I got to Milan yesterday afternoon - the city put on a lovely show of grey skies and constant rain to welcome me. My bag is now very heavy with the culmination of souveniers and gifts so it's not much fun to carry around with me when trying to read a map and make my way to each hostel. Right now everything fits, but there's not much room and I have been dumping some clothes I don't need or really care to keep along the way. I could send some things home but am worried about the cost of posting it. I'll have to investigate this if it gets much heavier though!

After getting to the hostel and dumping everything, I ventured out to see what the city had to offer. From my hotel it's around a 45 minute walk to the Duomo (or else you can take the train) but I wanted to see the city so walked in the rain that really wouldn't let up. It's funny becuase whenever I told people I had met along the way that I was going to Italy, they always told me to not bother with Milan. "It's boring", they said. "Just a city of banks and high end shopping".

I can imagine the squeals of protest from all my Italian friends back home, most of whom come from Milan, at this! Rest assured guys, I don't think it is boring at all. I certainly can smell and feel the pollution around me, I will say that, but it's not boring!!

I met up with a friend (as I had mentioned before) in the early evening and he took me on a little tour around the Duomo area. Then he, his girlfriend and another Italian guy and I had dinner together, which was really nice. Dinner with Italians is always a lively affair :)

The four of us - Giovanni with his customary beer :)

This morning I returned to the Duomo area to have a look properly - unlike many churches in Italy, it is not of Renaissance or Romanesque design but much more like the Cathedrals in France and Germany. Needless to say it is very impressive. And very beautiful inside - the stained glass windows of the saints bathe the Cathedral in soft light. Towards the back of the Cathedral is where the tomb of St Charles Borromeo and you can see his body there.

I also did some more exploring of the Piazza Duomo and the various buildings around it. They are all very beautiful and again impressive!

The entrance to Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, next to the Duomo.

 The Piazza Duomo, with the statue of Vittorio Emanuele II (the first king of Italy)

I forgot to mention that when I was back in Melb a friend worked out a few routes for me to discover Milan, which have been so helpful - cheers Seba :) I followed the red tour which led me along Via Dante, up to the Castello Sforzesco.

Here I spent a few hours in the castle making my way through the rooms the various artefacts and museums it houses. Then afterwards I kept going on my tour and went through the Parco Sempione, kind of like a botanical garden, where I saw the Triennale and the Arco Della Pace.

All in all, a very enjoyable day. I had to return early to my hostel to do some preparation for my trip to Turkey in the next few days. But I am again meeting up with friends for dinner tonight - these ones I made in Sydney in 2008 for World Youth Day.

Venice in Pictures

Ok, as I promised here are some shots of Venice!

        

Below is the Rialto Bridge, choc full of shops.

 Below is one of the many facades and buildings that aren't really a part of anything but remain there.

 The Basilica of San Marco - unfortunately it has the scaffolding on it but you get the idea of how amazing it is

A tiny example of the roof of the Basilica - this was in the entrance where photos were allowed.

The Doge's Palace in San Marco Square

Inside the courtyard of the Palace is this gem

The view looking out to the bay from San Marco's Square

Venice

Apologies for no posts for the past few days - I had no access to internet while in Venice. However, I am now in Milan and will post the entries I had written about my days in Venice. Here they are!

Friday 7 January 2011

I was sad to leave Florence this morning; it is such a beautiful town and I really enjoyed myself there. Yesterday, after a phone call home to my family in the morning (during which I was informed that my Grandparents read this blog – I shall watch what I say now!), I went to the Uffizi Museum. If anyone ever goes to Florence and wants to go here (which all the guides recommend) I say definitely book ahead for tickets. The line took about 2 hours to get through, and it was the tourist off season. So mum and dad, if you go later on this year, make a reservation for tickets!!

I don't have any photos to share of the museum – there was strict control of cameras and I wasn't even allowed to take in bottled water. The works inside were impressive, though I was actually somewhat surprised after the amount of hype every guide I had read, as well as what everyone I had met in Florence had told me. They had all said I simply had to go and it was the most important museum in Italy. I don't know, perhaps I was expecting a bit more then? For starters this place certainly gets many of its visitors in because of the two paintings of Botticelli – the Birth of Venus and Spring. They were indeed beautiful and perhaps my favourite non Christian paintings there, but worth the wait of 2 hours? I'm not sure.

