Today we made our way to Florence via Siena and a winery in the Chianti region. In Siena, we met our tour guide and we went to Saint Dominics Church first which had nice frescoes inside and Saint Caterinas head. Siena pretty much started the first bank/banking system so was a very wealthy town in terms of finance, but now survives on tourism. The bank Monte dei Paschi was founded in 1472 and is currently the oldest surviving bank in the world. They are also fmo...

Left Sorrento today for Assisi, a city on top of a hill and a site for religious prilgrimage. We arrived after a servo with really expensive lunch (Cheryll paid 26 euros for lunch!) Clair, our local guide showed us around Assisi: St Claires Church... with St Claires body still intact and covered with wax. She is still visible below the church ... something special to see. Then we walked down to St Frances Church. He is the main religious symbol in Asisi as he s...

Left at 8:30 today for the ferry to go to Capri. Jess didn't go as she felt tired. Ferry to Capri was really rocky and we hopped on Geralino's boat straight away once we got there. The first part was even rockier than before and Lizzie and Becca were both seasick. Becca was the worst though and was still not looking well at the end of the day. Maybe she had sunstroke or something.

Left early this morning for Sorrento via Pompeii. Pompeii was amazing, it is an old Roman city that was buried when Mt Vesuvius exploded like hell and was only rediscoverd in the 1700s. Its as old as Jesus but the buildings and facilities the Romans built back then were so skilled. There were the ampitheatres, temples built to worships gods, old bar and 'fast food' type places, old 'pizzeria' with grinder that ground grains. Then there was the stones raised on th...

Today we left early at 7:30 fo rthe Vatican City due to the public transport strike. We went in and had a private tour with a guy from NZ who kept referring to Jesus Christ as JC. We first walked through the garden with a giant pine cone and a golden globe type thing (I really need to find out theproper names of these things). In the garden is where he gave us an overview of what we would see inside the Sistine Chapel and the background to the artists that did al...