We said our goodbyes to our traveling companions,some getting quite emotional. Loredana personally spoke to everyone and was sincere in her comments. We were lucky to have her as our tour leader. She is getting married next February and moving to New Jersey in the USA were her husband to be lives. We wished her well.

Once we left Naples Airport it was straight on the Autostrada for our drive back to Rome. This time we are staying in a hotel closer to the airport, therefore further away from Rome. We have just left our rest stop and I have realised that most of our Euros have been spent on cold drinks. We lost a lot of fluid in the humidity and it had to be replaced often. It really wasn't safe to drink the tap water in Sicily, as water is in short supply and they are even filling people's tanks (about 100 litres on top of the flat roofs) three times a week. In Rome it is safe but a tap is not always nearby when you need it. Water has ranged from €1.00 to €4.00. Beer is about €2.00 and wine anywhere between €2. 00 & €6.00. €1.00 is worth about $1.43 Australian.

We arrived at the hotel at 12.30 and we're told our rooms would not be ready until at least 2.00. As the hotel is in a residential area, there are no shops nearby and to go anywhere involves catching the local bus which is a 20 minute walk away. We twiddled our thumbs for a while. The new guy from Cosmos, came with us to Rome - Sergio - and he had a heated argument with one of our fellow passengers and stormed off saying " you are in Italy now, not Australia". Officially our tour does not finish until after breakfast, so he should be looking after us, not storming off to his room (which happened to be ready). Oh well, I guess that's why we filled out our questionnaires yesterday. To be fair, the hotel was under a lot of pressure as there are at least 5 tours groups staying tonight. We were in our room by 2.00 and we promptly did some washing and started reorganizing our cases for the train journey to Venice tomorrow morning. Arrivederci Roma.