Day 2 - Rome, Italy

We arrived in Rome Yesterday. Our flight was very long not without drama. Dear Patrick left his passport on the plane at Bangkok airport, after a lot of stressful waiting around it was located and we continued on our way.

We are staying in a lovely little apartment very close to the Vatican City \240which we are visiting today. The weather is quite warm and a little humid. We wondered around yesterday and found a fantastic fresh food market, we bought some Gorgonzola cheese bread and ham for a gourmet lunch. We found a lovely little restaurant for dinner and had traditional pizza and pasta, very simple and satisfying. We have all slept well, (Pat is still asleep, Maddie and Michael have gone out to get some brekky). Looking forward to today's adventures.

Day 2 - Rome, Italy

Today we visited the Vatican. We went on a guided tour through the St Peter Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. It is quite an amazing place, the wall surrounding it is very tall and imposing. There was a heavy security presence with armed army personnel with machine guns stationed at the entrances. Apparently 30 000 people go there daily. We ate pasta and pizza again for a late lunch. Very satisfying.

Day 3 - Rome Italy

Today Michael, Maddie and Patrick visited the Colleseum, unfortunately I couldn't go as I was feeling unwell with a migraine. So I spent the day in bed.

I have attached some photos, it was very hot, M,M and P enjoyed the amazing sites but were definitely cooked in the sun.

Day 4 - Rome to Florence

We are on the train now from Rome to Florence. It is super fast and very scenic. The country side is just beautiful, rolling green hills, some cropped with cute farm houses nestled in amongst, exactly what I imagined.

I just wanted to make a few notes about Rome.

1. Crossing the road was a nightmare. Take your life into your own hands. The drivers are CRAZY. Close your eyes and hope for the best. There are many zebra crossings but the pedestrian has to give way to the cars, the cars don't even slow down. Sometimes we waited for 10 minutes to find a break in the traffic to cross, even then there were cars coming in all directions.

2. The Italians are lovely. They always knew I was a tourist, must have been the bum bag!

3. The food is delicious. Pat even ordered a Zucchini flower and anchovy pizza last night, yes - a bit weird for Pat, in Italian it is called "Fiori De Zucca", Indie's surname is Fiori! He ate it all, must have been all the times I hid zucchini in homemade chocolate brownies.

Day 5 - Florence, Italy

Today we hit the shops, Florence is a shopping Mecca. We all managed to find something nice for each other. We managed to see some of the beautiful buildings during our travels. The most famous building for Florence is the Piazza del Duomo (see photo below), we will hopefully go inside and view before we leave Florence. There were many artists selling their art work on the street, they were quite amazing.

Day 6 - Florence

Today, was another beautiful hot day. Michael woke up early and visited the fresh market and came back with all sorts of delicious food. My favourite was the fresh fig, just delicious. After breakfast we ventured through the streets of Florence and found the Galileo Museum. This museum is dedicated to all things from the 15th Century, astronomy, mapping, early medical discoverys and mathematical marvels. There were examples of the machines and apparatus which were built hundreds of years ago to explain scientific problems. It was very interesting. My favourite was a world globe created in the 16th century, Australia was there, but only the Western half and Tasmania.

Day 8 - Florence, Italy

It is another hot morning, Today is our last day in Florence, we will be travelling to Paris, France tomorrow.

We enjoyed a great day of sightseeing yesterday, we joined a bus tour group and visited Pisa, San Gimignano and Siena.

Pisa was just as I expected, tall, ornate and historic with its renowned lean. The buildings surrounding the leaning tower were just as impressive. There was a cathedral next to the tower, the interior was spectacular with imposing marble columns and mosaics on the ceiling depicting Jesus and his story of love. We were lucky as we arrived early and beat the crowds. Maddie is loving all the dogs of Italy, you can take your dog everywhere, inside shops, historical places etc. A good mix of pure breeds and mutts.

We travelled onto San Gimignano after Pisa, there were many paddocks full of sunflowers all in their sunny glory. San Gimignano is a famous hilltop medieval village, surrounding the village were a patchwork quilt kaleidoscope of the landscape. Beautiful! I purchased some hazelnut crescent biscuits from here, so tasty will try and make some when I get home.

