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

Italia

After a couple of lovely days in Florence we headed up to Milan, arriving at about 8 on Saturday night. We stayed in another rather posh hotel courtesy of lastminute.com's discounts and spent Sunday wandering among all the shops, seeing the Duomo (and climbing to the top) and searching for anywhere to eat – not much open on a Sunday. We ended up though with some really great take-away pizzas from a little pizzeria near our hotel.

We got to Venice about midday on Monday. What a city! It is so gorgeous and so surreal but the streets don't make any sense so we spent over an hour looking for our hostel and basically going in circles until a very nice women walked us over to the right street (which was actually only one street away anyway). Once we were free of our rucksacks we wandered over to Piazza San Marco (the most famous square in Venice) and treated ourselves to a Gondola ride because we decided we couldn't come to Venice and not. The gondola was great – definitely a highlight of our trip - and our gondolier told us plenty about where we were passing by.

Every corner of Venice is different and all of the views were fantastic. Today we walked over to a basilica on the point of the island and also checked out one of the main theatres which was very ornate and unlike any theatre I've ever been to before because, other than the stalls, the entire auditorium is made of boxes.

We arrived in Rome at 11.30 tonight and were met by Calum. Just getting ready for a good night's sleep. All pictures have now been uploaded, sorry for delay!

The problem with Interrailing is you rely on trains

We awoke extremely early on Tuesday morning to get to the train station in time for our 8.45 train to France and to escape the “Binjas” (Barcelona + Ninja = Binja [Gerard's phrase for the pick pockets]), only to find when we arrived at the station that it had been cancelled and the only other train crossing the border that day was an overnight train to Milan costing over £100 each! Thankyou travel insurance with excess waiver (we hope).

The rest of the day we spend planning how we were going to get from Milan to Nice. It turned out the best option was to get off the night train at Turin and run to the next station in 15 minutes to get a train to Ventimiglia before getting a train from there to Nice. We headed to check out the Nou Camp, which was cool because there were no Binja's and spent a long time eating lunch.

The train from Barcelona to Turin was awesome, very comfy in our own private cabin where we watched Changling and Slumdog Millionaire (very good films). Yesterday we manged to get to Monaco where Gerard did his best to work out the route for the Grand Prix. We climbed up the hill to the palace and got some stunning views over the cove and then went back to Nice where we walked along the beach and the Promenade before heading up an even bigger hill to see a giant waterfall at the top, which was gorgeous but just our luck the camera ran out of battery before we could take a picture.

It was a shame that we only had the half day in Nice because it was such a nice place. We think we'd definitely go back to the Riviera for a holiday – the views and the beaches were lovely.

This morning started before 4.30 am (not much fun) because we had a train at 5.15 to catch, but surprise surprise we got to the station and it had been cancelled! This really messed up our schedule because we should have arrived in Pisa at 11. Instead we took the next train, another train to Genova and caught the Eurostar to Pisa (but guess what? - this train was delayed by 40 minutes).

Pisa, however was great and cheered us up a lot. The tower was pretty cool and we did our best to correct the lean (see photos). We also had some great ice cream before heading back to the train station to reach Florence.

Florence is beautiful. It is like an artist has painted and sculpted a city in the middle of tuscan hills. We arrived and went for a walk to Plaza Michaelangelo to watch the sunset. The next day we again took a wander marvelling at the Cathedral in particular before entering into some lovely gardens full of amazing sculptures.

Our first disappointment...

Our last day in Seville was again sweltering and we were finally able to check out the cathedral and bell tower. Cathedral was very ornate inside but neither of us particularly liked it as all the chapels were behind bars making it seem quite foreboding but the views from the tower were great. It was then off for some more tapas for lunch, a shared frozen margarita and an ice cream before braving the heat with our backpacks to walk to the train station.

Upon arriving in Barcelona we took the tube to the student halls on the outskirts where we staying for the first night. On this first metro journey we were aware that there were two guys apparently targeting us with one bystander overhearing their conversation and intervening (Gerard: he slapped one of them in the face) so they got off the train. This made us feel very uneasy and rightly so because yesterday on an equally crowded train someone managed to steal my purse and sunglasses from inside my handbag - despite me trying to watch it at all times. Thankfully there was no real money in it anyway.

All the Gaudi stuff in Barcelona was really cool - the Sagrada Familia is spectacular - but we never felt safe in this city, unlike the others - not a welcoming vibe in the city.

On a more positive note we had a great paella and bottle of cava on Sunday night and our bargain 5 star hotel room was very luxurious.

Its hot!

After Lisbon we moved on to Faro on Wednesday where we spent a relaxing five hours at the beach. It was great to have some time to chill after being so busy but it did come with a slight downside. When we got back to the hotel we both discovered that, despite lashings of suncream, we managed to get some very patchy patterns of sunburn! So we have been incredibly careful ever since. lol. We had a great meal in Faro at night - which also included a litre of white wine for 3.50 and then a wander by the harbour.

And so to Seville. We got the bus at 8.30 to arrive in Seville by 12. As we were traveling we watched as steadily the temperature gauge climbed from 22 degrees up to 39 as we arrived in Seville. Yesterday it hit 42 in the afternoon and its been the same today. We are literally melting but having a great time still.

Seville is gorgeous. Yesterday we explored the city a bit ourselves seeing the cathedral (but not inside because it was closed for a festival) and various Plazas. We asked for a recommendation of where to go for lunch and headed to a very popular restaurant "Coloniales" for some tapas where we had four generous plates of tapas which, in Gerard's words, made the tapas in Madrid look like McDonalds. Andalucia is meant to be traditionally well known for its tapas.

