We’re finally getting around to post the final batch of our Italy pics. We stayed in Rome for 3 days and visited the usual highlights, including Vatican City. St. Peter’s Basilica was definitely the highlight for us- truly amazing!

The Roman Forum and other ancient Rome structures are spread within the city like a parallel world that still exists, but just happens to be over 2000 yrs old.

Our hunt for the best coffee in Italy finally ended in Rome as well- Sant’ Eustachio! The best espresso you’ll ever have. They’ve been at it for over 100 yrs, and the process is a well kept family secret.

Food in Rome was a let down, but our B&B was great and made up for the deficit.

We’ll post pics from Venice, Slovenia and Budapest soon.

Using the wireless access in our hostel in Slovenia, here are some pics from our last week’s visit to Pisa, Florence and Tuscany.

Finally got a stable internet connection, so we’re uploading a couple of sets of pictures. In French Riviera we stayed in Nice and travelled to Monaco, Antibes and a few neighbouring towns in the area.

French Riviera pics are here

Cinque Terre villages were awesome. We spent 2 nights and 3 days there.

Cinque Terre pics are here. More pictures from Italy soon.

We arrived in Venice this morning from Rome. Rome was quite hectic, so we took a day extra than we’d initially planned for.

Venice seems a lot easier to navigate and we’re trying to stay away from the hundreds of tourists flocking each corner. It hard though. It’s almost like the entire city was designed for tourists and tourists only.

We haven’t uploaded pictures in a week now and plan on going so in a day or two.

Just read that Abhinav Bindra from Chandigarh the first individual Gold Medal for India at the Olympics. Awesome!! History made and hopefully a generation given hope and inspiration. Noting beats listening to the national anthem on the world’s biggest stage.

We don’t think we’re going to Greece next, it’s just too hard to get there by ferry (20 hrs each way), plus the costs seem crazy given the peak season. We’ll think about how to best make use of the 5 extra days that freed up. Suggestions welcome. Cheers.

We left Florence this evening and just landed in Rome a few hours back. The jouney was quite comfortable, thanks to the express train between the two cities. Finding our B&B was quite something, took us a while meandering through the streets, but we’re so glad to be finally here, showered and ready to crash for tonight.

Lots of pictures need to be uploaded, but we haven’t been able to connect our laptop to the net in the last few days. Hope to do that in a day or two in Rome.

Rome is hot, full of tourists this time of the year, but we’re looking forward to the tours of the Vatican and the ancient Roman sites. More soon.

Short note, no pics. We left the Cinque Terre villages this morning and are now in Florence, Italy for a few days. All well. A little tired, but looking forward to the rest of the trip.