All roads lead to Rome!

Wednesday morning began searching for Gerard's family in the crowd in St Peter's Square before taking our seats to see the Pope again. We were in the front row of our section so he drove right by us in his pope-mobile waving away. It was scorching in the square so we went for lunch after before getting an ice-cream by the pantheon and we also saw the Trevi fountain, piazza Navonna and Spanish steps and got a great view of Rome from the Villa Borgehse (the park behind the Spanish steps).

After dinner we decided to see the Trevi at night and got plenty more pictures before me and Gerard realised that it was getting late. We rushed back to the train station but had missed the last train. It then took over an hour for us to find the right bus stop to get back to Calum's house but we did eventually - although the bus driver was an absolute lunatic!

Our second day was spent at the Vatican all morning as well. The boys all climbed to the top of the dome – which took them two hours because e a couple of American women fainted and had to be carried out – while me and Kathleen went down to the crypts to see the tombs of the Popes. In the afternoon we had the best ice- cream ever (and I mean ever) from the little shop near the Vatican (if you're ever in Rome it's called the Old Bridge). Gerard was not very skilled at keeping his ice cream from melting all over his cone – pictures will be up soon, and we all met up with Callum for dinner in La Storta later on.

Rome day 3 started at the other side of the city. We saw the pyramid (not really sure why it's there) and the Knights of Malta. If you look through the key hole to their building you can see 3 states at once because you are standing in Italy, looking through to the Knights of Malta and can see St Peter's dome perfectly framed through the trees. We then wandered towards the Colosseum and the mouth of truth and walked all the way back to the Vatican so we could go pass a restaurant that Gerard really wanted to go to for lunch. In the evening we went with Callum to a teacher's barbecue near the lake because it was their last day of work for the summer.

On Saturday Callum drove us down to Pompeii where we spent an interesting couple of hours among the ruins and we climbed Mount Vesuvius (from the car park). Vesuvius was fantastic – we could see steam rising from the crater and we also had a glass of local wine at the top of the volcano. Then we headed over to Collelongo to visit Pasquellina and her family in the house where my dad (unwillingly) spent all his summer holidays. Pasquellina had a huge five course meal ready for us when we arrived – I just couldn't believe it every time she produced more food for us.

We saw around the village today and met a lot of people who knew exactly who I was although I couldn't speak a word of Italian to them. We had Sunday lunch with some home-made fettuccine and then drove back to Callum's for the boys to watch the football.

Heading home first thing tomorrow so it's time for the top five (drum roll please...)

Fiona:
1.Rome
2.Paris
3.Lisbon
4.Florence and Venice

Gerard:
1.Rome
2.Lisbon
3.Paris & Florence
5.Venice