Party at Amy & Mandy's

Drinks at mine!

The holiday comes to an end :(

Murano Island
St Marc's Square












The view from my hotel window


My hotel!
St Marc's Square




Bongiorno a tutti xx

I'm in Venice. I nearly died when I hopped off the train & saw the platforms surrounded by water.
Guess who gets boat-sick?! So no gondola ride.
I was lucky to find my hotel was right infront of where the boat dropped me off. I was unlucky to realise this after I had walked 20min away from the hotel & then back again. Venice is so expensive so I am quite happy to be leaving today for Paris. I went to Murano to see the glass factories & galleries but they were not blowing glass for the public on Wednesdays. I couldn't be bothered returning back there today because it was nearly an hour boat ride & I'll get sea sick. I think it may actually be cheaper to buy artistic glass in Melbourne because the euro conversion is terrible & there is no shipping & insurance costs.

The final day of my holiday has arrived. I've thrown out heaps of stuff like my towel, bed sheet, toilletries, some shoes, clothes & underwear I never want to see again! & believe it or not, my backpack is half empty & the day pack on the front is empty. What's going on? So I took the bedsheet out of the bin & re-packed it!

Bye everybody & see you back in Australia. Ciao xo

Sight-seeing in Milan

il magnifico Duomo
I'll have to tell you what these 2 photos are later. I've forgotten!

The view from Piazza il Duomo
Inside the walls of Castello Sforza

The dried up moat
Wearing a less offensive skirt!

The entrance of Castle Sforza
The Hari Krishna float
Il Duomo

Inside the Duomo
even the floor was magnificent!

Antique hand block collection
hand block up close
The finished product on fabric.


Entrance to the most fantastic 'shopping mall' building. The picure above it is the inside

Lady offended by my legs!

Whilst enjoying my last day in Milan, a lady approached me on the footpath & gave me an angry scolding in Italian, then walked off. I didn't know exactly what she said to me but I heard the words gambe & stamattina (legs & morning) & with her tone of voice I gathered she was telling me off for showing so much leg so early in the morning (it was 10:30am). Later that afternoon 2 italian boys approached me showing major concern that the front of my dress was being messed up by my shopping bags. This dress will not be worn again!

Kimi Raikkonen's Boat

Today I did a day trip to Portofino. You may remember this village from past episodes of Bold & the Beautiful! It's on the Ligurian coast just near the Cinque Terre & I really wanted to stop there back in July but never had the time. From the train station I had to catch a bus (or boat) to get there - you know a town is pretty exclusive when it's off the train line! Boy what a village! The boats! And the boats!! I was looking at this giant yacht thinking 'hey that looks like Kimi Raikkonen's boat from the Monaco GP' & then I read the name "One more toy" & it was his boat!! Unbelievable! I asked the deck staff on board if he was likely to come outside & they said no.

Monza Gran Premio!!

Driver's parade before the race. The truck was driving so fast it was nearly impossible to get this photo - that is why it is so crap - but you can see some big-guns in there.

Flying!
Go McLaren!

Alonso waving to the crowd.
Kimi.... we love you!!

And the winner is.....
Storming the track after the race!

I can't show you any more photos of the winners podium etc because I was clicking so madly the camera overheated and broke. - Don't worry, it's fixed now. It just needed to cool down & rest.


What a fantastic weekend! A storm was predicted for the race weekend and both days were perfect and sunny. It couldn't have been any better... well it could of if Raikkonen won the GP! I was sitting on the lateral parabola. The cars would fly past me then jump on the brakes for the curve. I think I have whiplash from turning my head so fast. All you could see was a flash of colour and when you could actually see the car, you knew they were losing serious time. I got to see some great overtaking and afew wheels touching and some real sprints to reach the corner first. Brilliant!! The TV screen and english/italian commentary was opposite me.

At the end of the race we all jumped the fence and ran onto the track upto the start-finish line so that we could see the winners podium. I got there just as the champagne was spraying but then it was all over. The next big problem was how to climb back over the fence because it was triple the height now and I had on a little skirt and sandles. I managed! It involved me and 30,000 people all trying to squeeze through a small hole in the chicken wire and it took about an hour.

I want to give a big shout-out to Trenitalia!! You've out done yourself - Milan should be proud! The city has hosted a world-wide event and the train company scheduled trains to Monza 2.5hrs apart on friday, 1.5hrs apart on saturday & more than 45min apart on sunday race day. And the bus system on paper looked to be more frequent but turned out to be even longer. Well done Milan!

I managed to fit in some sightseeing in the late afternoons. The duomo is the most magnificent building and I went there daily. I went to a shop that made hand blocked fabric & wall paper. They had a museum that boasted the worlds largest collection of printing blocks as old as 16th century and the recent prints seen on nearly every bedspread in any hotel/motel I've been in!

Today I went to a Sforza Castle. The moat around the outer & inner perimeters of the walls has dried up and has grass in it. I was too late for a tour of the museums but it was enough to just walk through the premises. The Hari Krishna's had a huge float that was being pulled by people & they dragged it all through the city (slowly) for what seemed like hours. I was wandering around sightseeing & every corner I turned, the float (& the singing) was there!

I think tomorrow I will do a small day trip somewhere. It all hangs in the balance of how early I wake up.

