Our day of travel to Santa Margherita felt like very hard work. We left early in the morning, hunted down the winery manager to pay an outstanding wine bill, stopped off at the tip to drop off our rubbish (no door to door rubbish collections in Italy!) and repeated the arduous drive to Pisa we had done the day before. We lost Joanne and John, who we were following, on the motorway in Pisa, searched online for a car wash near the airport (yes you have to wash the car before you return it in Europe), got to the airport half an hour later than we had meant to, and then prepared for the “inspection”, and as the car rental website put it, “eventual” scratches that would be found. LUCKILY I had photographed all the scratches before we picked up the car and the were date stamped, so that when the inevitable discussion arose about the scratches on the driver’s door that wasn’t on the condition report, I was able to show that it wasn’t our responsibility. Amazingly, we escaped within 5 minutes with no additional fines, jumped on the airport shuttle (which dropped us off at another part of the airport 40 metres away), and jumped on another bus to take us to the train station. Going at a snails pace, it finally dropped us outside the train station 10 minutes before our train was due to depart. We knew we would just make it! It felt like everything was going our way – when Chris exclaimed “where is my camera!?!?!” In the hire car!!!!!! Chris jumped back on the bus to return to the airport while the kids and I camped out at Pisa train station, amidst multiple dodgy gypsys prowling for victims. He returned an hour later with the camera (hurray!!!) and we were able to catch another train with only one change. As we boarded the train one thief opened Nick’s backpack for a look inside but only found a travel diary and a bottle of wine. We couldn’t wait to collapse on the train, but inevitably there was an older couple sitting in our seats (isn’t there always in Italy?) and they were reluctant to move. Sadly for them, I was in no mood to be messed around so we put the pressure on and inevitably felt terrible when we were finally seated and the old lady insisted on standing next to her husband instead of going to her allotted seat. Chris immediately offered her his seat and then I offered her Michael’s seat but she graciously declined. As before in this situation, we got talking to them and found them to be a very nice couple from Rome full of interesting stories. Our journey passed smoothly, and before we knew it, we were in gorgeous Santa Margherita being met by our lovely hostess, Marina.

I have waxed lyrical about the beauty of Positano and Tuscany – but I think I like Santa Margherita the best of all! It’s kind of like an Italian Noosa. I love how all of the facades are painted on so it looks like a film set. It’s full of boats, cafés, artists and produce stores. It’s stylish but relaxed. I absolutely love it.

We met up with John and Joanne who had the fabulous idea to hire a boat the next day and this is what we did. At around 10.00 we picked up two small motor boats and putted over to an Abbey around the coast. Here we had lunch and then swam and snorkelled around a submerged statue of Jesus. Apparently this statue was erected by parents of a drowned child many years ago and put in this spot, which is kind of spooky but also very beautiful. Blue fish swam right in front of us, the water was refreshing but not cold, the day was perfect….it was pretty amazing. Afterwards we putted into Portafino, moored our boats at the jetty and had an ice cream and a wander around. Now THIS is the most beautiful place I have ever seen.

It was hard to return the boats – it had been such a perfect day. The kids just loved it! The next day we took a train into Cinque Terre and investigated Vernazza, another gorgeous place which sadly was under 10 feet of mud only 3 years ago, although thee is no sign of it now. This part of the world is very, very beautiful.

We went home to pack, bought our tickets for Venice and went to bed early. But when we woke up at 6.00am Chris said ” It’s crazy travelling for 6 hours to for one day in Venice and then another 3 hours back to Milan the next day. Why don’t we just stay here one more day?” He was absolutely right! And so, with regret, we said goodbye to the Bornas and walked to Portafino (a really lovely walk) and had a lovely lunch watching the boats coming and going.

Only one more day left until we turn home. I don’t want to go now!

