LI AND PAUL This is being written in Munich, while eating Swiss chocolate and celebrating the arrival of some other early-sleeping Aussies to share our room. So, Venice, what did we do? Saturday the 28th June we arrived at our seemingly fantastic deal of a campsite only to discover it had no kitchen, the restaurant was way beyond our budget, and we were miles from anywhere with a shop. So, a little frustrated with the place, we settled down to tuna bread rolls ...

PAUL AND LI Leaving Rome, we were looking forward to arriving in what we'd been told is one of the prettiest cities in Italy, Florence. Once again, we tested out the local transport system to get to our accommodation and ducked next door to the shop for some food supplies. Our walk into the city took us through the high end shopping street and to the 'Duomo' (the basilica) as well as its accompanying baptsitry and campanile (bell tower). All of these were cover...

PAUL AND LI We kicked off our stay in Rome with a free spaghetti party on the terrace roof of our hostel where we could see the top of the colosseum (when in Rome…). We made the colosseum our first stop the next day and wandered around inside, imagining what it might have been like, covered in marble, nearly 2000 years ago. Then, keeping with the historic theme, we explored the Roman Forum where temples once stood and Palatine Hill where emperors lived. We al...

PAUL If it is possible for people to melt to a puddle, then we came very close when we got off the train at Pisa. Fortunately, a hike, whoops, back-the-other-way-hike, bus ride and another hike later, we were at our accommodation - a camping ground with a pool, and we took the opportunity to cool off and spend the afternoon relaxing. Then next day we made our plans and headed off to the leaning tower. When we got to 'The Field of Miracles', where the tower is, ...

PAUL Our first taste of Italy was just over the border in Ventimiglia where we had to change trains and book our rail travel through Italy. Of course, all those helpful French words we learnt in the previous week were useless and we were back to square one. With the tickets booked, we were off to Genoa. We arrived in the afternoon and were soon exploring the city. In the historic part of town we walked down a street full of renaissance buildings some with fresc...