am. A brisk but stunningly sunny day to visit Vatican City. We happily queued up with the tourists and the faithful and several nuns (faithful tourists?) to go through security prior to entering St Peter's Basilica. As is sometimes the way with things you've only seen pictures of, I found St Peter's Square...

Day 218, 7 February 2013, Pompeii, Italia. We were up bright and early. Well it was early at least. Headed to Termini station and roamed about checking the various locations of the 29 platforms. Any misconceptions we had about Italy being like Spain (late start, long lunch, sensible finish) have been dashed. People everywhere! Workers, tourists, absolutely everywhere. Our first Italian train is just a semi-speedy Intercity (a step up from the slow Regional ...

Day 217, 6 February 2013, Roma, Italia. Dino, our host at the Aladino Inn, strongly recommended we visit one of Rome's catacombs during our stay. Today was the day for being adventurous and we headed down the A Line to San Giovanni in Laterano and completely fluked finding the 218 bus that would take us through the walls of Rome and along the Via Appia Antica to the Catacombs (once called the Queen of Roads it was started in 312 BC). Can be quite nerve-wrackin...