I don't want to bag out the museum – it definitely has some beautiful works and the museum itself is again beautiful. I think the problem is I have been forever changed by the National Gallery in London – now that, my friends, is a gallery worth paying to get into and waiting in a line, neither of which I had to do.

Moving on, I arrived in Venice by train a little before midday and the weather didn't really do much to welcome me. There was a fog on the canals that made it look quite gothic, and in fact as I was walking back and the light had gone it was more Jack the Ripperish actually! I spent the afternoon exploring – my hotel here is about a 40 min walk from the most famous section of Venice – San Marco Square, so will all my pottering around In various stores and admiring the views along the way, I didn't actually make it there!

Such pottering is definitely the way to discover Venice I think – it's like a little maze, with corners turning onto the canals and I can't help but marvel that such huge stone buildings are still afloat after all this time. There are so many Masquerade shops and Murano glass shops – the works are beautiful, but pricey. Which reminds me, Mum you asked me to check out Il Papiro to see if we are being ripped off in Melbourne. Well actually I say we are doing better than here in Italy, with the conversion rate! Their products seem to be universally expensive.

I did buy something beautiful today – there are a lot of the old fashioned style portraits that can be made from Ivory (though not any more) and they are on the coral background. Like this -

There were quite a few in the shops I saw and I have always loved these and wanted to get pendant of one, but they are really expensive in Australia The experience of buying one today was lovely – I chose the perfect place completely by accident. The store I chose was actually a family run business, with the present shop keeper having kept up her grandfather's work in this art form. She showed me some of the various works her family have created that are in museums throughout the world. I know what you're thinking, she could have easily been a phoney. But I don't think so, she showed me photos from when she was in Australia and the UK last year giving talks at universities about her work. She told me with great pride that one of her grandfather's best customers was Ernest Hemmingway. By this time I was feeling sure if I bought something it would be of great quality, but feeling nervous about the price!

However, we we had a look at quite a few and she was great – I told her my modest budget and she brought out some really stunning pieces in different styles and settings. 20 minutes later I walked out of the store with a beautiful, handmade pendant by her grandfather that is around 80 years old. It is so beautiful and the lady at the store made a big deal about how young I am to have such elegant taste as a fine lady. I have to say that after just having come from eating a canned tuna on a park bench for lunch this felt a bit of a stretch but I was happy to accept such a compliment!

Saturday 8 January 2011

Today, being a Saturday, Venice was brimming with people out shopping and sight-seeing, so I took one of the back routes to San Marco, away from the main tourist route. This way I was able to see some of the places where Venetians live. I'd love to know what a typical house looks like inside, for on the outside basically none of the houses stand alone, but are kind of continuous blocks of housing – more apartment-like I suppose. They look very quaint on the outside though, with window boxes of flowers and their terracotta colours. There seems to be a church on every corner and, I don't know how to explain it, but what looks like the remains of buildings a few hundred years old, abandoned and decaying.

I was trying to think of a word to describe my impression of Venice and the best I could come up with was gothic. There is a lot of gothic architecture around, however I think the fact that I have come here in Winter has much to do with me forming this impression. For starters, Venice is the only place I have been in Europe in which Winter does not seem to agree with it. The fog, which I noted as soon as I got off the train, loses its mysterious nature very quickly and then becomes tiresome. It swirls around the canals so that it can be hard to get a good glimpse of their beauty. I am surprised that I managed to get photos that look clear! And most of all, the fog gives the impression of abandonment. For once you step off the well beaten tourist tracks, the place becomes so quiet and I felt like I was walking through a ghost town. With only the pigeons and the burbling of the water around you, I suppose some may call it majestic perhaps but to me it feels like the town is lonely. One day I will come back to Venice when it is warm and see what it is like then, but I felt a bit sorry for all the beautiful ruins around me.

