We love Italy. Arriving in Udine from Villach we found a restaurant. Opening that menu and seeing the variety of choices was bellissimo. After a lovely meal we got the night train to Rome.

Arriving at 6am we headed to our hotel and hung around in the local coffee shop waiting for it to open. Then a visit to see the Coleseum and a mooch around the centre of Rome in the ever increasing heat. After a family nap we headed out to drink, eat and be entertained by the River Tiber. The following day we went to the beach at Santa Marinella before meeting our friends for a lovely dinner and a stroll with gelato to see the Trevi Fountain.

Rome is a beautiful city. We had a good time. The excitement all came when we left. Complacency mixed with lazy translation meant we missed the train out to Perugia despite being at the station in loads of time. This led to high drama as Steve had to go to the ticket office, get new tickets then run to meet the rest of the team at the far end of the station. It was genuinely a long way. Fully laden with two heavy rucksacks it is difficult to put into words just how slow he was moving. The whistles were blowing, the doors hissing, the children screaming. He made it. Just. Off to Perugia for a week of R&R with the CLESS gang.