I've been a bit slack so i'll try to make up for lost time. We are currently in Palermo (on Sicily) but i'll start back up from when we left Florence.

We caught the train to Pisa in the morning but unfortunately our luck of weather ran out as it was raining (though not to heavily). We saw the leaning tower (and got some good photos with it) but there was a 3 hour wait to climb it and unfortunatley we had to get a train to Rome so we couldnt.

We stayed at a nice bed and breakfast in Rome and on Bindy's birthday we went and saw the Colosseum and the ancient Roman forum before having lunch in front of the Pantheon. The waiter gave us free Lemoncello (an Italian lemon liquer) for Bindys birthday which was cool.
That afternoon we walked up the Spanish steps (with a great view of the city) and had a really nice dinner.

The next day was off to the Vatican, which despite your religious inclinations is still a fantastic place to visit. The main church, St Peters Basilica is huge (i think its the biggest in the world) and we climbed the 550 odd steps to the top for an amazing view of the city. We got some photos of me at the vatican post office and then went into the Sistine Chapel to see the amazing artwork. Never short on trying to make a buck or too, the church had merchandise stalls everywhere, even inside the galleries of the museum.
We saw a guy fall off his scooter/moped/motorbike thingy which are everywhere here, weaving in and out of traffic.

Happy Birthday

Haven't had much time to talk lately, but thought i should say a late happy birthday to both Kurt and Jack. Birthday cards are in the mail and should arrive soon (depending on the reliability of the Italian postal service). Hope you guys had great days.

Florence

Our hotel in Florence has free internet so i thought i would make the most of it. Just went to see Michaelangelos David, which is basically a large marble statue of a naked man (who actually has quite a small penis). That gallery also had a really cool exhibit of 16th and 17th century instruments (apparently all the guitars back then had 10 strings).
In florence, pedestrians seem to have control of most of the streets and cars have to slow down to wait for people to move so they can get through. There are heaps of dodgy people selling fake designer brands on the streets (though no english suprisingly).

Venice

Been in Venice for a couple of days now and it is my favourite place thus far. Apart from being the pigeon capital of Europe, it has an amazing atmosphere. Venice is like a small island, connected to the rest of Italy by a long bridge (like 2km long] and is a town floating on water. There are so many little side streets and canals and bridges that cars are not allowed on it. We basically put the map away and walked around all day exploring the city, finding an awesome jazz bar with 2 for 1 drinks and a ceiling decorated in bras from the various female clients that have frequented the place. We also got dinner there and they forgot to charge us for our drinks at the bar, so subsequently we got 2 pina coladas, 2 beers and 2 bellini's (an italian drink of champagne and peach juice) as well as a 2 course meal each for $60.

We found this shop that sells t-shirts designed by young graphic artists, so i picked up one with pigeons in the shape of a skull.

We are staying at a camping village about a 15minute bus trip from venice and it is really cool. It has 2 bars, a restaurant, a supermarket, pool, gym and an internet cafe (where i am now). We head off to florence tomorrow.

Dave

Milan

Milan..not the most exciting of cities, a big castle, a big cathedral and lots of expensive shops. However we did stumble across a trendy bar where you get cushions to sit in the gutter on the street to have your drinks (photo to be attached sometime). Waiting for the train to take us to Venice where we are camping for 3 nights, so lets hope it doesnt rain (not that we have had any of that yet, the weather has been perfect).

A big gap between posts but we have been quite busy.
Arrived in London, staying at my Uncles place who lives within about 20 paces of 3 pubs. Did lots of the touristy things in London and went to check out our flat in Nottingham, which is nice and clean and new equipment but very small, but thats ok.
Caught the train across the channel to Paris where i was stalked and attacked by pigeons, before heading down to Lyon where most things were shut (it was a Sunday) and have just arrived in Italy in Milan.
Glad to hear splendour was not too wet and hope that fun was had by all.

A more detailed reply when i have more time

Brunei

Hi all

Just arrived in Brunei airport, for 2 hours of waiting around and can put this laptop to good use after carrying it around everywhere with me. Trip was fine, except for a rather heated argument amongst an asian tour group on the plane for about 10mins which was rather interesting to be thousands of feet up in the air with a bunch of people yelling in a foreign language.

Off to Dubai and then to London