The saga of the bike boxes behind us we still had a few more days to enjoy Rome and enjoy ourselves we did. We spent a day visiting Cassino which is so well known to New Zealanders. It was not hard to see why the allies thought that the abbey was a staging post for the enemy as it stands in such a commanding position at the head of the valley. Standing in the cemetery where there are 400 Kiwi graves you look straight up to the the now rebuilt Montecassino Abbey. We stood in line to visit the Cistine Chapel, we stood in St Peters Square for part of the Beatification of the new saints. Now Rome seemed so familiar to us and easy to get around (thank you bike boxes) that we visited so much both old and new - we loved our time there.

The bikes went into the boxes easily and the van from Camping Roma dropped us at the airport. The long flight home is always tedious but we had been upgraded to Business Class as far as Dubai so we enjoyed that.

Looking back on the trip it was fantastic and developed in us a new addiction ( we are soon to start our 7th Long cycle trip). Having said this it is by no means an easy route as it goes across the 'grain' of the country never following a river for any length of time, plenty of ups and downs. We learnt so much, we had so much to learn about cycle touring and I(Tricia) really had to learn how to ride a bike again. The daily distances we did were very modest but we had plenty of time to explore and as with our previous long walking trips we encountered nothing but kindness from the people we met. Of course we had our trials and dramas but they were all part of it, I actually wonder that because now when we tour we have less of these we have actually lost a little bit. One thing for certain we don't rely on finding boxes to pack our bikes in at the end we carry light weight bike bags from Ground Effects.

We are so fortunate

* We have the health to do it

* We can afford it

* We have someone we are completely compatable with to do it with

If any one of these disappeared these tours would no longer be possible. We intend to continue to do such a trip each year until we cant any more. Ken is 78 and I am 76. At the very end of July we set off for our ' Next last cycle tour' we will be riding from Frankfurt to Nice for three very interesting reasons. Join us on CGOAB the journal will be called 'Three Reasons for Riding Across Europe'