Rome is one of those places you feel like you’ve been even if you have never visited. The city’s landmarks, history and culture pervade our history books, education and our consciousness like few other places.

Rome and the powerful empire that once extended from the city has always  held a certain fascination for me. I remember vividly, borrowing textbooks from the school library that explained the Roman Empire and the battles it fought. I studied ancient history at high school and even took classics subjects at university where I studied ancient Roman texts. In fact, such was my devotion that I may be the only Asterix and Obelix fan that wanted the powerful Romans to overcome those pesky Gauls.

Whilst my passion has been replaced by other things in more recent times, there was still no way that I was going to end my time living in Europe without visiting Roma. And the city didn’t let me down.

It was a flying visit, but we still managed to take in the landmark sites:

The Colosseum – like you didn’t know…

St Peter’s Basilica

The Forum and ancient Rome

The Pantheon

But we also did all those clichéd tourist things you simply have to do when visiting. Like:

Throwing a coin over your left shoulder at the Trevi Fountain, so that you will visit Rome again

Hanging out at the Spanish steps whilst checking out all the pretty young things

Laughing at the men in their silly pantaloons

And sneaking a dodgy shot of the Sistine Chapel roof whilst the guard is not looking.

We strolled around Villa Borghese, Trastevere and spent time in the many beautiful piazzas.

And of course we ate handsomely. Enjoying meals at Cul de Sac (the city’s oldest wine bar), Trattoria (thanks Matt Muir), Gusto, Pizza Remo, Obika (there is one of these at Selfridges in London) and had amazing espresso coffee at too many places to mention.

So that was Roma. Our last European city break before embarking on our trip back home. It didn’t hold too many surprises (well beyond the quake), as I said at the start, we all know it too well for it to do that, but that made it no less amazing.

Check out all our photos here.

Ciao ragazzi!

I posted the tweet above a couple of minutes after this week’s Italian earthquake. The quake measured 6.3 on the Richter scale and mainly hit L’Aquila, a town roughly 60 miles north of Rome. Little did I know at that time that time that tragically up to 207 people would die.

The quake brought back memories of the last quake I experienced in Newcastle Australia in 1989 – that was a 5.5 quake and 12 people were killed then.

Pretty scary stuff and hugely thankful that I was affected only in the fact that I was woken up. The next day life in Rome was completely normal by my reckoning except for the news in the media.

Plenty of examples already, but it was amazing to experience first hand how quickly and effectively Twitter spread the news of the quake. Minutes after tweeting the above I was receiving replies with links to Reuters detailing news on the scale. Within ten minutes I was being retweeted by people as a live quake Tweeter. The BBC had contacted me within 20 minutes to conduct an interview. Nothing came of the interview. Not necessarily surprising given the fact, my thankfully calm post quake experience went something like this – ‘I emerged onto the streets to hear no sirens and only see a few people calmly standing around before they returned to bed.’

My thoughts go out to the people that have suffered as a result of this quake. Should you be interested you can donate to The Red Cross at this address.

Well the tan may be fading – let’s face it what hope does a ginger have getting a true tan anyways – but the looking back at the pics makes me still feel like I am still there – handy given the shitty summer weather. Below are some of the top memories and great pictures.

Trip details – Landed in Dubrovnik Croatia on 28 July and travelled north up the Adriatic Coast through Split, Hvar Island, Zadar, Rab Island and Opatija, before getting a ferry to Venice, Italy. From Venice we travelled by train to Cinque Terre and down to Monaco where I celebrated my birthday. We reluctantly flew out of Nice on 13 July.

Top Spot – Opatija – the perfect combination of sun, sea, a 5 metre springboard and beers delivered to your very own sun-lounge did it for me.

Most extravagant spot – The Monaco Casino where in one night I saw in excess of ten Ferraris, countless Bentleys, about four Rolls Royce Phantoms and a Bugati Veyron 16.4. That is not even mentioning the yachts – see the pics below.

Most memorable comment of the trip – Laura recalling how the first time she swore at her father (a vet) was when he was putting stitches into her arm – “Be more careful dad, I’m not a fucking animal!”

Most Picturesque spot – All of Croatia’s water – simply stunning

Beer that was drank – Ožujsko

Car driven in Croatia – Opel Zafira (thinks ours was the model before)

Best bargain – Ice cream in the cone in Croatia only costs 50p per scoop! Bargain

Thing I wrote home about – The fact Elizabeth bought me a lap of the Monaco GP course in a Ferrari F430!

Most active pursuit – Walking the coastal route that links the five fishing villages of Cinque Terre – nothing to crack a sweat over when you have done hikes in Sth America!

Enjoy the pics – mostly Elizabeth’s – I think she is a good photographer, but I think I am biased.

Dubrovnik old town

Walking the walls of Dubrovnik

How good is that water

Hvar Island Harbour

Krka National Park

Overlooking the old town in the Island of Rab

Me in front of the Bridge of Sighs in Venice

Gondola shot

Elizabeth reenacting a photo taken of her ten years ago at the same spot – minus the daggy check shorts…

Venazza – the village we stayed in whilst visiting Cinque Terre

Setting off on the lap of the Monaco GP course

Stockholm has been the latest stop on our summer of European travel. Now the place is beautiful, really beautiful, but it wasn’t the landscape that had both us both, mouth agape, constantly repeating the word – ‘HOT!’.

Now it is no secret that the Swedish are beautiful, but it isn’t until you are surrounded by them in their own habitat that the gravity of the situation really hits you. One lap around a relatively small H&M store had the hot girl count at 23 – we were in the store for a total of three minutes…

So what else did we do? Well we ate and drank here, we stayed here, we visited this museum and walked around the city whilst the temp dropped to bloody 5 Celsius – it is mid May for crying out loud.

