Friday 22 April 12-20C Sunny After an early night last night l was awake before the alarm went off at 6.30.We headed to Pompeii this morning with a stop at the abbey of Montecassino which is perched on top of a high hill.The monastery was founded by St. Benedict about 529 and became famous for the prodigious life of it's founder.Through the ages, the abbey was looked upon as a place of holiness, culture and art for which it became renowned on a worldwide l...

Thursday 21 April 4-22C Sunny We had to get up quite early this morning as tour groups have early entry to the Vatican museums and the Sistine Chapel.It was really good to be able to walk straight into the museums instead of waiting in line for a couple of hours.We didn't visit all of the Vatican museums as it would probably take 3 days but what we saw was very interesting and consisted of beautiful tapestries, marble busts and figures (the male figures ha...

Wednesday 20 April 4-22C Sunny 6am wakeup call again!!!I thought this was supposed to be a holiday!We made our way to Rome with a stop at Assisi today. It's a 535k trip and with the driver having to stop every couple of hours it makes for a long journey.On the way to Assisi we passed through the beautiful Umbrian hills which were so green.The weather was perfect….nice and sunny but not too hot.St Francis, the patron saint of animals, was born in Assisi i...

Tuesday 19 April 19C Sunny Had a bit of a sleep in this morning then the bus took us to the port where we caught a boat to Venice.It was very exciting to finally see this place that l've only seen in films or read about.It has criss-crossing canals, gondolas and water buses/taxis/ambulances, arched bridges, a palace and quiet little piazzas.Venice is famous for Murano glass so we were taken to watch Venetian glass blowers fashion their delicate objects.It ...

Monday 18 April 6-20C Oh no….up at 6 again!!!!I hope we don't have to do this for the rest of the tour!We were in bed fairly early last night so we had a pretty good rest.The sun is shining and there are clear blue skies so hopefully it'll be a lovely day.We drove south this morning, the landscape changing to snow capped mountains.We drove through a long tunnel which, at the start we were in Germany and at the end we were driving in Austria.It's so lovely...