We had planned to take a tour of the city but it was cancelled at the last minute but the guide did invite us round to another hostel later on for some free sangria, which naturally we took him up on and Gerard happily managed to get through 5 glasses of it, meaning we didn't have time for dinner before we headed to a bar for a free flamenco show, but given that lunch had been so late we weren't that bothered. The flamenco was really fun and we're hoping to go and see another show tonight.

Today we did manage to get our tour of the city which was again very interesting. After lunch the heat got a bit much to handle so we headed back to the fan in our hostel bedroom where I then learned that I got a 2:1 degree which I am ecstatic about so we definitely have to celebrate that tonight!

The rest so far (including the holy land!)

Fiona: On our last day in Madrid we decided to have a look at the cathedral after breakfast only to walk in a minute before mass was starting - we hadn't actually realised it was Sunday - so we were very good and decided to stay. The cathedral was gorgeous with lots of light pouring through the stained glass windows and the old organ was being put to good use during the mass - a lot of which was sung. After mass Gerard wanted to see the Bernabeu stadium - a big block of concrete if you ask me (Gerard agrees). The sun finally came out though for us in the afternoon and we had a wander down the main shopping street which lead to the Museo de Prado.

The second night train wasn't as good as the first and I didn't get a lot of sleep but it was fine - still comfier than a normal train.

The hostel in Lisbon is very nice and the owners are so friendly. We both absolutely love Lisbon! We have been on two tours of the old town (which we are very close to) which were amazing value for money because we were the only people who showed up on both days and this morning we had two guides as well. The first tour explored the Western half of the city and we saw places we wouldn't even have known existed including a Jezuit church which is incredibly ornate on the inside but very plain outside so you would think it is nothing special. There is a lot of history in the buildings and there are many ruins dating back to the Roman empire. This morning's tour included the castle and cathedral (among other monuments) and when we were finished we asked our guides to recommend somewhere for lunch. They took us to a fantastic little restaurant in the middle of a deserted side street where we had the best meal we have had so far. Gerard had pork in a mushroom sauce and I had pork wrapped in cabbage parcels with rice (very traditional food).

On our tour yesterday afternoon our guide also took us to a pastry shop for custard tarts. This place must make hundreds of these a day, and he also took us for a drink of (this is spelled wrong) ginging - a cherry liquor made from brandy, caramel and cinnamon - very sweet and very strong but also dirt cheap. It was the only thing this little shop sold.

At 7.30 last night (just as I was about to make dinner for us in the hostel) Gerard discovered that there was a way to get to Estadio National by train, and as it was a traveling day for us on inter-rail we would get there for free. So off we went on empty tummies (Gerard a tad more willingly than me).

Gerard: First things first, we as Celtic fans have been duped. How can anyone say that the final was played in Lisbon? - it is miles away! The train to the station took around 15 minutes and the walk from the Station to the stadium was about the same (despite dragging an unwilling girlfriend). The good thing about the walk was that it increased the anticipation because the floodlights towered over the forest that hid the stadium. 15 minutes later, we turned a corner and there in front of us was the stadium.

Many don't know but the stadium is still used today for the Portuguese Cup Final (our tour guide informed us that this year Porto won) so one would expect not to be able to get into the stadium. Wrong. We literaly walked right through the gate where I then took far too many photos and stood below the actual spot where Billy lifted the trophy (I would have stood on the exact spot but the area was cordoned off). We then left the stadium by walking onto the pitch and through the gate we opened.

Fiona: This afternoon (after our great lunch) we took the tram out to Belhem and saw the tower built on the water and the Monastry. This is also a lovely bit of the city right on the coast as the river meets the sea and there is a great view. We didn't really go inside the monuments because we felt that we'd already spent enough money but Lisbon is absolutely somewhere we would like to visit again.

Madrid day 2

Yesterday was a fairly more relaxing day. I started the morning with the local chocolate palmier for breakfast - it was huge and even with Gerard's help I couldn't finish it but it was tasty. We then went for a wander and passed a train station Gerard had read about where there are palm trees in the centre surrounded by a pond full of tortoises, so naturally we went in to see - there were hundreds of them and it was pretty cool. See how many you can count in the picture.

We then headed to the main park in Madrid to make the most of the (sadly patchy) sunlight. The park was gorgeous and full of different themed areas and statues and fountains. While meandering we came across over 300 book stalls in a festival with local authors doing signings. Gerard was most impressed with the beer stall where you could get a free straw hat if you bought a half pint and so he did and we both looked slightly ridiculous in these hats for the next hour or so.

After the park we walked up to the bull fighting ring where it looked like a fight may have been taking place later on. Then it was back to the hostel to attempt to save some cash by cooking for ourselves - this was one funny experience! There were 7 people each trying to make something by fighting over 2 pots, 3 frying pans and 4 working hobs - a recipe for disaster. in the end me and Gerard politely stood at the side until we could grab a pot for our pasta. There was an Australian family with a grown up daughter who was trying to cook and her mum kept butting in and annoying her and commenting on how what we were doing to cook pasta was wrong. The father sat at the table in silence glaring at them and demanding that they cook him a fry up instead of the meal they were having themselves. There was also a spanish man who hogged the sink for 5 minutes just to wash three pieces of cutlery. All in all we had to just laugh.