So as some of you may or may not know, Aaron's birthday wasn't that long ago (3rd April) and he's reached the big quarter century (ooh's and aah's from the crowd). Deciding it was something inspiring to celebrate, I sent an email out to everyone we know in England (OK, so it was like 10 people) expecting them all to come out and celebrate with us. In the end, there was me and Aaron, and Nat and Shan - but it didn't really matter.

We spent the afternoon at Madame Tussauds pretending we were in the same league as some celebrities, and generally having a good laugh. A few of the photos can be found here.

From there, we headed to Shepards Bush Walkie to meet Gerry (the guy in charge of organising 14(!) of us into getting to Monaco to see the F1 Grand Prix. Then to dinner at Wagamama's (a Japanese noodle bar).

All and all I think Aaron enjoyed his birthday, and thanks (from him) to those that sent cards, pressies and emails.

Countdown is on now til we head to Monaco (only 31 sleeps) and til Corde arrives (15 sleeps).

Have a great ANZAC day and hope to hear from anyone that cares soon...

You can not go to Rome and miss the Vatican City. It is the smallest country in the world, but still gives you plenty of tourist bang for your buck. There were people obviously flocking for the Easter festivities as well as the Popes falling health, which I might add, he has succumb to now. So queues were immense and tiresome. Queuing is something civilized people do, the queues (which easy had 10 thousand people in them, up to a kilometre long) seemed to be mainly made up of English, Americans, Ozzies and Kiwis. You might be wondering what the Europeans weren't doing in the queue, they were simply walking to the front and pushing their way in, much to the grumbling and mumbling of many people (all under their breath). We started to develop a pushing in technique ourselves towards the end of our stay

Museo Vaticano
The Vatican is effectively broken to three parts, the Vatican Museums, St Peters Basilica and the rest (which is off limits to the public, so you don't really know what the 'rest' holds). We started off with a brief tour of the Museums, there are heaps, they are full of master pieces of which are so numerous and vast that after 10 minutes you are strolling past multi-thousand year sculptures without a second glance, countless masterpieces of painted art whose names you recognise but no longer care. I was going for one purpose, the Sistine Chapel. Picture. As you can see, no photos were allowed, so just quick, slightly out of focus snaps were taken wink. The Paintings are impressive, bold, colourful, huge and very detailed. Again by Michelangelo I found the 'Last judgement' painted at the end of one of the walls more impressive than the ceiling it’s self.

Basilica di San Pietro
Afterwards, we had a good look around inside St Peters Cathedral, it is again very large, and amazingly detailed. After touring the inside, we wandered the street a little and came back to Pizza San Pietro to people watch as the night lights lit up the cathedral. As it got darker a queue started to form at the closed entrance, we realised this must be for Easter mass, after watching hordes of nuns, priests, locals and tourists enter, and the queue diminish to nothing we causally entered. It was quite a grand affair, everyone in the audience was give a souvenir (I mean candle), and all the lights were turned out. So that as the clergy entered, people light their candles as the processed up the centre alse. Once the actual service started and it was in Italian, we quickly lost interest and slipped out the back door to find a local pizzeria.

St Peters Dome
We read that the views from the top of the cathedral were not to be missed so after queuing for a few hours we climbed the 500 odd steps to the top. It is worth the wait and the extra €4. You get to walk around the top inside the cathedral before climbing further to the very top were it is so crowded you almost can't move. At this point, I almost most go into a fight with some European idiots, we are on top of the St Peters Cathedral at the Vatican. Now I am not religious, but you have some respect at a place like this, it is the corner stone of the catholic religion. And some stupid woman is scribing her name into a stone. In true crowded fashion, no one was saying or doing anything. So I went to grab whatever it was she had in her hand and told her not to do it. At which point she starts going off at me in some other language. Changing languages, we come to an agreement that we can both understand English, and we start at it again. Then her husband comes over and its all on again. The woman is shaking, this guy and I are nose to nose, simply insulting each other now. I couldn't get these two idiots to realise that they were doing something wrong. There argument was, I want to scribe my name, therefore why shouldn't I. arrrg. should have thrown them off the top. Afterwards people said ‘good on ya’ to me, I was thinking why the hell didn't you say something earlier.

On a brighter note, you will notice the sign on the right, only people with two legs may go up the dome. Shame it didn't say only people with a whole brain.

The Colosseum IS Rome! Well, that's what I think of when I think for Rome. I was a bit worried that, as with the Eiffel Tower, my expectations of something so famous would let me down. That definitely was not the case with the Colosseum - it was amazing!

It's all very convenient that they decided to put the Colosseum right outside the Metro, so it is literally the only thing you see as you leave the station. Arriving early (ish) so as to avoid the crowds, we'd picked up breakfast at the Supermarket and sat taking it all in .

We went with the tourguide option and learnt all sorts of stories about the place, but unfortunately, I felt it was a little rushed. The place is huge, and you just feel that it definitely would be able to tell some stories. To get a feel for the size have a look at this photo, and look at the base of the pillar in the middle where the gap in the crowds is, where there is someone standing right up beside the Colosseum.

The place is about 2,000 years old and the guidebook says that it saw the slaughter of over 5,000 animals and had a capacity of about 70,000 people. To go along to watch the 'festivities' was free, with the rich people getting court-side tickets and the poor people standing right up the very top. The Gladiators were trained across the road and entered the stadium via tunnels and the animals were kept under the wooden stage (which is obviously all gone now) until it was showtime .

The whole thing is stunning at any time of day, and we went back one night see it all lit up - which was very impressive. It was also nice to see it without all the throngs of tourists around. One can imagine that, when it was complete (you can see in this photo that about half of it remains or has been restored) it was an even more impressive sight.

Well with 3 months since the last trip, the feet were definitely itching. It was time to escape the winter months of England, and head for the sunny shores of Italy. Not being one to be unprepared, this trip had been booked since just after Xmas and I'd been looking forward to it since then.

Arriving at Ciampino early afternoon after a very early start at our end, we had minimal problems finding the bus, then the metro line, then our apartment - which was a bit out of the way (near Tiburtina Train station, for those that know). We dropped off our bags and were ready to hit the streets, heading straight for the Trevi Fountain and getting completely lost and arriving at the Pantheon after about half an hour of wandering.

One of the coolest things about Rome is that things aren't immediately obvious to find. You can think that you are completely lost and then turn the corner into a huge Piazza or a fountain or the very thing you were looking for in the first place with no warning whatsoever... and that's what happened with the Pantheon.

Originally a Pagan temple, the only reason it is still standing is that it was converted into a church (many moons ago). The sheer size of this thing is quite hard to tell in the photos, but if you look at this one, you'll get an idea.

Next, we were off to find the Trevi fountain again, but... once again we managed to find something we weren't really looking for - the Piazza Navona (those that have read Dan Brown's - Angels and Demons, will know what I'm talking about). Eventually, we got around to the Trevi Fountain and managed to battle through the crowds to see it.

Also managed to try out real Italian Pizza and Gelati (which we lived on) on Day 1, must say that not much else compares... Anyhow, more to come - until then check out the photos, and leave us some comments to let us know that you are inspired by our travelling.