We stopped for some lunch at a local winery and then went onto Siena. We were feeling very tired by this time and didn't really feel like going. So glad we did. Siena is a magical place surrounded by an extensive wall, the walls were there to keep the people from Florence invading, Florence and Siena were at war for over 400 years, Florence did manage to rule for 6 years of this time where they ensured many buildings had the typical Florence emblems to mark their claim. The tour guide called Eve was very knowledgable and passionate about her home place, Siena. She spoke extensively of the famous horse race which occurs twice a year, 2nd July and 16th August. It is called The Palio Di Siena. Ten horses and riders, bareback and dressed in appropriate colours, represent 10 of the 17 city wards of Siena. This is a tradition which has occurred every year for the last 400 years. As part of the tradition, all the people of Siena dress up in traditional medieval costume to celebrate and watch the horse race. We enjoyed a traditional Sienan meal of lasagna, sliced beef and potato and minestrone soup. We arrived back at our apartment at 9pm, the sun was just setting.

Today we will be having a final wander of the streets of Florence before we leave tomorrow for Paris by train.

Day 9 - Florence to Paris

We are travelling on the train from Florence to Paris with a stop over at Milan. The travel time for whole journey is about 10.5 hours, quite a long time, the train is a little bit more comfortable than travelling by plane, the seats are wider and the carriage is quite empty. The country side is very pretty and green. Looking forward to arriving in Paris. Michael has been quite unwell with a head cold, we hope he improves for his bike ride this weekend.

We've arrived in Paris, wow, omg, what an amazing place. Everyone is so stylish and chic. Our apartment is so French, absolutely gorgeous, very traditional and old world. We are in a great location, the streets are alive tonight with the semifinal World Cup soccer match between France and Belgium, the pubs are full and very noisy, we definitely know when there is a goal scored, the French national anthem is sung very loudly. It's 1 nil French way at the moment.

We had an interesting meal tonight. We were quite hungry so we decided to wander the streets, we came across a restaurant and sat down and looked at menu, we thought there was chicken on the menu. We chatted to the couple next to us who were American, they were surprised we weren't Vegan! We realised we had made ourselves quite cosy in a vegan restaurant. We ordered and ate, it was one of the best meals I have had, not sure if Michael was too impressed with his vegan cheese burger! Pat wolfed down his Caesar salad. We met some lovely people from Sweden as well . It was a truely lovely evening. Very different to what we would normally do combined with the excited atmosphere. Looking forward to tomorrow's adventures.

France won!!!!!the streets are going crazy. It's going to be a noisy night tonight.

Day 10 - Paris

Its our first day in Paris. We started slow, but we still managed to see allot in one day. First stop was breakfast/lunch at a French cafe. The dish of the day was croque monsieur, it was a fancy ham and cheese toasty. Very tasty. It's another recipe I'm going to try at home.

We then headed down to the Louvre and wondered around the pyramid. It seemed so out of place but at the same time added mysteriousness probably because of Michael's continuos \240quotes from the Davinci Code book! We will be going inside the Louvre museum tomorrow.

Day 11 - Paris

We jumped on the open top tourist bus and travelled to the Louvre museum to go on a walk through. The Louvre was originally built as a military fort to protect Paris, then it was transformed into a palace for the Royal family and now it is a wonderful museum. We didn't manage to see it all, we were just exhausted walking and taking it all in. \240We did see the Mona Lisa, it is very popular. It was amazing seeing it "in the flesh" as the reproductions we see around don't do it justice.

We found a lovely BelgianMussel restaurant along the Champs Élysées. We enjoyed our meals of Mussels and prawns very much.

We finished they day off on the open top bus taking in more sights of Paris. We are heading to St Quentin tomorrow, it is in the North of France.

Day 13 - St Quentin - France

Today is Bastille Day in France, it has been pretty quiet so far. We travelled yesterday from Paris to St Quentin, it is quite a large village with a very large cathedral in the North East of France. Today was the first day of Michael and Patricks bicycle ride. They rode for approx. 50 km from a drop off point and finished at the finish line of stage 8 Tour de France in Amiens. They had a fantastic time, riding on the same road the professionals rode 2 hours later. The streets were lined on either side with spectators for at least \2405km. They got a real buz from it. The riders all got to stand on the podium and have their picture taken. We waited in hospitality section for the Tour de France riders to ride by and finish. All very exciting. A Dutch rider won this stage.

Day 15 - St Quienten to Paris to London

We are on our way to London now, it was very hectic making our way through customs at Paris to board the Eurostar, we had 1 minute to spare.

Yesterday, Michael and Patrick rode another part of the stage 9 Tour de France just before the professional riders came through. Patrick pinned an Australian flag to his back and rode along the streets which were lined with people, he loved the cheering from the Australians. M & P did lose the group and got lost on the way, luckily Michael phoned the organiser and they found their way again, it just added and extra 7km to their journey. Maddie is suffering from a head cold and had quite high temps the night before, so we didn't go with the boys, we stayed back at hotel room for Maddie to rest.

Last night was the World Cup final between France and Croatia. France won. The village was going crazy, it was was very noisy and celebrations went well into the early morning.