We arrived on our train from Naples late in the afternoon and bid good bye to the Bornas’ as we each headed for our different rental car companies. We found the shop in Florence with no trouble around 5.30pm and were surprised to learn that we were very lucky there was a staff member still present. Apparently they usually close at 4.00pm on Saturdays! After a very long and convoluted booking in process, taking no less than 1 hour (no wonder they were working late), we were presented with a very nice Renault which was not the Alfa Romeo we had booked, and which Nick was desperately looking forward to, and began our journey to Il Piano in San Gimignano. The host at our accommodation had helpfully given us the GPS coordinates, which we dutifully loaded into the car’s GPS and double checked, and we were off, speeding out of Florence and into the beautiful Tuscan countryside. It got dark quickly and as we neared our destination, beginning to feel very tired and hungry, our tarmac roads gave way to gravel roads, and gravel roads turned into little more than gravel driveways. We pressed on, even as a deer ran in front of the car and breathed a sigh of relief as we came upon a Tuscan farm house and the GPS announced “you have reached your destination”! But apparently we hadn’t! Through the partly open front door we glimpsed an extremely hirsute man racing to put on some clothes. I enquiried timidly “Il Piano?” to which he replied with evident relief with a long, detailed spiel, all in Italain, that involved left turns and right turns and passing of lemon orchards etc. Chris actually managed to pick up some of what was said, so after profuse thanks we returned to our car and prepared to travel back up the long gravel driveway and onto God knows where. Chris reverted to the good old iPhone, input the GPS coordinates, and what so you know? – we were directed to somewhere close by, but quite different! (Bloody car GPS!). Amazingly our journey did involve left turns and rights turns and passing of lemon orchards and before long we found ourselves ascending a long driveway lined with conifer trees and our host standing at the end of the drive waving at us (she was desperate to get home and had been wondering where were). After settling in, we drove to the nearby town of San Gimignano, found a cheap pizza joint, and returned home for bed!

We had arrived in the dark so the next morning was a total treat! We awoke to the sun rising over rolling green hills full of grape vines and olive trees with the beautiful towers of San Gimignano atop a hill in the distance. Il Piano is a working winery and olive plantation and we were treated to a wonderful tour of the winery followed by some wine tasting. This winery is an old fashioned one that still uses concrete vats and the technology that was installed in the 1920s. Although traditionally relying on making good quality table wines, sold in 50 litre demijohns to the locals, they are starting to branch out into premium wines. I was fascinated to learn that the ground is full of fossilised shells, 3-4 million years old. The plough often pulls up old fossils and when they do, the farmers celebrate because it gives the wine a special, mineral characteristic.

We settled in for a few relaxed and happy days in Tuscany. The views were so beautiful and the old medieval towns so interesting.

One day we took a train to Florence and spent the day wandering the streets. I was intent on finding a handbag and Chris wanted a messenger bag for his computer and so we must have visited over 20 leather stores. While there were many lovely products neither if us could find the “one” that made our hearts beat faster, so eventually we gave up and went for dinner at a restaurant that John and Jo frequented 16 years previously. The food was as good as they remembered and we enjoyed wild boar fettuccine, rabbit in a tomato and olive sauce and veal in white wine with mushrooms.

The next day Chris and I visited the old town of Volterre together. This town has been around since 700BC and has become a more popular tourist attraction since the Twilight movies. Here we found a leather shop that was the answer to our dreams and I bought two handbags while Chris bought his messenger bag. We asked for a recommendation for lunch and were directed to a little restaurant around the corner where we had a sensational meat plate (full of porchetta, proscuito, salami etc) and other local delicacies. That night Chris cooked some sausages we had bought at the supermarket on a wood BBQ, while the boys played frisbee and I enjoyed the amazing view of the sun setting over San Gimignano. Eventually, we were rained out and the sausages had to be finished in the frying pan but they were the most amazing sausages we had ever had!

On our final day we took a long drive to Pisa to visit the tower. Poor Pisa! Such a pretty old town, on a river, with the most gorgeous duomo but no one cares! Everyone wanted to see the tower and once seen we wanted to leave again.

Next stop is Cinque Terre. We are nearing the end of our journey and while there is some sadness, the trials of travel are beginning to wear on me and the boys and we are beginning to really look forward to our return to Australia.

