Well, in summary, our trip to Italy was awesome. Awesome company, awesome place, awesome food (though we were over it not long into the trip), awesome sights and awesome history. We also tried the whole train travel thing, with only 1 flight to return back to London. So, where to begin…?
We started out by catching the Eurostar to Paris and spent the day with Vi Anh and Catherine who had been there for a few days. We did our favourite-Paris-things-to-do and bought yummy eclairs and crepes. Then we found our overnight train to Venice. Note of warning to others wanting to do this - buy some dinner before hand as the food on board is crappy and runs out fast. We were pretty excited about the cool gadgets in the cabin of the train, but eventually we settled into some sleep. Of course, I was the only one who didn’t sleep very well. I felt a bit like the mother hen looking after her chickens! Or something…
Arrived in Venice (late) and set off to find some yummy Italian food. Oh did we find yummy food. Huge slices of pizza and a rolled up ball of cheese - with some bread hidden in there somewhere. Luckily Vi Anh saved the day with some lactose tablets so her and Kim could actually eat in Italy 
Venice was beautiful. Such a different place! While the girls were off shopping (a constant theme to this trip), Kim and I just got lost in the many streets next to the many canals. Visited St Marks Square via waterbus but unfortunately a strike the following day meant we couldn’t get to Murano. The heat was a bit of a shock for those of us currently living in London too!
After two days, we’d had enough of Venice - the place was full of tourists! So we hopped on our next overnight train to Rome. A few games of cards later and we settled down to a bit of a better night’s sleep (for me anyway). Arrived in Rome a bit sleep deprived and made our way to our gorgeous apartment right in the centre of Rome. A great find I must say and the owner/manager was so nice
We dumped our bags, had the best shower of our lives and set off for the Colosseum. Wow. Breathtaking. Remarkable. Huge! We decided to skip the queue with a tour guide (well worth it for €10). Inside was spectacular, though it was boiling hot! We were very glad we’d seen Gladiator too at that point!
As part of our entry to the Colosseum, we had entry and a guide to the Palatine Hill which overlooks the Roman Forum. Our guide was terrific and an Aussie We learnt all about the history of the Palatine Hill, the origin of the word Palace and of course the Roman Forum itself. I was just blown away by the amazing history of this place. It was mind blowing! I could go on, but then this post will be HUGE.
That night, we joined our Aussie friend for a night tour around Rome. We saw some beautiful churches (including the world’s smallest), the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon (of which was another highlight for us - what a fantastic feat of engineering not to mention the sheer age of it!) and then onto Piazza Nouvre where there was a rally going on. Exhausted, we trekked home after another yummy dinner (though growing sick of pizza and pasta by this stage).
Next day we were up for a trip to Vatican City! How amazing this place was and we once again joined our Aussie friend who is such a history buff not to mention a huge fan of Michaelangelo. The museum’s, the sistine chapel, St Peter’s, St Peter’s dome from which is a pretty damn awesome view of Rome, Tombs of St Peter’s, some postcards home with Vatican City stamps and of course St Peter’s Square and sheesh - we’d conquered the Vatican! And as you might guess, we were pretty damn tired :S Nothing a gelati can’t fix though 
Day 3 in Rome and the shops were to be hit! I guess that’s what happens when you travel with 18/20 year olds ey?! We made our way along the mile strip of shopping and eventually found ourselves at the Spanish steps which wasn’t all that spectacular really. Off again to our next destination and to see Catherine off back to Paris.
We caught a train down to Naples and then a suburban train to Sorrento. When we got there, low and behold, our accommodation had closed and the buzzer/phone thingy was going through to a message (in Italian of course). After asking some locals, I tried to call them on a mobile number. No answer. So we figured we should try and find somewhere else to sleep for the night! We stopped into one place and the guy said €150 for the night. We said thanks, but no thanks. Onto the public phones (after being rudely told by a local shop that no, I couldn’t use his phone even if I did pay him), to call some other hotels and beg for a bed or 3. With the cost of accommodation in this place up around €250 a night, at one point I was telling one of them that 3 of us didn’t mind sleeping in a king size bed together So what do you do in this situation? Go back to the cheapest one and beg! So we did and I negotiated him down to €120 for the night. We were just about to hand over the cash when I get a call from our original accommodation place who was apologising profusely and saying the key was left in the pot plant the whole time for us! Dammit! So we left the hotel we were begging at only to hear the guy say ‘if you come back, we have no beds’ very rudely. Next time we’ll check the pot plant.
Sorrento is your typical resort town with far too many tourists. Though the coast was absolutely beautiful. The first day we went to Pompei - how amazing was that!? A whole city frozen in time! And the brothel is still standing with pictures advertising what the customers would get! Not to mention the place was run by the government - what the!? Absolutely brilliant place though - highly recommended.
Following day we took a bus down to Amalfi. And how beautiful was the scenery!? Only problem was that we all felt so sick by the time we got there from the winding roads and crazy bus driver that we didn’t really feel like sight seeing! But we hung around for a gelati and then went back to Sorrento for some more shopping. Shops open til 10.30pm - how cool is that?
The next day, our last day, we caught a ferry to Naples, got yelled at by a taxi driver because we didn’t want a ride with him, then made our way to the train station only to find all trains to Rome were delayed by about 2 hours. We made the best of it and played card games, much to the delight of some locals (strangely). Got back to Rome, then to the airport and finally arrived back home in London at 2am. And yes, unfortunately we had to work the next day.
An exhausting but thoroughly enjoyable trip! It was great to have Vi Anh and Catherine with us too - we’ve never known anyone to shop quite that much only to do it all over again 3 days in a row in London too! Impressive! Now… where to for the next trip?
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