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Last week I came back from our fortnight in Italy, and what a holiday it's been! I'm mostly writing this down for myself, but if you like to read then by all means.

Where shall I start? Rome was hot, and the Colosseum as grand as ever. It was a real treat though to head out to our villa in Le Marche in the middle of our stay. The little farmhouse was situated on a hilltop with the most amazing views of other hills, some with villages on top founded by the pre-Roman Etruscans, some with cliffs and forests with eagles soaring overhead, and mountains in the not-too-far distance which rolled in an impressive thunderstorm most afternoons. There were many wall lizards skittering about, Kunzai-coloured flowers that opened only for the morning, and countless interesting bugs.

The meteor shower was due while we were there, so on the 11th and 12th of August we sat outside after dark and watched the stars. I saw quite a few meteorites shooting across the sky, a couple of which seemed really huge and close with a beautiful tail of fire and smoke. On the second night all had gone back inside but Andrew and I (I'd been out since dusk when the stars were only first becoming visible), and we heard the group howling of the rare wild Italian wolves known to inhabit that area.

On a couple of occasions we took our swimming gear and headed to the beach. The meditteranean ocean is wonderful for swimming! It is so calm, a beautiful turquoise, and in summer it's a nice temperature for keeping cool but not too cool. No jellyfish or anything to worry about standing on either, unlike the english coast. I have a funny way of swimming, I can't keep up the effort of keeping my head above water so I prefer to only raise it to breathe in and then I swim just below the surface. It's really relaxing and Andrew and I were just swimming and drifting about for a lot longer than we thought. I ended up with very salty beach hair that you couldn't get a brush through, though.

Oh yeah and we accidentally stumbled upon an audience with the Pope at his holiday home, that was such a surprise to everyone! We'd just followed all these people into a lakeside village and they entered a smallish courtyard with a brass band playing outside so we went in to see what all the fuss was about. It dawned on me when I saw the balcony up above with the flag hanging from it. It was a little bit like a rock concert, people were cheering and waving banners like "I <3 the Pope"!

On our last full day at the villa we set out for the mountains in the morning. We drove up and up the winding roads and parked halfway to the top, and from there we walked up a gravel path through the nature reserve. There were so many different types of butterfly and cricket, and my favourite - the hummingbird hawk moth! We watched it hover from flower to flower a little way down the valley, then it flew upwards right past my head! There were three or four eagles circling a peak higher up as we set off back to the villa.

Back in Rome my favourite day was one Andrew and I had to ourselves. We visited the giant park they have there, spent some time watching ducks and terrapins in the lake, and spent the rest of the afternoon in the zoo. The animals all have beautiful and generous enclosures so it was a real treat. There were a few creatures I hadn't seen before such as brown bears. They had an environment mimmicking mountain waterfalls and streams. The Japanese Macaques were the sweetest and there was always something hilarious going on in their little city. Well we were so intrigued we got locked in, but after talking to some helpful locals through the bars a staff member told us the way out through their building. We had a lovely meal together in the favourite restaurant from last time at dusk, then wandered into Piazza del Popolo where I climbed on a stone lion and took in the nighttime atmosphere there.

There you have it, my fondest memories from Italy 2009.