The last 6 days in Positano have been wonderful, and feeling so relaxed, as I look back the days have blended into each other. Some of the events that have stood out in my mind include:

– A day trip to Capri. This island is legendary and so I was with some excitement that we embarked on the ferry to Capri. When we arrived the island itself looked very much like many other places we have seen with an abundance of cafés and souvenir shops. While talking to a waiter at one of the cafés we were introduced to “a man with a boat” who agreed to take us on a tour to see the various grottos and landmarks. The trip turned into quite an adventure. We saw the cliff where Emperor Titus had his holiday villa and from which he used to throw off people he didn’t like. We learnt that Emperor Comedius’ sister Lucilla (from the movie Gladiator) was sent to this island as an exile and was executed some months later. We saw the huge mansion where Roosevelt and Churchill met to carve up Europe after the Second World War. We went into numerous caves where the sun hit the white limestone beneath the surface and turned the water a luminous turquoise colour. On the way back, our captain opened up the engine and sped along the waves, racing another boat full of Brazilians. Needless to say the kids adored it. When we returned to the main area the heavens had opens up and it was pouring, so instead of taking the Funicular to the top of the mountain, we caught another ferry back to Positano.

– On another day we walked for several kilometres up the hill to the top of Positano to see the balcony where Joanne and John had gotten married 16 years earlier. To celebrate their wedding they took us all to lunch at the lovely restaurant by the beach where they had celebrated after their marriage ceremony.

– One evening we took the ferry to Amalfi where we bought some cute Lemoncello cups (and Lemoncello of course) and saw the gorgeous Duomo.

– On our final, glorious afternoon, we had to return to Da Dalfo for a fabulous afternoon of swimming in the ocean, drinking peach wine and eating plates of tuna carpaccio, muscles and clam spaghetti.

Our final morning this morning was unbelievably glorious and it was very hard to say good bye. After watching our luggage being transported down the hill on a cable car we were picked up by our taxi bus and deposited at Pompeii. Chris and I have been dying to see Pompeii since we teenagers so we had great expectations. Because there were 8 of us we were able to secure our own tour guide for a whirled two hour tour (Pompeii is much, much bigger than I thought it was). It was such an interesting tour. Pompeii was full of shops and theatres and bath houses. It must have been a lovely place to live. One of the highlights was seeing a house still with lovely frescoes on the wall – it gave us a sense of how nice it would have been to live there as a noble person. We also saw bodies of victims, now cast in resin, still in the same poses that they died in. So much of that amazing town has been preserved, but I can see the impact that tourism is having on the city. Nick really enjoyed the tour, which is great, as I suspect that by the time he is our age, tourists won’t be allowed to go wandering through it anymore.

We have arrived in the most beautiful place on earth. I have never seen anything like it.

When we arrived at our villa at lunchtime it was unbelievably hot and our lovely host Costantino greeted us on the street and organised for our luggage to be carried up the stairs (which are substantial) to our villa. The villa just blew us all away – two big double bedrooms and a huge room for the kids – all with ensuites – a living area upstairs for the kids, verandas on three levels all with amazing views over the water and a huge kitchen. An old olive tree is growing through the three levels of verandas, our views are framed by bougainvillea and directly below us is a lemon tree grove. Our hosts had put some bottles of wine and plate of fresh figs in the fridge and gave us a bottle of their olive oil that they have pressed from their olive trees.

It was unbelievably hot and humid – like Queensland in summer – so we retired to the pool area shared with other guests and had a salad and paninis by the pool. My cabrese salad was the best I had ever tasted because the tomatoes were spectacular – also grown by our hosts. By then the heat was unbearable so we walked down the stairs to the private beach of the property.

The rocks and pebbles were almost unbearable to walk on but the water was beautiful – warm, salty and, in my mind at least, shark free! We swam for a couple of hours before walking up about a million stairs to our villa. Ok, that is a slight exaggeration but I estimate there would be 200 stairs between the beach and the pool, about 100 between the pool and the road, and because I have counted them, 155 stairs between the road and our villa. John and Joanne, who are very fit, bound up them, but I need the occasional rest!

