tough tough life

Hi all and so sorry it"s been so long since we blogged. Time and expense have conspired against us. As I type I am sipping 2005 Bourgogne Chardonnay and it is frankly the best wine I have ever drunk. We are in Beaune in the east of France. It"s been ages and loads has happened since we last blogged but given we are yet again slaves to time, I will summarize. We travelled north through Italy into the south of France to Nice, Monaco and Cannes then went to Paris. Spent a couple of nights in Tours, the chateau region, before coming across to Beaune and on Sunday we head to Switzerland to meet our friends, Andrew and Jenni on Mon.

Quick summary of highlights:

1. Cruising on Lake Como near Milan
2. Seeing the F1 track in Monaco...awesome
3. Watching the 8 laps of the Champs d"Elsees the riders do in the final stage of le tour de france.
4. Today we rode around the Burgundy wine region along through vineyards and tasting wines through the different villages. This was possibly the highlight of the trip thus far.

Again I apologise for the shortness of the update. We will one day find a couple of hours to reply to everyone and blog properly but until then this will have to do. Miss you guys in both London and Melbourne and can"t wait to see you again.

roma e firenze

Bongiorno friends. We're in Florence (Firenze) at the moment. We are off to the Uffizi Gallery this afternoon. It's renowned for both its famous paintings and its queues of up to 4 hours. Luckily we got ourselves a reservation. We saw Michaelangelo's David yesterday which at 9.50 euro is pricey, but the statue itself is just incredible.

We went out for dinner last night with Jess who is our last friend left from a few groups we met at the port in Dubrovnik 8 days ago. One couple left us in Bari, another couple who we spent a few days with left us in Rome, but Jess has had almost the exact plans as us so we've been hanging out on and off for more than a week which has been great. As Jane said, it's meant she's not sick of me yet. Nice.

Rome was incredible. We saw the Colesseum, Roman Forum, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and most other big stuff to see in Rome but possibly the highlight was watching the world cup final in Circus Maximus with around 250,000 screaming Italians. The Romans not at the game then streamed out of their houses and into their cars to honk their horns and wave their flags til about 4 in the morning. Absolutely crazy.

We got to Florence yesterday and we leave on Friday for La Spezia which we will be using as a base for La Cinque Terra. From all reports these 5 towns are mind blowing so we're very much looking forward to it. We then head to Milan for a couple of nights before using Nice as a base for some towns in the south of France for a while.

So that's a summary of what we've been up to. Please do click and leave a comment below as we love to hear from you and check our emails at every opportunity. Otherwise drop us a line to our email addresses! Look forward to hearing from you!

you"ll never walk alone...(in the key of Brett)

Today we arrived in the Italy which is a mind blowingly busy and hectic place. So difficult to even cross the road in Naples because of all the Mopeds and crazy drivers.

We caught the ferry across from Dubrovnik in Croatia over night last night and had a lot of fun watching the Italy and Germany game. The boat was full of elderly Italians who went crazy when Italy scored. They seem even more passionate than the English (sorry guys!). We will be in Rome for the World Cup final against France which should be amazing.

Meet some lovely people from Australia and from Liverpool last night on the ferry and we are going to Pompeii with them all tomorrow for one of the girls birthday. Can't wait to experience Pompeii.
Croatia was relaxing and beautiful. Lovely locals and amazing Bosnian food. I wouldn't recomend the boat rides to the Dubrovnik islands if you are prone to being a little motion sick. I am still feeling ill after being stuck in a small boat with 16 others in the middle of the sea while towing another small boat full of people and going at a snails pace!

Well, Naples for three nights, Rome for another three, Florence for three nights, Milan and then Nice. We will keep you updated and hope you are all well.