Day 25 - Sunday 16th May - Cannes, Avignon, Lyon

Left Nice early. Stopped at Cannes where the Cannes Film Festival was on. Only saw Amy Winehouse while having coffee surrounded by want to be's "oh that's us!" Thank god we had our sunnies on!

Avignon was a treasure long ago - a city for the French popes. We found a lovely garden on top of the hill with a huge statue of Our Lad covered in gold. Here we ate lunch in gale force winds!

After walking the lanes of Avignon we headed off to Lyon - did that in 45 hours - oops 4 to 5 hours it just seemed 45 hours long! Huge traffic jams!

Lynda

Day 24 - Saturday 15th May - Nice, St Paul de Vence, Eze, Grasse

Finally a free day or should I say morning to do as we pleased. So after a sleep-in (only to 8am!) we had our breakfast and then ventured out to explore Nice. We took a tram (yes they have one tram service like our free tram circle ride in Melbourne) to the city end of Nice and went first to look at the lovely scenic seaside promenade that had both private and public beach access. It was a beautiful sunny day but not hot enough for us to go into!

Walked to the old town of Nice to meander through the little lane ways and to their Saturday flower / vegetable / fish / craft markets. It would be lovely to stay here for awhile and earn a living by just selling some watercolour paintings in this market. (Well we can have dreams!)

After having our normal lunch of ham & cheese rolls made from our breakfast selection (this is a great way to save money and not have to buy lunch)

Tonia

Day 23 - Friday 14th May - Pisa, Italy then on to France - Monaco & Nice

Left Florence to drive to Pisa. Here the weather was really, really wet! Almost pouring, so we each bought an umbrella with sights of Italy on them. Walked around the area of Pisa to the Leaning Tower. Despite the rain we took photos of each of us holding up and pushing over the leaning tower. Just as we were leaving the rain eased off.

Hopped back on the bus and said farewell to Italy and hello to France. Yeah the weather had changed! We drove to the French Riviera where it is apparently sunny for 300 days of the year and we were there for those days! Drove straight to Monaco where the Grand Prix was in full swing with the race to be raced this Sunday. Because of this we had to leave the coach out of town and take a transport coach to the Monte Carlo Casino right where the Grand Prix track is.

Wow what flashy cars we saw here! There were Ferraris, Lambourghinis, Bentleys, Porches and so many more. All in different colours and either parked out the front of Monte Carlo Casino or driving around doing a circuit showing off their cars. It was amazing. We took many photos of these cars. Even saw a convertible Smart cart - really interesting!

We walked around crowded, rich and picturesque Monte Carlo with its many fashionable shops and cars. The time trials for the Grand Prix had already been held in the morning. We drove around the outside of the track on our way back to the coach.

Our next stop was Nice. Once we arrived here we had an orientation tour before going to our hotel. We walked to the port just down our street with some other people from our tour and looked for a restaurant for dinner. We ended up in lovely French restaurant with a very friendly waiter who certainly looked after us. We had a great evening.

Georgina

Day 22 - Thursday 13th May - Sorrento - Umbria then Florence

Florence is fantastic! With our local guide we first visited a Galleria to see the original Michaelangelo statue of "David". He didn't say much, a bit of a poser and likes to throw stones. We also saw a number of Michaelangelo's unfinished sculptures where you could see figures forming.

As we walked to the Duomo we saw the "Doors to Paradise" - doors of heaven then as you swing around you saw the beauty of the Duomo church, built entirely out of white, red and green marble. Also walked to the square with the Palace and replica of David plus many other statues, before going to the Santa Croce Church.

From here we explored Florence and found the old wooden bridge of the Ponte Vecchio filled with lovely and many expensive jewellery shops.

The bus then took us to the highest point to oversee Florence - a wonderful view!

