Date: 2008-02-20
To: Florence
Miles today: 0.0

A number of people have been asking me about why I have not put more pictures in, it is really difficult to get pictures burnt and added to my account here in Italy. In fact most things of that nature are very difficult to get done here in italy, as most things do not seem to work. Last night we went to a bar so Nick could watch the soccer between Inter and Liverpool, and just for the record Liverpool won, interesting experience sitting amongst a bunch of Italian men. There were a couple of young american lasses in the bar drinking, and the italian men swarmed all over them, it was so funny to watch and reinforced every stereotype I have ever had of them. There were an Australian lady with her two kids at the bar from Perth, and it was great to be able to talka bit about AFL, and hear some Australian accents, they said the exact same thing. We meet an American guy and we tagged along with him to another bar and saw a beatles cover band, even the italians have such things. it was full of young americans studying here in Florence. Many of them it seems come to do a semester and improve their Italian, but were complaining that all the locals talk to them in English. Out the back whilst i was getting a beer there was a fight amongst some italian men, more a bitch slap, and God did I laugh they sure do have a different way of settling things. We were home at about 2am, and I was super tired, just had the two beers and both were disgusting, so sickly sweet. I have a flu7cold at the moment, few hot sweats and feeling pretty tired with a cough and all the usual symptons. It has slowed me down a bit. I can see why I have not been out on the town since travelling, it just costs far too much. Today we might wander off see a museum, maybe a go see the statue of David, and possibly a big garden. Iam struggling a bit with my man cold and finding the energy is a bit difficult at the moment. I love walking around the streets of this town, it is much smaller in size than Rome, and has few cars along many of the old central city streets. it is a really romantic place, the bridges across the river are just gorgeious. I am happy just to wander around, with Nick as my tourist guide, good to have someone who has visited all these places before. I am writing this account whilst Nick is off shopping for nicole, he wants to get her a present. I am really enjoying italy, the people for the most part are very friendly, being able to speak italian would be an advantage. I did meet a nice girl in the train, who did explain a lot of the social and economic issues facing this country, and the big problems they have with a lack of stable government. I think as a tourist travelling in such a country adds to the experience, we come from such austere and well organised societies, it is interesting to see another way of doing things. To live here would be a real nuisance, but to just be passing through it adds to the whole experience.Much of the pick pocketing around train stations has been eliminated, there is a huge police presence most tourists spots we go to. I was talking to a local who did tell me that there are big issues with people from Romania, the gypsies, and in recent times around Termini station in Rome there have been a number of robbings and murders. That just happened to be the place we were staying, probably explains why each night as we passed the station there were so many police. The murders have all happened in the last 3 months. We are off in the Venice direction tomorrow, I am hoping that my cold clears up, and I begin to feel a bit better.Feel free to write to me any time soon.