Today we caught a shuttle bus to the top of the lovely town of Cortona and the Cortona Fort (Fortezza Medicea di Girifalco) it dates back to the 13th century. Up here in the old fortress was a display of art work by Val Di Chianna that was open to the public. The view from the top of the fortress was incredible. We walked back down and visited the Church of St. Francis. This is a magnificent church that has been totally renovated to it’s original inside and out. You are not allowed to take photos inside. Inside is a small retangular container the holds a golden cross that contains a fragment of the cross the Christ was crucified on and dates back to the 10th century. The photo outside shows concrete blocks on the roof holding down the tiles.
This is a true Tuscany town just as we had thought it would have been. It’s lovely and quaint and so typical Italian. Check out the photos.
We bought a pizza and had our ham/salami with a beer (yes I know it should have been wine but it was hot) on the balcony at our B&B over looking the main St. Now we really felt like we were in Tuscany. The town put on a cross bow competition and they all marched in period costume beating drums up the skinny streets… Wonderful moments..

Our new Peugeot had 6 km on the clock when we took possession (see photo). After the paperwork, setting up of Jennifer (GPS) & verbal instruction with a map, of we went, pulled out of the drive way & went the WRONG WAY. Whoops ….great start! Any way with many reminders to ‘keep right’ from Sheree we managed to find the autostrade where at times you could travel at 130km. 33deg Celsius outside. Our destination was Cortona with a stop at Montepulciano in Tuscany on the way. Well we got to Montepulciano & then the rain came down, so found a park & waited until it stopped. Then we went for a wonder up this lovely little town and bought some award wining wine and some local dried ham/salami. This stuff is delicious.
Took some photos of up the street and moved on to Cortona. Our B&B the Casa Chilenne was a bit harder to find and the streets here are really windy (and I mean windy) and skinny. Guess what..it started raining again. Our host Jeanette who is American and lived here for 25 years came out to meet us and take our bags while steven attempted to find a car park.
We got the most wonderful welcome with her home meringues and chocolate eclairs. Later on we went to the town square to seethe locals put on the annual re-enactment of a famous wedding.

Leaving the B&B was special as we had both a photo with Lucia (at her insistence) & then we had the kiss kiss on each cheek & we were off (who said you can’t communicate with a lot of sign language).
Then we tried to get in the elevator. Unfortunately our back packs were to big, so back out and down the stairs to the Roma Termini train station to catch our train to the airport and pick up our brand new Peugeot for the rest of our trip.

Today was the Vatican tour. As we had already sorted out where it was we would meet our tour guide it was with military precision that we got back to the underground and walked the short distance to the meeting point. Angelo was there to meet us and our 3 and a half our tour began.
We are so glad we booked this in advance as it was a hot day and the que spiraling around the Vatican wall was already 1 and a half hours long even at this time in the morning (9:15am).
The Vatican is a separate city of 110 acres within Rome. It has it’s own laws, currency, police, army of 110 soldiers and the people who work with in it pay no tax’s. You go through customs to get in with scanners but you do not need your passport. It was so busy inside with wall to wall people but Angelo our guide quickly got us on our way with ear phones in to hear his amazingly interesting commentary.
The Popes garage was huge with all the elaborate coaches that had been used by Popes on special parades or for visiting wealthy people. The white bullet proof Jeep that you often see him in on TV can only travel at 6km’s per hr.
The art work and sculptures that are just every where are totally overwhelming in there quantity and quality. It is truly a site to behold and no photo could ever really do any of it justice.
The Sistine Chapel was started in 1508 by Michael Angelo who then spent the rest of his life from his 40’s painting at the request of the Pope. Other painters where Raphael who also spend a lot of his life painting but died young.
St Peters Basilica is cob smacking in it’s size. It is so big that you loose concept of size. If you look at the pictures you will see writing about a third of the way up the walls inside the dome. These letters are 2.8 meters high but only look small in the vastness of this place. This is the biggest church in the world and no other church is allowed to be built bigger.
At the end of our tour we walked to catch a bus back but on the way stopped for a pizza and a gelato (ice-cream) which are so creamy and yummy.
So what do we think of Rome? Well it has to be seen to be believed. It’s very busy and noisy with people & cars. What does a crossing & a green or red light mean – well nothing a far as we could tell. Some streets we saw had litter & the smoke butts have to be seen to be believed especially at the tracks where we waited for the train to take us back to the airport. Otherwise the history & buildings were amazing & definitely need to be seen but we wouldn’t want to live there.