Lynda

Day 21 - Wednesday 12th May - Pompeii, Sorrento & Positano on the Amalfi Coast

We left early this morning for our drive to the Amalfi Coast located in the south of Italy. Our first stop was at Pompeii where we did a tour of the ancient ruins of this once thriving city. Pompeii was destroyed and left under piles of ash after Mt Vesuvius erupted in 49 AD. It lay under ash for many hundreds(?) of years before being excavated and what is left is the ruins of homes, shops, streets, its magnificent main square with its many columns, artefacts and mummified bodies. Amazing.

Next we drove on to Sorrento in the south of Italy. Once there we took smaller buses to drive along the steep, narrow roads of the tall cliffs of the Amalfi Coast. The sights were spectacular, the drive an experience - these Italian drivers are crazy. Had a stop overlooking the picturesque town of Positano - many white and also colourful buildings built into the cliffs all the way down to the beach. We continued our drive along tall cliffs and then winded down into the little township of Positano. Stopped at the start of the town, it's too steep to drive down into it. We walked down its many narrow lanes to the beach. All beautiful!

Too soon we had to leave and drove back to Sorrento which was also a lovely port town. We shopped briefly before stopping at a clifftop bar overlooking the bay where we rested and had a wine. Our next stop was the journey to our hotel. It had changed from its original destination to a much better one. Our tour director Jon said we were on top of the world and he wasn't wrong! We were up really high overlooking Sorrento and many other of the pretty little towns in the area! Another fabulous day of sights and experiences!

Georgina

Day 20 - Tuesday 11th May - Rome

Early morning rise to have a quick breakfast before trying to battle the early morning Rome traffic to try to get to St Peters & the Vatican by 9am. This was not possible because the traffic was very bad and moved very slowly and considering these italians drive anyway they like, it took a long time! After eventually getting to St Peter's we joined our own guide to see the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel & St Peter's church. We were all given headphones and a little radio to hear our guide better - a great idea as you could still wander around and still hear the guide.

It was great seeing all the historical items in the Vatican Museum and then to step into the amazing Sistine Chapel to admire the beauty of this Chapel. Lots of tourists were there all being hushed by the security people every couple of minutes. The restorations they have made in the Sistine Chapel were well worth it! Just lovely.

We had to leave this room to continue the last bit of the tour to see St Peter's. Again amazing with all the historical mosaics & sculptures done by so many masters of the day. It was a hard to know where to look so much to see everywhere. Even walking out of this Church just the splendour of the columns everywhere - just amazing.

After a quick shop around we went back for a rest at the hotel before heading out in the afternoon to go to the Trevi Fountain. We all threw in our 3 coins, one for luck, one for love and one to return to Rome - hope they all come true! :) Next stop after a quick shop around the Trevi was to our dinner in the heart of Rome. Another lovely dinner with some nice choices of wine too, again there was just too much food but it was made very entertaining with the waiter and the music. This time we had a flute player & singer. Lynda kept dropping her fork and knife! but it all made to the very funny night we all had at this restaurant! All the ladies got a rose from the waiter as we left. So another great day.

Tonia

Day 19 - Monday 10th May - Venice through Tuscany to Rome

Tuscany countryside to Rome. Early start for Rome. First a lovely drive through the Tuscany countryside with lots of green trees, grape vines and lush green landscape. Most of the houses were painted a warm yellow with a terracotta roof. A great setting against the rolling green hills.

Then "K"zam ROME - the circle road with traffic, Traffic, TRAFFIC !!!

First a drive by of Rome stopped at St Peter's and then walked to Piazza Novara where in BC time Christians would die in the Arena, now it is a rectangle Piazza with restaurants, shops, church, fountains, sculptures & stalls of painting & gifts.

Then we got on the bus which drove us to the Colosseum where we had dinner at Al Gladatore which was opposite the Colosseum. A beautiful lit up background of the Colosseum for everyone to enjoy to look at whilst we were eating our dinner with 2 opera singers singing to us in both English and Italian.

Lynda