Alright, alright, I know I've let myself get way behind after promising that I wouldn't, but the time really does just slip away.

 So anyway, I'm in Rome. I went on a tour of the Colosseum and Palatine Hill. The Colosseum is just as it looks in pictures, and the tour is really worthwhile so you get a bit of the story behind the ruin. I went to see the Roman Forum in the arvo (you know, where Caesar was killed - not really) by which time I'm feeling a bit 'ruined out' so I wizz through and don't really do it justice. I went back to see the Colosseum at night, got a takeout pizza (from a real trattoria, nothing like Dominos) and had a picnic dinner on the grassy slope in front of the aforementioned ruin. It was cool because I also had a great view of the square in front, the buskers etc.

I also met my 1st friend of this trip - Chris Lin. He took my photo and I took his (one of the banes of travelling alone). We got to talking about our plans, and he had a hire car and was going up to Pisa the next day, did I want to come? Well I'd planned to go from Florence but I was getting good vibes from this guy and it sounded like a great, impulsive, holiday-type thing to do. So I said yes. He wanted to beat the traffic, so he picked me up outside my hostel at (gulp) 5.30am (it's a 4hr dirve to Pisa from Rome). So offwe went, using his cool female-voiced GPS system to navigate. Although in the city it lagged so we took a few wrong turns anyway. Then we stopped at a caffè to pick up a quick breakfast. This is amusing - coffee comes as an expresso unless asked otherwise, and they had obviously never had to do a takeaway tea before because they gave me mine in an emptied and washed juice bottle! But is was lovely nonetheless, and an experience to treasure.

On the autostradà (motorway), our headstart didn't really amount to anything as we got stuck behind a crash. An hour into the wait and I was bursting to go to the loo, and wasn't about to try and go in front of all the waiting truck drivers, so I ended up asking at the tour coaches in front if I could use their loo! The 1st one said no (can you believe it! I was hopping up and down) but the second one full of Chinese tourists said yes, so thank god!

Finally the crash is cleared and we drive slowly past (rubbernecking all the way, of course) to find that i t had been a collision and burnout of two massive flipped over tanker trucks (I don't know what they'd been carrying). Eventually we made it to Pisa and took in the famous landmark. They were charging 15euro to climb it though, so neither of us did that. Instead we splurged a little on lunch. By the time I got back I realised that far from saving me money with the train, it had been my most expensive day out (I had no idea the tolls on the motorway were so expensive!) But it was a good day anyway, and I had a good time.

On Saturday I went to the Vatican City. I spent several hours in St Peter's Basilica, which is BIG! I could easily have stayed longer, but I wanted to fit in the Vatican museums as well. The Basilica is covered in paintings and sculptures (and crowds of people). One technique I've learned is to tag onto an english-speaking tour once you're inside. Although some of them use headphones and earpeices so you can't eavesdrop on those ones. Saturday night I head down south to Naples.

Sunday 13th May I spent walking all over Naples. I had only one day there so I got a big map, circled everywhere I wanted to go, and worked out a route before I left the hostel. Saturday had been the start of something called Culture Week, meaning that Italy-wide all state-owned museums and attractions are free until the following Sunday. So I went everywhere. I saw two castles, a couple of churches, and I spent the afternoon in a very nice museum called the Museo Archeologica di Nazionale, which is definitely worth some time if you're ever down there. I'd been told that Naples was not a safe city to be in, which is of some worry to travelling alone especially. It also doesn't help when I arrive at night (around 8pm but still light) and head out to grab some supper, and the hostel owner tells me 'no,no I can't bring a bag with me! It will be snatched and I will be mugged!' I never had a problem in Naples, although I never did feel quite safe walking around near dusk and after dark. I'm not sure how much of this was warrented, and how much just an aura of the negative warnings I'd been getting. But I played it safe, and didn't stay long anyway (just 2 nights).