From Orvietto we crossed the River Tiber to arrive at St Mary of the Angels Basilica, Assisi, which was erected where St Francis died. We actually saw the 3 churches contained in that space one above the other. Was especially interested to see the stone tomb that St Francis is buried in. As well as wandering through the delightful streets of the hillside town of Assisi we also saw St Clare's Cathedral. The murals contained in the churches here are great, just a s...

Sadly we left Sorrento today then headed north towards Orvieto. Along the way we passed through Frascati (a famous wine town) then stopped at the Pope's Summer residence. In spite of him actually being in residence unfortunately he was a bit busy & unable to spare us the time for an audience, will have to catch him next week when we're in Rome! On then to Orvieto, a lovely hilltop town that has managed to maintain it's authenticity throughout the centuries. A...

We're just on our ferry back from a day visit to the Isle of Capri. Our guide, Enrico was quite a character who gave us a good tour both on our boat tour & walking through the town of Capri, a very smick place especially the shopping with designer shops everywhere. It's amazing how this Island was 1st inhabited by the Romans as a defensive area. over the years this was replaced by a Monastry & a couple of small fishing villages. More recently it too was c...

Well Pompeii was everything I'd hoped for & more. What an amazing record of times gone by frozen by a volcano in the 1st century AD. Although not rediscovered til the 18th century, unfortunately early archaeologists either wrecked or took away much that was found for reasons of ignorance or conquest eg marble slabs. In spite of this Pompeii is like a puzzle that has been 3/5 put back together as there is still a large part remaining hidden underground due to ...

Has been a slower couple of days since we arrived in Rome late on Thursday. On Friday we did an open top bus tour around to see some of Rome's famous sites. We've also enjoyed a couple of Italian style Taverna dinners & chatting to some other visitors/locals. It's great meeting new people & hearing some of their stories. Yesterday we transferred Hotels & had a slow afternoon swimming/ reading before joining our tour introduction late afternoon. We had...