We had no food in the house so we walked into Positano for dinner and found a little pizza place. After a lovely dinner walked down to the bottom of the hill, sat on the wharf and admired the view. I wish I had a picture to show you how amazingly beautiful this place is at night, but my iPhone camera just can’t do it justice. The walk home was a killer – SO MANY steps!!! I collapsed into bed and fell asleep immediately.

Chris and I ended up sleeping in the next morning and woke up to an empty house – Joanne and John had taken the kids to breakfast. It was mid morning and already so hot, so I didn’t bother with a shower (what’s the point when I knew I’d be dripping with sweat in 5 minutes) and walked down into Positano to find them. We found them coming back up the hill, and the kids carried on for home while J and J came with us to join us for a second coffee. We had planned a special treat for lunch and what a treat it was.

At 12 o’clock we walked down to the private beach where a little fishing boat picked us up and drove us to a tiny cove around the corner where there is a little fish restaurant on the beach.

It’s a very laid back place, everyone dines in their swimming costumes, but the food is unbelievably excellent. We were very, very hot and so as soon as we got off the boat we swam for an hour in that delicious ocean. Then we retired to our table under a canopy and had the most amazing lunch – tuna carpaccio, mozzarella barbecued on lemon leaves, fresh mussels, clam spaghetti and eggplant parmigiana, washed down with peach wine. We sat there for hours while the kids played in the ocean right in front of us. The restaurant was full of tourists from Australia, South Africa and America and soon we had made friends with other diners. This may have been one of the most blissful days of my life. Around 5.00pm we decided to take the boat back into Positano central to shop for dinner, buy some souvenirs and generally meander around. The day finished with an excellent dinner cooked by John sitting on the veranda watching the sun set on the boats in the water in front of us. Heaven!!

What have you heard about Naples? Perhaps like me you have heard a myriad of horror stories about bags being snatched or slashed from passing scooters, mafia, muggings, grime, noise and chaos. Those stories prevented me from visiting Naples last time I was in Europe and led to some serious trepidation on our visit this time.

So it was with some paranoia that we arrived in this city in the hot afternoon sun. The paranoia was only fuelled by arriving at our hotel (in the seedy part of town) and finding a locked gate in front. After getting the bags up 4 flights of stairs we were very concerned when the receptionist told us she needed our passports for at least 10 minutes. What did she need them for? Was this an identity theft scam? After hiding all passports, credit cards and computers around the room,we left to meet John and Joanne in the city centre. I left my hand bag in the room in case a scooter ripped it from my shoulder as we walked up the streets.

As we walked up the streets, paranoia gradually gave way to delight and delight soon grew to joy. Napoli is seedy, beautiful, hot, steamy, grimy, vibrant, decaying, colourful, alive, magnificent, dangerous, noisy, chaotic and incredible! The beautiful and the ugly coexist in the same space and ALL life is out there on the streets for everyone to see. In one moment I saw a man and a woman having a punch up in the street and the in another I would see a couple embracing and kissing passionately.

The streets were alive with people, markets and celebrations for a Saint’s feast day. Scooters roared up the streets and we had to jump out of the way. After some exploring we decided to have dinner at the very first restaurant in the world to serve pizza (if you’ve seen Eat Pray Love you’ll remember this restaurant where Julia Roberts was having pizza) . Inside was white tiles and they only served two types of pizza – for $4 each. I knew it would be good – everyone said it would be fantastic – but the marinara pizza (which doesn’t have seafood – it’s just marguerita pizza without cheese) was the most amazing pizza I have ever tasted.

By the time we emerged from the restaurant it was dark and the vibe in the street had changed. The roads were packed with motorbikes and they were in an aggressive mood. Crowds were spilling out of the footpaths onto the streets forcing us into the path of vehicles. In dark side streets men would sit in the middle if the road on chairs ( what is that all about?) and we’d have to walk past them. I felt relieved to get behind the gate of the hotel (and now I began to understand why we had a gate).

The next day we met John and Joanne after breakfast and did a tour of the underground city. Here we learnt the tunnels had first been fashioned by the Greeks 300 years before Christ as water storage places and later used as refuge by locals during the bombings of WWII. It was a fascinating tour through tunnels so narrow we had to walk sideways holding a candle but the most fascinating part came at the end when we explored the old Roman Theatre from underground. We went though an old house which we learnt dated back to 200AD where an old lady had lived until recently. After she died they discovered her house had a secret – when she rolled her bed back there was a trapdoor underneath, and underground was a wine cellar (where they think she did some black market deals during the war). Further excavations revealed her cellar was part of the “back stage” for the old Roman Theatre which had crumbled long ago. It was a great tour.

After that we had lunch at an amazing bar – for $1 each we had arincini balls stuffed with cheese and mince and fried pizza. Gorgeous! Then we walked to the Spanish Quarter where washing hung out across the narrow streets and scooters raced through intersections. Men with no shirts stood in the streets, women leaned out of their windows and children raced past us on motorbikes. It was clear that life was on the streets. We took a cable car to the top of the hill, looked at an old castle and had an apero looking at this amazing view with Vesuvius in the background.

By this time our feet were killing us. We walked down the hill (probably about 1000 steps) and finished the night with an amazing meal. The food in Naples is beautiful.

Yesterday was what Chris and I call a red light day – it’s a day when every intersection you come to has a red light. The trick is to recognise it and accept it – after that things go much more easily. We should have recognised that it was a red light day when despite our great intentions to get to St Peters before 9.00am to avoid the crowds, we actually got there a bit after 11.00 and just missed seeing the Pope. The crowds were unbelievable, so we abandoned our plans and decided to head off to the catacombs instead.

I had done 3 minutes research on the catacombs before we left the apartment and had a vague idea of where they were – I knew what street they were in and the number of the bus to get there as well as name of the bus station to catch the bus. We did a quick google search on a mobile, decided the bus station was at Termini and headed off to the nearest metro to get there. That part was smooth, and after getting to Termini we found a fabulous pizza place for lunch where we had lunch standing up outside. But when we looked for our bus at the station there was no sign of it. A rude man at the information counter told us to catch two different buses with a change at San Giovanni. We dutifully got on the first bus, but after about an hour, driving out to the outer suburbs of Rome (which was very interesting!) with no sign of San Giovanni, we knew for sure something had gone wrong when the bus stopped at a station, the engine switched off and the driver got off. John spoke to the driver and understood the bus was heading back and San Giovanni was somewhere on the route. Thank god for the iPhone – Chris pulled it out and worked out they if we alighted at a stop half way through the route, it would only be a km walk to our destination. So it was with relief they we alighted in the hot, hot sun and walked along a busy road and quickly found our first catacombs. For some reason we decided to walk past the first ones (probably because there was a tourist coach outside) and kept walking for the next ones another km along the road. We got to the gates and saw they were closed on Wednesdays. THAT was when I recognised it was a red light day! So we trudged back to the first ones.

After that it was all smooth – we arrived just in time for an English speaking guided tour and we had a lovely tour guide. She explained that the underground church we were sitting in was one of the first churches in world, used by persecuted Christians. We then walked through the catacombs (there were 4 levels and 17kms of tunnels) and showed us the rooms of tombs (now empty) used by the early Christians. We were struck by how small the tombs were and learnt that even burly Roman soldiers were only about 5 feet tall! We also saw one of the earliest Roman art works – a fresco beside a tomb depicting St. Peter, St. Paul and some doves. It was a really interesting trip!

The next morning, we left our apartment at 8.00am, and even with a stop for coffee and a cornetto, we arrived at St Peters at 8.30am – no crowds, no queues! We decided to begin the tour by climbing to the top of the Dome where the views of Rome were stunning.