After such a late night we actually sleeped in, not waking up until Luccia was knocking on our door at 9:30am. We hastily got up and had the same breakfast as yesterday with her in our PJs.
Today was a public holiday for Republic day the anniversary of the creation of the Italian Republic. so that means that Rome would be very busy.
So off we went to negotiate the underground for the first time. Our destination was the ‘Piazza di Spagna’ which are the Spanish Steps (1723). These are made up of 138 steps the fountain at the foot is called ‘Fontana della Varcaccia, (1629) The church at the top with it’s two cupollas (1495) is the church of the Trinita’ dei Monti (The Church of the Kings)
We then got back into the underground and proceeded to Otivani close to the Vatican were we are to meet our guide for our tour tomorrow. While we where here we took some photos of St Peters Square. Getting tired by now we decided to negotiate the bus to ‘Campo de Fiori’ market which was easier said than done, as we could not find the bus stop. However this was meant to be because instead we found the Castle Saint’Angelo where we got a magnificent panorama of Rome. There was an exhibition on here that was really interesting, with a large painting (that we can not remember the name of) that had been borrowed from the Belgium museum.
Then we bused to our original destination the ‘Campo de Fiori’ that has a daily market. By this time it was after 4 pm and they had started packing up and then the rain came down. We started walking in the general direction of home looking for a bus stop again. We jumped on a very crowded bus and packed in with all the other sardines to home. After tea we hit the sack looking forward to our Vatican tour tomorrow.

After a broken sleep we were up early to have breakfast organized by Luccia the owner of the Flower house B&B, who does not speak a word of english. Breakfast consisted of a croissant with a sweet filling that is about the same size and shape of a bread roll. The coffee was really dark and only warm so had to try and explain this with sign language. Next was getting our air conditioner working properly and then organizing a key to get in the kitchen to access the fridge. As you can imagine with the language barrier it made for a few good laughs.
Our first stop after breakfast was the Santa Maria Maggiore Church. This just looks like another of Rome’s big buildings from the outside but once inside all you can do is hold your breath at how awesome it is. The pictures give some idea but you really have to be there.
The sound of Rome is the constant sirens from the police who travel in packs of at least a couple of cars and a motorbike as they negotiate at speed through the bewildering mass of traffic. One officer has half his body hanging out the car window with a large red Lollie pop in his had waving it franticly and shouting to let people know they are coming. Motorists then need to find somewhere to try and pull over to clear a path, but that is easier said than done especially when it is busy. street crossings are like taking your life in your hands as green crossing signal does not mean that cars will automatically stop. If they thing they can get through they still will. Conversely pedestrians just walk out waving there hands and the traffic eventually stops for them. What’s amusing is that older people are really good at this. Some how though it all seems to work.
Next we walked to the Colosseum. This just loomed up at us as we came around the corner and again it was one of those OMG moments. It was with great relief that we walked passed all the lines (3 hour wait) and got our pre booked unique tour tickets that incorperated the newly opened lower and upper levels. This proved to be a great choice as we got well away from the crowds and had an amazing tour. Check out all the photos. With the ones taken underneath you have to imagine the entire floor covered in and how dark and smelly it would have been with oil lamps and animals every where to be slaughtered, hundreds of slaves and the noise. Slaves would spend all their lives here. The word arena comes from the Latin meaning sand because they needed so much of it thrown on the floor above the slaves to soak up all the blood.
Our tour guide explained to us how it would all have looked in it’s day and all I can say is that it was vulgar in it’s opulence, size and also in it’s cruelty. On the one day an Emperor killed 1000 animals all on his own. Many animals were made extinct because of this practice.
Next was the Palintino. This was were all the houses of the rich and famous of the time lived. Again it is a sprawling area that would have been a sight to behold. All that is left today are the fallen down remains of what once was.
Then down on down to the Roman Forum this was like the centre of their economic life at the time. It was here that we went inside a temple to see an exhibition on Nero.
Don’t let it be said we mucked around, as next we walked to The Vittorio Emanuel II Monument. Unfortunately it was closed when we got there so will try and get back later. From here we moved on to the Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trevi) built in 1735. This is one big and beautiful fountain. We also went inside a lovely church at the fountain.
After battling with the crowds you can see in the pics we decided to go and have tea at a little side street restaurant (3 courses for 15 euro each) and return to the fountain to see it at night. Again it is truly magnificent but oh my god the crowds, and this is not the busy time.
By this time we were getting a little jaded and decided to return home but as it was late the underground had closed and we could not find a bus stop to get back to our B&B so walking it was. This can prove awkward during the day let alone in the dark when it’s harder to see unknown and unpronounceable street names with a map that does not have a lot of detail. We were buggered with very sore & black feet when we finally arrived back. So at 12:30pm we finally turned the lights out and went to sleep with the air conditioner working & air plugs in place. It had been a long but amazing day that we would not have missed for anything.