that ping-pong video is amazing! I had about 3 emails with the link as well as juls blog. must be spreading like wildfire on the net.

Got back from italy late last night (about 11ish), so we stayed another night at Nancy’s parents house.

The last couple of days in Rome were spent wandering around the various monuments some more and looking round loads of shops. On day 3 (in rome) we saw the coliseum, as indeed i predicted in my previous post. it was kinda big, but nowhere near as big as I thought it would be after seeing gladiator and such. To add to the slight disapointment, a lot of it had been restored with ordinary red brick. The overall impression was not good. Still, i guess most of it is still standing, which, after 2000 yrs is quite astounding. It cost 5euros to go inside, so we didn’t. We then wandered on through a load of old roman ruins. Stu and I found these quite interesting to look at tho it wasn’t to Nancy’s taste. Nance had an unhealthy obsession with religeous art. It all seemed to be the same to me. This led us to the pantheon. This looked like a typical roman building – complete with pillars and soforth. it even had some paintings inside, so everyone was happy. Good ice-creams were to be had near the pantheon. most tasty, esp pistachio flavour.

I set off early on the final day at about 8.30 to go shopping on my own and also to do my own thing and not feel presured by everyone elses needs. Picked up a bottle of oil for Nancy’s mum and some oregano in a street market for mama. Also a couple of things for tan’s birthday (many happy returns!). I guess you get to see them when you get back, and seeing as this isn’t til after xmas they’ll serve as handy christmas prezzies too! haha:-D

One thing i forgot to mention about the vatican city, was st. peters square (i think that’s what it was called). possible the most impressive thing in rome, huge and if you stand in the centre, you are surrounded by many hundreds of saints (in the form of statues).

Unfortunately, one of the abiding memories of italian cities, will be the smell of urine. the populace seemed to view any corner, or in fact anywhere as a personal pissing place. unpleasent.

hey ho my new bed has arrived.