I made it to San Marco, after much dragging my feet past some of the shops that have the most stunning paper and feather quills (I really was born in the wrong century!). Immediately I could see why this would be the main tourist area – the Basilica of San Marco is vast and imposing with the tall bell towers around it and the Palace cornering this piazza off. There is a pier of sorts, where lots of gondolas are docked and I think you must be able to look out to the sea or something, however I couldn't see beyond about 70 metres because of the fog. I imagine in Summer it is beautiful. There were pigeons everywhere here, hoping for a scrap of food, except I saw a sign that said that eating food in public was forbidden in this piazza (!) so the pigeons weren't getting much.

When you go inside the Basilica, it is immediately obvious that the Venetians were inspired by Byzantine architecture. Remember how the roof of the Baptistery in Florence was covered in mosaic and I was harping on about how beautiful it was? Well times that by 20 and you have the roof of the Basilica. It is absolutely amazing, I can't explain how stunning it is. It was actually bit hard to see it because there are basically no windows and very little lighting, but all the same it was so impressive. The high altar carries the relics of St Mark the Evangelist (whose body was taken by the Venetians from Alexandria in dubious circumstances).

Next to the Basilica was the Doge's Palace. The Doge, in Medieval times when Venice was its own state, was the leader of the state, though he actually did not do very much in its day to day running. I bought a ticket and saw the apartments where he would have lived, the ministerial areas where the various courts were held, the armoury and the prison underground. The apartments were relatively small, though very opulent. But the ministerial areas were wow, so over the top with tapestries and paintings and the rooms were huge!! Absolutely amazing.

Seeing the armoury was really cool – some of the swords were so big I have no idea how the knights could lift them let alone fight with them. There was also a really good collection of cannons and guns – I had to laugh when I saw some of the pistols. I mean these things were ornaments more than effective weaponry – their aim was so unreliable and they are so intricately engraved and embossed. You'd be better off hitting someone with it than firing it. It always makes me laugh in movies like The Patriot where Mel Gibson has one of these guns and he can aim at a guy 100 metres away while on horseback and it gets him right in the head or chest. But then, he's Mel Gibson, so he can do anything.

The prison was quite spooky – it was freezing down here and you could still see the graffiti in Italian on the walls from Medieval times. I wonder how many a poor man suffered there.

One thing I learned today was that Venice's symbol of the lion comes from St Mark, whose symbol is also a lion. The reason this particular saint was chosen to be the state's patron saint was because he was one of the Twelve Apostles, so he had direct contact with Christ, however he was not associated with the Vatican in Rome, the way St Peter was. So this was Venice making the statement of being separate to the powers in Rome – I found this to be quite interesting.

Sunday 9 January 2011

This morning I was woken by one of many choruses of church bells ones hears when in Venice. It was certainly a much nice sound than the sounds of the previous evening – a loud bunch of drunk American tourists decided to camp outside the hotel last night, talking loudly then throwing up. Not so very nice.

This morning I made my way back to San Marco's Basilica for Sunday mass. It surprised me when I got in there, to see it fairly empty. The Basilica is closed to tourist during mass times, though I noticed a fair few people in the aisles reading tourist books and looking around, so I don't think they were there for mass. I know that Italy is a nominally a Catholic country, though my Italian friends have told me that numbers at church are always declining, but I was surprised that Sunday mass at the Cathedral should have so few people, even if this is the case.

This time all the lights were on inside the Basilica so I could see the roof in all its splendour. After the service I stayed back and had a good look – there is so much detail and symbolism in them. One could easily study the Basilica for years to learn about all its history and reasons behind the architecture.

It was even more foggy and damp today and really quite unpleasant to be outside, so I found a coffee shop that didn't charge you to sit down (a rare thing I have found so far in Italy!) and sat there and watched the world go buy while enjoying my cup of Joe. It got even more dark and foggy so I walked back to the hotel and curled up reading my new novel I picked up in Rome, Dumas' The Three Musketeers. It's quite good so far, though it makes me realise how much the Disney rendition of it, which I loved as a kid, completely butchered it!

Tomorrow morning I leave by train for Milan – I should arrive in the early afternoon. In the evening I am catching up with an Italian friend who was studying in Melbourne in early 2010 so I am looking forward to that!

I have lots of photos of Venice but the bandwidth on the wi-fi at this new hotel doesn't seem to like them, so I will try to put some up again soon.

