As you can probably guess we have spent a couple of days in Rome. To be honest this has been the best two days of my travelling since September when we left the shores of Australia. But then again it is Rome. The first thing I loved about Rome as the weather... Yes I do rave on about the weather but it was nice not to have to wear a long coat and scarf just to go outside. It did rain a bit on the Sunday, but it was still warm.

Leonardo da Vinci Airport (in Fiuminco) is on the coast of Italy, so the flight started with a lovely view of the beach. Defiantly have to come back here in the Summer. Getting to Rome was easy because the ticket machine dispenses the tickets... Didn't have to use my very limited Italian.

Our backpackers was amazing.. It is so much cleaner then the hole we live in in London (thinking of moving there full time), and the people we met there were really friendly, and very cultural. Completely different to the yobbos who want to get drunk every night that live in our hostel. We met two really great Aussies (Simon and Emma) from Brisbane (of all places) and Saturday and Sunday night was spend going out for dinner and polishing off a couple of bottles of Red Wine with them. We also met some cool Americans (Sarah and Grethle) from Chicago on the Sunday night.

Saturday's touring consisted of visiting the Coliseum in Rome. Very spectacular from the outside, but not worth the €10 entry fee to go inside. (€5 would be more suitable). You can only imagine what went on during the gladiator days. Probably as spectacular as Sandcorp Stadium with a full house.

Sunday's touring was spent mostly at St Peter's Basilica. We managed to catch formal Italian mass there and because of Leonard's parents dragging him to church while he was in high school managed to keep track of what was going on in the mass, even though we couldn't understand what was being said. How many people can say they received communion in the Vatican? Feeling energetic we decided to climb the (322) stairs (€4 each) up to the dome of St Peters.

By far better value for money then the coliseum. From there you can look at the top of the dome close-up and then climb further up to the top outside of the dome to get a full 360 degrees view of Rome. While it was not a clear day, you could still see for miles and the view was absolutely breath taking (or was that because of the 322 stairs??).

After the sightseeing, we decided to have lunch at one of the cafes near the Vatican.. SILLY US.. We paid €11 each for two rolls of Cannelloni.. (we got ripped off). But it did taste pretty good. On the way back to the train station it started to rain.. We have never been offered so many umbrellas in my life. There were people going around trying to sell them for €5. After telling the first guy that that was too expensive, we preceded to pass about 7 or 8 other people trying to force us to buy one. Coming from London, we are used to rain , but it got frustrating that they wouldn't take no for an answer. I bet next time it rains, we wont be able to find anyone selling one.. just my luck.

We didn't managed to see JP2 at the Vatican, but Emma (one of the aussies) managed to see His Holiness. Turns we were too keen to get into the building as the Pope came out while we were inside. Oh well next time.