As is obligatory check out our pics below.

The narrow streets of Gamla Stan

Stortorget

Elizabeth’s cute phone booth

Changing of the guard at the Palace Square

Looking north east from the bridge to Skeppsholmen – the museum island

Kulturhuset – one of the few interesting modern design buildings in the main city

The fabulous Stadsbiblioteket – Main municipal library

Inside the library

Last weekend Elizabeth I visited Mary (the girl to Elizabeth’s right in this pic) in Dublin. We met Mick (her man, who sadly chose that weekend to visit friends in London) and Mary whilst travelling in South America and got on really well.

We had a great weekend and also caught up with Mick’s sister Marie-Anne who we also met in South America. Both Elizabeth and I had visited Dublin before, so the focus was more on hanging out with Mary and having a few Guinness than seeing the tourist sights.

Mary took us on a tour of the local hotspots in Dublin, we visited Kilmainham Gaol and also took in a trip out to the Newgrange Burial Mounds. All the Newgrange tours were full for the day, so we had to enjoy from a distance. Obviously we were gutted, because the tours were full, we had to go to the pub, have a drink and get some lunch…

I took the pictures below on my mobile, so they are not great.

Elizabeth and Mary next to a statue – sorry can’t remember his name

Famine sculpture

The Liffey River

St Pats Cathedral

Kilmainham Gaol

Pretty bloody obvious

Armed with Lonely Planet’s Western Europe Guide and Wallpaper*’s Berlin Guide, Elizabeth and I spent a very cold Easter in Berlin. I had been there before maybe five years ago, but it was Elizabeth’s first visit.

We stayed in Motel 1 on Moritzplatz, not close to the centre, but on the tube, so was easy to get around.

The architecture of this city is beautiful. The devastation of the war gave the architects of Europe an opportunity to rebuild in what was one of the bravest architectural periods of recent times. Favourite buildings included, The TV Tower, architecture of Karl Marx Alle, the Jewish War memorial, The Philharmonie, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, KMA 36, Neue Nationalgalerie and the GSW Headquarters.

We ate way too many sausages, drank enough beer to ensure we never got up early enough to avoid the crowds at the Reichstag, and well, are only now getting over the wind chafe.

The Wallpaper* guide was indispensable and really opened up the cool spots such as The Newton Bar and Universum Lounge.

Enjoy the pics below and in the gallery.

GSW Building

Elizabeth and I at the Brandenburg Gate

1936 Olympic Stadium

National Gallery

Museum District with the TV Tower in the background

As I write this I am four hours away from completing the 22 hour journey from London to Sydney. I have just now downloaded from our camera onto my PC the almost 200 images taken during the 11 days we spent in North Africa’s Morocco. As they say a picture tells a thousand words, so I will let them tell the story mainly.

Our time in the the Muslim dominated Morocco passed quickly, but the memories of the crowded and ancients souqs, mosques with their regular call to prayer, the sugar laden glasses of mint tea, the oh so wonderful collective grand taxis and men dressed as if mimicking wizards will be sure to remain.

As is so often the case, it is only when reviewing the images that the memories are crystallised and the appreciation of the experience can be achieved. In the moment the challenges of navigating your way through a country where you speak almost none of the language, the necessity to be constantly on guard to ensure you are not being taken advantage of and the almost impossible task of making your way around cities where Arabic at best is used to signify the streets and alleys, unsurprisingly take central focus.

Throughout our time in Morocco both Elizabeth and I remained teetotal, less out of respect of Muslim culture, but more out of the desire to provide our livers with a well earned rest after the annual silly season. It was refreshing to immerse ourselves in cities virtually devoid of drunken citizens and the the rabble invariably that comes with them. Having said that, never have we been in a place where we have seen so many fights and torrid arguments often between the young and the old. The old adage that you should respect your elders definitely seemed absent in Morocco, perhaps brought about by the fact that thirty percent of the population is under the age of 15 (I need to check this stat). Unfortunately we can’t understand Moroccan Arabic (a mix of French and Arabic from what we could gather) so couldn’t garner a full understanding what the barneys were about; however, the repeated occurrence of blow ups within the narrow aisles of buses were entertaining to say the least.

Highlights of the trip included a mind-boggling kinesthetic massage on the tiled floor of a steam filled hamman from a rather large Moroccan gent who took pleasure in cracking every bone in my body – bet you didn’t realise you can crack the bones in your ears – and a night of conversation with a Berber who was born in a tent high up in the mountains. Though without a doubt the best part of the trip was being reminded that the sky is indeed blue and that the sun’s restorative warmth is not truly realised until it is sucked away in a London winter.

Our itinerary:

24-27 Dec – Marrakech

27 Dec – Travel to Ait Ben Haddou

28 Dec – Travel to Todra Gorgre

29 Dec – Trekking in Todra Gorge, before travel to Midelt

30 Dec – Travel from Midelt to Fes

30 Dec – 1 Jan – Fes

1 Jan – 2 Jan Travel to Essaouira

2 Jan – Essaouira

3 Jan – Essaouira, before return travel to Marrakech

4 Jan – Travel Marrakech to London

Big Square in Marrakech

Main mosque of Marrakech – Kotoubia

Spice market in Marrakech

The door to our riad (traditional Moroccan home) in Marrakech

Snake charmers in the big square Marrakech

The magical kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou

Medieval dye pits still used to this day to dye leather in Fes

Pretty self explanatory really

Essaouira Sunset