When we walked to the bottom we found ourselves inside of the church which is massive and awe inspiring. We then joined a queue going downstairs and saw the tombs of many Popes which was pretty special. Chris and I were keen to see the Sistine chapel but by the then the crowds had swelled to epic proportions so instead we walked home, bought a beautiful pizza sandwich for lunch, deposited the kids in the apartment and had a couple of pleasant hours shopping around Rome. Our final dinner in Rome was lovely but it was with a heavy heart that we said goodbye. We all LOVE this wonderful city. Tomorrow is Naples which I am told is beautiful, vibrant, loud, dangerous and quintessentially Italian.

After breakfast we walked past the Bornas’ apartment, picked them up and walked to The Forum. The walk, which in reality was only 2-3 kms away, took a couple of hours after we had stopped at a myriad of shops. The shops here are fantastic – beautiful boutiques selling really lovely things that are unique and different to Australia. Eventually we came to the Forum and had a look at it from the outside before heading back into the city for lunch.

So far the food in Rome had been a bit disappointing – while perfectly fine it seemed no different and certainly no better than anything that we could have bought in Lygon St. On this occasion however, John got a recommendation from a local retailer and we found ourselves in a very crowded and ordinary looking little bar that ended up selling the most delicious food we have had so far in Italy (and it was very cheap).

After lunch we walked back to the colosseum, and following the. recommendation of someone we had met the day before, purchased our tickets at The Forum, thus avoiding the long queues. The tour around the Colosseum was very interesting and we learnt a lot. The area around the Colosseum used to be a massive palace built by Nero and the site of the Colosseum was his own private lake. In his palace he had built a 35 metre gold statue of himself. After he died, his successor, Hadrian, built the Colosseum and placed the statue outside where it nearly towered over the building. It was the statue, Collosus, that gave the colosseum it’s name.

We walked back and ended up having dinner right outside the Pantheon. By this time, everyone as really tired so we all had an early night.

The following morning, we met John and Joanne at the Campo de Fiore where I bought some fruit, bread, meat and cheese and had a delicious coffee. We came back to our apartment for sandwiches and then headed up the street to hire some bicycles. Cycling around Rome seemed a romantic idea – I had pictured cycling along the bike path next to the river, perhaps to the top of the hill near Villa Boughese to admire the view. It didn’t quite work out like that. It turns out that Rome doesn’t really go in for bike paths – instead we found ourselves cycling down busy roads, screaming through intersections before being hit by cars, the handbars rattling so hard on the cobblestones that my watch came off. At one stage I got far behind the others and I found myself negotiating a heavy inspection on my own, getting a bike wheel caught in a tram track and then having to stop on a busy road when my drink bottle fell off. At times we cycled through very crowded pedestrian streets and that was almost as hair raising. Towards the end we were cycling along the road next to the river in peak hour traffic, millimetres away from buses and fighting with motorbikes for space. As hair raising as it was, we did note with surprise that Roman traffic is surprisingly forgiving of tourists on cycles. Nick loved it, but Chris (who had Michael on a passenger seat on the back) and I had had enough! We called it a day and with great relief, and no broken bones, returned the bikes to the shops on shaking legs.

I needed a stiff drink after that, so we retired to a cafe and sat outside watching the crowds and had a couple of aperos. From there we got a some dinner at a nearby restaurant, enjoyed a few laughs and floated home.

After a lazy breakfast at home, some washing and catching up, we got a text from the Bornas family telling us that they had arrived in Rome and were ready for lunch! We met them at the Piazza Navona at 1230 and found a restaurant nearby to enjoy lunch and a great catch up. It was fantastic to see them, lots of stories to share and it was lovely to see the kids so excited to see each other too. After a couple of hours we walked to the Castel Sant Angelo and did a tour inside. This used to be the mausoleum of Hadrian and several other popes afterward. The place is full of great stories. The statue of angel Michael sheathing his sword was erected after the pope had a vision of him and knew that it signalled the end of a terrible plague that had wiped out many Romans. The Statue is in bronze now, but an earlier marble statue had been pulled down by the Pope’s troops during a siege and launched at attacking troops below. The castel is located close to the Vatican and several Popes have had to make a quick getaway to the castel through a secret tunnel when St. Peter’s was under attack.