Yesterday I received a bit of a shock when I went downstairs to the reception of this hostel. I think I mentioned before that this hostel is run by two brothers. Well, I only met one of them when I checked in and this morning when I went downstairs the other one was there. What made me do a double take was the fact that they look exactly alike except one has crazy long hair and the other has short hair, so for a few dumb seconds I thought that the guy had magically grown all that hair overnight. Then it dawned on me that it was the other brother – I thought afterwards that it was like the two policemen in Hot Fuzz who are bothers and sit at the front desk of the police station; one is totally unkempt and the other very smart. This is the famous “Nobody tells me nuthin'” scene that my brothers and I quote to each other.

Anyway, yesterday was a busy day. The thing about Florence is there are so many museums it can be hard to chose what to go to when you have limited time. I chose to go the Bargello museum in the morning because it houses some amazing collections of Renaissance sculpture but it was also used as a torture barracks in medieval times, so it looks rather imposing and I could easily imagine it would have been feared when in operation.

The collections here were pretty amazing – and inside the building itself it was so easy to imagine this place in the medieval times with its knaves and stone walls. No photos allowed unfortunately so I can't show you what it was like, but take my word for it – it was pretty cool.

I then made my way down to Santa Croce, a beautiful Renaissance style church that is as famous for its beauty as for the fame of the people who have their tombs there. Inside there are the magnificent tombs of Michaelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli and an honorary one for Dante (who is buried elsewhere). There are many others also and the floor is uneven because the stone slabs have bodies underneath them and the floor is carved with their likeness. This actually reminded me once when I was younger I remember my Dad telling me about old churches that bury people in the floors and walls and the next time we were at mass in our 40 year old church I wondered where all the people were in the walls there. It's things like that that make me realise how old and amazing these places are in Europe – they have such a history behind them that Australia just doesn't because of its relative youth.

Santa Croce from the front

Tomb of Michaelangelo

Galileo's tomb

The architecture inside

Kind of hard to see, but this part of the tunic that St Francis of Assis wore

The cloisters surrounding the church are quite beautiful – I just love walking through them in the silence and all you can hear are your own footsteps. It's the closest I will ever get to the experience of a monk!

Towards the end of the day I went inside the Baptistery that is right next to the big Duomo. Unlike the Duomo's inner simplicity, the Baptistery has absolutely stunning mosaics on its domed roof and around some of the windows. I still have a sore next from sitting down for nearly an hour looking up at it. The mosaics tell of various Biblical stories and towards the Altar there is a depiction of the Last Judgement. It was just absolutely beautiful and it was amazing to sit there thinking, this is the place that Dante came to and loved and said how much it inspired him. I sat there wondering if I would ever produce anything of a fraction of the magnificence of Dante's Divine Comedy - it's hardly likely!

Today was a bit more sedate. I went to the Uffizi Gallery this morning but there was already a huge line, so I will have to go back tomorrow and be there before it opens (around 8am) to avoid waiting in line for ages. So, I kept moving on and went to the Pitti Palace and its surrounding gardens. This was one of the best things I have done so far – the Palace itself has the most amazing frescos painted on the walls but what I enjoyed the most were the gardens outside. I'm feeling a little nostalgic for greenery at the moment – it's mainly stonework I've seen for these past weeks. But if anyone is ever in Florence, I highly recommend the Boboli and Bardini Gardens – it's a little bit of Tuscan countryside in Florence. And the views! Even on a cold, cloudy day like today it was stunning and I was in bliss walking through the fruit trees and grape vines.

I spent quite a lot of time there today just basking in the serenity (much better than Bonny Doon!) so that when I went to Santo Spirito afterwards, it was closed for the day. No matter, I kept on moving and went over the Vecchio Bridge which is from Renaissance times. It was packed full of

a) tourists and b) jewellery stores with the most beautiful pieces. I just can't help being attracted to sparkly things so you can imagine I had to look in every single window :) God help my future husband!

