After our perfect day out we headed home and then further up the hill to have a look at the lovely church and square.  Charlotte had been up there several times just looking out and reading her book.  We all descended on her and had a lovely hour on dusk listening to the hymns from the church and watching Jacko and Hooz playing soccer with a couple of local kids.

Lala taught Charlotte how to use instagram and there were squeals of delight from Charlotte when she got lots of hits for her photos.  One comment was “oh Cath Kidson likes my photo” … “what THE Cath Kidson?” … “yeah she is a friend of mine”.  A bit of a dark horse our Charlotte … she is a lovely friend that Xandy went to school with and she has been a lovely friend to all of us having us for supper and the kids for weekends away at her country house.  

We headed back to the house to watch the full moon rising over the mainland and across the water … it was lovely.  We spent the evening chatting, laughing and eating left over pizza.

Tuesday we had to pack up and after a lot of messing around we ended up booking a car that took 8 of us and all of our luggage to Pompeii where we had a visit for a couple of hours and then picked us all up and dropped John and I at Pompeii station and the others at the airport.

All in all one of the most beautiful places I have visited and had the pleasure of wonderful company.  Lots of eating and laughing but surprisingly little drinking!

John and I managed to navigate our way to the main Naples train station and hop on a very fast train that only took 1 hour 15 minutes to get us to Rome.  That was the easy part.  From there we had to catch the metro and then a bus to the outskirts of Rome to our Airbnb.  As it turned out it was a bit of a nightmare and the apartment was smaller than the van!  It was all my fault really because I should have booked something earlier, but I was having such a lovely time, I didn’t want to waste my time on the net when I was with such lovely people.  Then when I went to book something the app on my phone wouldn’t work and John took over in desperation.

In the end it was fine.  A bit too far out of town but we survived for three nights.

The next day we headed into Vatican City and I went on a guided tour of the museums and the Sistine Chapel … which I had never seen as the last time I was in Rome 38 years ago they were electing a new pope in the Sistine Chapel!  While I did that for over three hours John wandered around and I eventually found him in a cafe drinking wine!  

The next day we tried to get organised with other bookings and internet etc and didn’t wander into the city until about 3 pm.  As it worked it it was perfect, as after we had checked out the train and bus situation for the next day, we went to the Colosseum and walked straight in!  Perfect timing.  We hired an audio guide and shared it but got sick of it in the end.  I can only take in so much information in one go and then I switch off.  I had been there 38 years ago but of course couldn’t remember much of it.

The next day we had to get up really early and head off via bus and tube to the main train station for me to catch the train up to Arezzo and then Bibbiene where MR and Bruce picked me up and John had to catch the bus to the airport down south and then fly to Stansted, London.

Then came the disaster!  I was detained in immigration and was in custody for 8 hours.  Three interviews later he was let off with a warning and now has a Code3 against his name.

Fortunately, three days later he managed to cross over into France with the van without any problems!  So now we just have to stay within the EU countries until the end of the year and we will be fine!  Then when we get back to Australia we will apply for him to get a visa off my British passport.

I have started the walk … that is another story!