The Bornas had had a hectic few days in Paris and an overnight train trip to Rome and were beginning to flag so we said arrivederci and came home. Chris and Nick were very keen for me to do the Segway tour they had done the night before, so at 7.00pm Chris and I walked up the road and began our tour.

At first I felt very insecure on the Segway. We had a 5 minutes practice in the laneway before we took off for St Peters. I wobbled along the streets trying to avoid pedestrians but by the time we got to St Peters 15 minutes later, I was feeling much more confident. We were incredibly lucky – there were only three of us and one guide and that meant we could quizz him and ask lots of questions. The was so much about Rome that I didnt know but was able to learn about. For example, St Peters square was originally built as a games stadium by Nero. St Peter was crucified upside down in the square by Nero and his tomb was under the same square. That was why Emporer Constantine built the first church there around 300 AD.

We Segwayed to The People’s Square and the old entrance to the city, the hill above the square with the most amazing view of the city at night, down again to the Spanish Steps, around the Roman Column and the building where the Prime Minister lives, the Pantheon and finally an ice cream store where I had the best ice cream I have ever tasted in my life (a flavour called Fridgidarium – caramel and chocolate – with big biscuit in it and dipped in chocolate). By the time I had finished the ice cream I was covered in it like a little kid and needed a wash down! The Segway tour was a total highlight, not least of which because we had our own personal guide for Rome who was very knowledgable and passionate about his city!

The train journey from Milan to Rome was utterly painless and we enjoyed a special price – both children were free! After saying goodbye to Fiona at Republicca and buying tickets at the central station we settled into the Eurostar. Chris negotiated with people sitting in our seat – so typically Italian! – and then accidentally dropped his drink bottle on the lady’s head, leading to a furious telling off from her husband and Chris looking murderous and snarling “scusi” several times. By the time we reached Florence one hour later however, we were great friends with the couple. Like several Italians we had already met, they seemed scandalised that we would take 3 months’ holiday because in Italy employment is so tenuous and 40% of young people are unemployed.

We arrived in Rome right on time (we believe his is somewhat unusual so we must have been lucky), weaved our paranoid way through the crowds avoiding gypsys as far as possible, and straight to a taxi.

Roma, Roma, Roma. I was almost scared that because I loved France so much that my love affair with Rome would have waned. No chance! If Paris is grand is beautiful, Rome is magnificent and awe inspiring. Every time we turned a corner it was KAPOW! Then we’d turn another corner and it was KAPOW, KAPOW!! I had forgotten how amazing this city was.

After settling into our apartment, which turns out to be in the Vie dei Coronari which is one of the most beautiful streets in Rome, we meandered the fascinating and ever changing streets and lane ways to look at the Spanish Steps (under renovation, thick with crowds and a total let down), Trevi Fountain (also under renovation – I was devastated but threw my coin in any way), Piazza Navona and the Pantheon (totally amazing). It was hot and sticky and we finished off the day with pizza and pasta in a small restaurant across the road, a cool shower and a sleep in cool cotton sheets watching the curtain blow in the breeze and listening to the Italians downstairs calling to each other.

This morning Chris got up really early and took some amazing photos around Rome. The rest of us arose around 7.30 and headed out looking for breakfast and walked up to St Peter’s basilica. The crowds were thick, the sun was hot and we were told it was a two hour wait, so we walked around the square and vowed to return early on Monday morning. We had bought some pasta and vegetables from an expensive deli ( everything in Rome is so expensive so far) took them home and I made pasta and salad for lunch. After a bit of a rest we hit the town again exploring some more – Piazza Navona, Campo Fiori where we bought “penis pasta” (pasta in the shape of a penis) for Michael. In our explorations we discovered a Segway tour through Rome at night. Unfortunately Michael is far too young for this endeavour and so after an early dinner Chris and Nick headed off for a great adventure, while I settled in at “home” to watch Eat, Pray, Love. Tomorrow morning the Bornas arrive and our Italian adventure steps up a notch!

