After four nights in Rome we headed south for the rest of the week.
Visiting Pompeii has been on my bucket list (not that really I have such a thing) for a while. But the more research I did, the more I kept seeing reports that Herculaneum is in many ways 'better', due to being smaller and a lot quieter than Pompeii.
We'd pencilled in two days to visit both sites and walk up to the top of Vesuvius. Herculaneum was first up. The excavated area is relatively small, but a lot more of the town is still buried deep under the modern town of Erculano. We were able to walk round all the whole site (with audio tour) in a few hours, and it was all very interesting. I was surprised by just how well preserved some of the buildings are, particularly the decoration.
house with red walls in Herculaneum
After yet another pizza in Erculano we decided to visit Pompeii on our way back that afternoon, and just try to see the highlights. Once you've seen half a dozen Roman houses and bars you don't necessarily need to see another town's worth...
Pompeii is very big. And half closed for renovation/excavation. And a lot busier than Herculaneum was, despite us arriving late afternoon. Also they don't really label where the good/famous stuff is. (for anyone interested, the 'Garden of the Fugitives' with 13 plaster cast bodies is at Region I #14). We were unable to find the brothels, as that road was closed off. So much for the 'sex and death' highlights tour...!
Pompeii forum, with Vesuvius in the background
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When in Rome... go and visit a different country.
The Vatican City is very small, but does have several popular tourist attractions: the Sistine Chapel/Vatican museums and St Peter's Basilica. We only visited the latter, because I wanted to go all the way up to the top of the dome and enjoy the views.
note busy observation platform
Queuing to get into St Peter's was probably our longest queue of the week, at about 20 minutes. This was mostly just a bottleneck at the security scanners.
Top tip: if you carry a penknife in your handbag, leave it at your hotel. I can't possibly comment about whether local bus station toilets are a good location to stash such an item should you forget this, but if you try and get one through the scanners it'll probably end up in the bin.
There's a charge to go up to the dome, and it's slightly more expensive if you want to take the lift rather than walk. We walked, and it wasn't that bad - just lots of steps. Worth noting that the lift doesn't take you all the way up, and the worst of the stairs are above it. Although I don't think anyone was actually checking tickets at the lift anyway...
The inside of the dome (and the whole inside of the church really) is predictably extravagant. It's crazy to think how much time, effort and money went into the decoration of everything.
You could see a long way from the observation platform at the top, though it was rather hazy. Fun to look down on the square full of ant-sized people though.
Castel Sant'Angelo
Once we finished with the Vatican we got some lunch (as a change from pizza, I had calzone) and then visited Castel Sant'Angelo. Originally a mausoleum, then then Papal Fortress, and now a museum.
More lavish décor and paintings, statues, etc. Also a lot of cannonballs. However there was no obvious organisation or suggested route around the castle (or even a map), so I'm not even sure if we saw everything! But it was definitely interesting and worth a visit.
This year marks the 80th birthday of the trig pillar. To celebrate, Ordnance Survey have been running a Twitter/Instagram photo competition.
A few weeks ago one of my pictures (this one) was chosen as a winner. Exciting!
So here I am, standing next to one my local trig points modelling my shiny new tshirt. I feel I should also point out that the messy flowers are nothing to do with me or the dog.
Thanks OS 
I'd definitely recommend a browse through the #trigpillar80 hashtag to see what photos everyone else has come up with.
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