Ok, so maybe THIS is the last post...

Wasn't expecting to get to the web again, but the Fiumacino hotel, in the small seasice town near Rome airport were we decided to spend our last night has it in spades.

Yesterday finished with a stroll back into Reggio, looking once again for a restaurant - we finally found one. It looked quiet-as, but once inside we were led in to the cellar, and it was jumpin'! They eat under ground! We'd been seeing lots of people and lots of cafes, but no resturants... wierd, but now we know. The cellar was medieval updated - lots of cool brickwork across the roof - and as usual the pizzas were great. We ended this time with profiteroles (yum!).

After a mornign of futzing around packing, we bade a tearful goodbye to Mik, who was about to imerse herself in her conference - 400 early childhood educators all bangin' on about the Reggio approach. The hotel was full of Aussies, kinda wierd!

We jumped in the car, programmed Kowalski for Rome and set off. It was about 470km of Autostrada driving. You get a ticket as you enter the freeway, then pay the requisite amount when you get off - about A$50 in our case. They're not too bad as freeways go - usually three, sometimes two and occationally four lanes wide (at least between Reggio and Roma on the A1, which is the main Milano-Naples Autostrada). There's a bunch of little Fiat Puntos in the right lane doing 90kmh, a bunch of Audis and Mercs in the left land doing 150 - and us somewhere inbetween doing something approaching the speedlimit - 130kmh. And no trucks. I guess that's the advantage to driving on a Sunday.

But it rained. And rained - probably for about 350 of the 470km - and that kinda ramps up the angst a bit. Still, we got here in the end. I dunno what I would have done without the GPS - and the kids who kept me fed and entertained for the duration. We did stop off at an "Autogrill" fuel and food spot, wehre I found Deep Purple's Greatest Hits - the education continues.

We got to our hotel, checked in, de-stunk the room, watched Asterix and Cleopatra (in Italian) then went for our last Italian pizza. Nice! The kids reckon this one was equal first - though Sasha still prefres the chip pizza from Venice!!

Now it's final packing and on to the plane for two ~10 hour flights - oh, and 12 hours in Hong Kong in between.

Ciao again.