The photos the computer doesn't want you to see...

What are Dinosaur Designs doing in the National Archeological Museum of Rome??
For some reason, I cannot load some of the photos onto certain pages. I can't explain. So I'll throw random photos on here.

Greetings from the Italian Grand Prix

Where the hell am I?
This is where the bus dropped me off for the GP. Don't know where I'm supposed to go now! I followed the noise behind the trees in the far distance.
Alonso
Schumi. Raikk's was just too quick. I could never get a photo of his car.


Today is Monza!

I caught the train to Milan, dumped my bags & went straight to the autodrome in Monza. It was the most insanely difficult exercise getting to the track. The city of Milan didn't bother throwing in any extra trains to Monza or direct buses to the track on Friday. By the time I waited an hour for each connecting transport I arrived at the very end of the 2nd (and final) practice session for the F1 cars. My Friday ticket gave me access to all the grandstands & I checked out my seat for tomorrow's action & it is a very good spot indeed - up high & right infront of the giant TV.

Bike riding in Viareggio

Last time at the beach (in europe)
Party at Virgy's!

The most delicious cake EVER!




Elisa & I went bike riding around Viareggio today. I loved the bike but I found it difficult to keep right & turn corners whilst staying on the correct side. Wearing no helmet didn't fill me with confidence! We met Elisa's mum on the beach & I surprised myself by falling asleep on the sand. When I woke up, Elisa's dad was there instead!

Virginia was throwing a party at her house that night. Coincidently, Viareggio was celebrating another festival with huge bonfires from pine trees & fireworks which we could see from the terrace. Now it's 4 fantastic dinners in 3 days! Virgy has an open fireplace style BBQ on the terrace and the flavour it gave to the meat was brilliant! Virginia can throw a great party!

Home Cooked Dinner!

On the pier at Fort dei Marmi
A common site - blocks of marble - everywhere!
The beautiful village of Pietrosanta
The first floor of the restaurant we had lunch in used to be a prison. They have left the walls untouched to show the drawings of the prisoners back in the day. This guy was obviously no Picasso!


prisoner drawings on the wall as early as 1868.

an unusual sculpture in the middle of the piazza
Bellino!!
Virginia & friend.
The beautiful church of Pietrosanta
Elisa's parents

All the villages surrounding Viareggio are 10min away. Virginia took me to Forte dei Marmi (Fort of Marble). It is a beautiful village populated in summer by the rich & famous. Many talented marble sculptors live here. Virgy told me that back in the day, MichaelAngelo would go into these hills to choose his piece of marble to sculpt from. A suprising fact: Cararra is only 10min away!

There was a great market on today. It had your better than average stock to what is normally sold at a market. I was shocked to see Miss Sixty jeans for €30! I almost thought that a department store had been robbed & the market was a garage sale. The quality of the leather & fur on sale was amazing. I only shopped at the €2 shop!

Elisa's parents invited me over for dinner at their house. Mmmm..... home cooking! Elisa's mum made the nicest risotto, roast beef, potatoes & peppers, mushrooms & bruscetta. I was in food-heaven! That is 3 brilliant meals in 2 days - for lunch, Virginia had taken me to her friend's restaurant for traditional Tuscan cuisine. No pasta in site (I keep thinking back to my frozen microwave pasta in Siena - disgraceful).

6th Sept 2006

'Country Party'

Chiara, Virginia, Elisa & me on my first night in Viareggio
Out to dinner at a traditional Tuscan-style trattoria
On the pier at Viareggio

Note the desert table in bottom left of the picture - mmmm!
Francesca, Virgy & me at the 'country party!'
Dinner best dinner ever! - Tuscan style.

Bingo!!
Cheers! Last night at Francesco's (Ios). Candice had made us some mystery shots!
Virginia & Elisa
The view from Francesco's. The postcard photographers come here to take their pictures of the sunset.


I decided to blow off the Amalfi coast & Naples part of my holiday in favour for another week in Tuscany. It was an easy choice really..... risk having my bag snatched by thieves on scooters & stay in a dirty hostel? Or go north to fashionable & picturesque Toscany & stay with my new friends Virginia & Elisa!

Best decision ever!! I stayed with Virginia in Viareggio, a coastal town 10min drive from Lucca. Viareggio has everything: Boats of the rich & famous, beautiful beaches, a promenade lined with fantastic designer shops & boutiques, dozens of public swimming pools located adjacent to the beach, bike trails, gelaterias, bars with free antipasto in the evenings....Great!!!

The girls picked me up from the station & took me out to dinner with their friend Chiara who was just lovely! Virgy told me it is very rare for an Italian person to have an Australian friend so all of her friends were curious to meet me - to see what an Australian girl is like!! The next morning Virginia's younger brother came over as soon as I'd gotten out of bed - to see his sister's Australian friend! It was very nice that people were so interested in meeting me & I was so impressed that everybody knew so much english - and even if they didn't, they would be too polite to say so & continue listening to me! I think that happened alot! Everyone I spoke with was so extremely nice.

I was taken to a 'country party' (aka, la sagra). It was a porcini mushroom festival held in the countryside marking the arrival of the mushroom season. There was an enormous amount of food & it was one of the best meals I've eaten. I played Italian bingo!! It was so much fun. I know the numbers 1-99!

5th Sept 2006