It was with a heavy heart that we said goodbye to beautiful St Felix. We dropped our car off at Toulouse airport, caught a transit bus to the railway station, and boarded a train to Nice. The train ride was only 6 hours but it felt much, much longer, perhaps in part because of our early start. When we finally pulled into Nice at 8.00pm we were really hot and tired. Luckily our hotel was very close by and after a quick check in, we were really keen to explore a little. Nice has grown up a lot since I last saw it 25 years ago and has become very glamorous. After trailing though the dodgy end of town we emerged into a beautiful boulevard full of trams and gorgeous stores. It was late, and they were all closed but there were crowds everywhere and soon we found a delightful fountain that looked like something out of Hollywood.

We walked down to the beach and listened to a man playing piano on the boardwalk and it felt quite magical.

The next morning we had time for a quick scoot around town in day light before catching a taxi to the aeroport to boards our bus heading for Milan. After the ordeal on the train the day before, and given the bus cost a quarter of the price of the train, we were bracing ourselves for a hard day. But much to our delight, the bus was very comfortable and the drive was beautiful as we drove past Monte Carlo, San Remo and broke the drive in Genoa. It felt amazing to be back in Italy but I was immediately struck by how run down it looked compared to France and compared with when I last saw it.

Eventually we pulled into Milan, jumped onto a metro train and ended up at a train station ready to head out to my friend Fiona’s house outside of Milan. Here began the tricky part! Our French SIM no longer worked and Fiona needed us to text her when we were on the train so that she could pick us up from the train station. Mmmm…..phone retailers closed, no public telephones in sight….it seemed my only option was to approach strangers and ask to use their phone which made me feel deeply uncomfortable. Armed with the tiny bit of Italian I had learnt while on the bus, I approached a lady and asked to use her phone. To my surprise she readily agreed – but as I was working out the Italian keyboard and the predictive text, her train arrived. I hit send anyway so Fiona received a message that read something like “Hi Fiona bahagdgdgshshdjdh”. I wasn’t sure if that was going to cut it, so I asked another lady if I could use her phone and again she readily agreed (aren’t Italians kind? ) this time I called Fiona but the phone rang out. I wasn’t too perturbed – I figured that Fiona would get the gist of the text or even call the lady whose phone I had used and learn that we were about to board the train. But when we arrived at Gallarate station there was no sign of her. Luckily there was a public call box across the road so I tried to call – but it kept spitting the money back at me and it wouldn’t accept my card. By now despair was starting to creep in at the edges and I was wondering how big a hike the local hotel would be, when Chris came up with the idea of putting his Australian SIM into his phone and using that. It would cost us $20 but who cared! She answered and it turned out that she had called the lady whose phone we used but was waiting at a different station (the one we were supposed to get off at) and within 5 minutes she as there, pulled into a taxi zone in typical Italian fashion, loading up our bags and we were off to meet her gorgeous sons William (8), Nicolas (5) and her lovely husband Carlo.

I haven’t seen Fiona in 15 years – many of those years she has been liviing in Italy. After 3 bottles of wine, sitting up until 2.00 in the morning it felt like no time since we had seen each other.

We slept so well but rose early the next morning to get into Milan and meet Hermione who had flown down from Belgium. The three of us hung out together through uni and had many, many naughty adventures. Hermione was my best friend in those important years between 18-22 and I was really looking forward to seeing her and meeting her two daughters, only 2 and 4 years old. We spent an amazing day exploring Milan, seeing the famous duomo and arcade and catching up on news in between attending to one child or others’ needs.

We finished the afternoon with an open top bus ride around the city.

Catching up with Fiona and Hermione was just fantastic!! Even though it had been so long, and so much had changed in our lives, we found ourselves in this city on the other side of the world from where we had met, still having so much in common and sliding into our old groove.

The next day we had planned to go to Como, but Fiona and Hermione suggested it could be a bit disappointing for us, so instead we spent the day in the sun by the pool – more chatting and catching up! It was just fantastic to see my two old friends – such a blessing really – and I sincerely hope we will see them again soon.