Italy

We took a two-week trip to Rome in 2012 and had a great time exploring this ancient city; from checking out the iconic colosseum to stuffing our faces with gelato and visiting the spooky catacombs. We also found time to visit Pompeii and re-visited the country on a family holiday to Perugia in 2016 which included a stay in romantic Florence.  Here are our Italy travel stories and tips.

So far, 2020 has not been a great year for travel. While the Coronavirus pandemic rages and the fallout spreads around the world, we’re continuing to work and housesit in the UK. Winter has been tough on my wanderlust though and one of the bright spots on the horizon was our Easter European road trip, which was set to begin in Italy. Given the events...

The sun is shining, the sky is blue and our cupboards are full of festive goodies. When we started 2016 we certainly didn’t expect to end the year back in Asia but here we are, spending Christmas in Chiang Mai after a year of intense highs and lows and many amazing travel experiences. Here’s our 2016 travel roundup and a look at the highlights from what turned out to be a rocky, yet transformative year.
Florence in July: crowds, sweltering heat and theme-park-style queues. The best decision we made was to book ourselves onto a night walking tour so we could explore the city’s treasures in the relative cool and quiet of the evening. We also got to learn about the darker side of Florence; the medieval tales of feuds and scandals, deceit and mystery, with a taste of delicious gelato thrown in for good measure.
Travel in Italy doesn’t come cheap, especially if you’re visiting during peak season in one of the country’s most popular tourist hotspots: Florence. The former Italian capital is filled with architectural and artistic treasures, from the Cathedral of Santa del Fiore to Michelangelo’s famous David statue and everywhere you turn there are intriguing tours on offer, tasty gelato stalls and restaurants selling fresh pasta. It’s definitely all too easy to burn through your hard-earned travel cash in Florence, so how did Andrew and I fare when we were challenged to have a great day out for just £50?
The worst thing about our nomadic lifestyle is that we don’t get to see our friends and family very often, but this also means that when we do see them, we make the most of our time together. Currently we’re planning a big trip with Andrew’s family for summer 2016 in Europe, so we’ve been searching for the perfect holiday property for a group of 12 people.
2015 is shaping up to be a great year. The first half of it will be spent in Asia working out the last five months of our teaching contracts in Vietnam and then relaxing in Thailand for a month. After that another summer in the UK awaits followed by an autumn of road-tripping through America and a proper British Christmas, our first in two years. After that, my thoughts keep returning to Europe, a continent I’ve lived in almost my whole life but have barely explored.
There are so many things to see in Rome, Italy, it can be difficult to know where to start. When we were planning our trip we pulled together a list of the most famous Rome tourist attractions we wanted to visit. Surprisingly though, it was many of the places and areas we stumbled across by accident that we loved the most. Here are our top 10 things to do in Rome and information about Rome entrance fees. 
13 days of sweltering hot sun and blue sky - one afternoon of thunder, lightning and being soaked to the skin. Oh well, a day in Rome, even if it's a rainy one, is still ten times better than a day in the office! Check out the Roman rain...
Normally when we go abroad Andrew will eat anything, I, on the other hand, am much pickier. I knew I wouldn't have a problem with the food in Rome though as Italian food is my absolute favourite cuisine - in fact we probably would have put on a few stone had it not been for all the epic walks we did! Here's some of the best dishes we had: