Day 7

Another warm day in Italy- 36c.

We leave Venice for Rome, passing through many small towns, fields of tobacco, sunflowers, and fruit trees. The Appenines mountain range surround us and small villages are situated in the valleys and atop the mountains. Everything is beautiful and green and the houses are terra-cotta and sandstone in colour. We have several stops for coffee and I tried some camel balls for morning tea. HaHaha

We are sitting in the front seat of the bus today, due to seat rotation.There is something comforting about dozing to the banter of Carlo,the driver,and Patricia,the guide, talking in Italian to one another. I only wish I knew what they were saying! Greg is doing a lot of the dozing today, as he is suffering with a cough and temperature that seems to be going around the bus. Apparently a lot of tourists "hit the wall" at this stage of the tour and want to go home and get grumpy....it's possibly due to the early mornings and late nights!

Gracia has become our new favorite word and the Italians are certainly very hospitable and friendly and do try to "understand the english". The men are very fashion conscious and can be found wearing any colour trouser you can imagine, while hiding behind their sunglasses to check out any female passing.

My normal dainty feet have become a bit of a concern and look like elephant feet, incredibly swollen . So I decided to buy myself some thongs....our guide thought it was rather unusual that I would buy a thong to help my swollen feet. Hehehe

At lunch time we stopped off at Assissi, a town placed high on a hill, with of course magnificant views, where St Francesa Assissi was buried and a Basilica is named after him. A monastery is also on the site as well as homes and shops. St Assissi was the first saint of the catholic church that was credited with having the stigmata . The Basilica was beautiful, with amazing painted ceilings,and adornments. We also viewed the tomb of St Assissi. We had a quick look around the shops and a rest out of the intense heat before continuing our journey to Roma / Rome.



Greg continued to doze for the rest of the day and we arrived in Rome at 5 pm.

At 630 pm we head out again for a tour of Rome by night - with another thousand tourists. Dusk was setting as we toured around the colosseum, threw a coin in the Trevi fountain (1 coin- is a wish to one day return to Rome. 2 coins- to find love. 3 coins - for divorce), visited Vientiane sq, walked up the spainish steps and a quick look at Vatican city by night (the smallest independent state in the world, 1 sq km ). Followed by an Italian meal at 9 pm, of 4 courses at a local restaurant with serenading and all things Italian .


In Italy breakfast is a strong coffee, lunch is between 1-3 and dinner 9 pm or later.
So when in Rome you do as the Romans do!

The night finished at 11 pm,with roses and kisses for all the ladies and some very tired Aussies headed for bed.

Cheers Leanne xx



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Location:Rome