Some of the funnier things I saw today include a crazy cat woman in one of the gardens, who was feeding a group of healthy looking cats. I adore cats more than I love sparkly thing so it was difficult for me not to join the crazy lady in cuddling the cats. Another sight that made me laugh though I had to hide it was in a cafe, where this little girl was drinking a very rich cup of hot chocolate and when she had finished had a moustache from the chocolate to rival any man in Movember (for those not familiar, in Australia in November some men grow a moustache and raise money for various causes) as well as black teeth when she smiled at her mother. Her mother certainly saw the funny side of it so if they saw me giggling hopefully they weren't offended!

The Perils of Hostels and Piazzas of Florence

I think we have a winner for most annoying room-mate in a hostel so far on this trip. The Peruvian girl I mentioned earlier has taken that honour, resoundly beating all other competition. Apart from the night terrors, she has a habit of getting up really early every morning and deciding that this is the best time to tip out everything from her luggage and re-pack her bags, throwing around the place so there's a nice bam! every 30 seconds and the constant rustling of plastic and paper bags. All the while she sings and speaks Spanish to herself so we have a lovely little running commentary for this show. Yesterday her camera broke so we had to endure hours late into the night of her trying to fix the damn thing and banging it against the wall every few minutes to see if this would work. I gotta tell you, it was with quite a bit of pleasure that I left that hostle this morning!

I made it to Florence today without any hassle - my train ticket didn't allow me to get a seat so I had to stand for the trip but it was less than 2 hours so all was fine. My hostel is actually better than the hotel in Rome - it's this little quaint hotel run by 2 brothers and I don't know, there's something lovely to me about opening up the window shutters like a door rather than the window being opened vertically. Very Tuscan or something - in any case I feel like I'm really in Italy!

The brilliant thing (one of many actually) about Florence is it's so small that everything is within walking distance. So this afternoon I managed to see quite a bit of the town, including the main square with the great Duomo. It's interesting seeing the Renaissance style architecture becuase after the splendid opulence of the churches in the Vatican, they seem quite plain. Of course they're not at all, but I'm not used to seeing bare walls! The outside of the Duomo is by far my favourite exterior to a church.

Here are some pics - the sunlight this afternoon and blue skies made it stunning.

And inside -

I walked to the top of the bell tower right next to it and from there got an amazing view of Florence - here are some of the views.

I also went to the church of St Lorenzo, which originally consecrated by Saint Ambrose in the 4th century AD - the crypt underneath here had some amazing relics of the saints - there was a thumb that kind of freaked me out but at the same time was amazing.

Later on I found myself at one of the leather markets - it was so hard not to buy lots of things. I didn't think I was a huge fan of leather but when it came to the leather bound books - such a temptation!

One of the guys who runs the hostel sat down with me and worked out number to walking routes to see everything so I am looking forward to exploring some more tomorrow. It certainly is nice not to have to take the Metro :)

It's been a quiet end to Rome for me. I think I burned myself out a bit with all the sightseeing in the first week so this weekend was very quiet. In any case, yesterday being new year's day nothing was open so I didn't miss much! In fact, I actually had a rather enjoyable day - someone has put up the entire mini-series 'Little Dorrit' (based on the novel by Charles Dickens) on youtube, so I watched all 8 episodes. I know it's not the best way to watch a movie but it's good enough for me at the moment! I think I will buy this version when I get back - it's the 2008 one and it's very good.

This morning I went to Sunday mass at St John Lateran Cathedral - it's Rome's cathedral and where the Bishop has his parish. It follows in the same kind of decoration and architecture as the other Papal Churches (Santa Maria Maggiore and St Peter's, which are by far my favourite so far on this trip) and it seems that I always seem to just miss the Latin masses! No matter, it's just as valid in Italian but I can understand more of it in Latin!

I spent most of this afternoon just walking - it was a bit sunny after a few days of dreary grey so I wanted to get out a bit. Plus, I feel I have over-indulged in the first half of this trip so I could use the exercise. I'm hoping to be more moderate in the next half!

Speaking of which, today I'm exactly halfway through my trip. I'm in two minds about this little milestone - first of all it feels like it has gone fast with all the days blending into one massive blur of experiences. On the other hand it feels like it has gone very slowly. I think it's because of how much I've experienced and fit into these last 5 weeks. Obviously usual life back home is very different, though often just as busy, in that you get into the usual pattern of doing things and it seems that the weeks go by so fast. Because for me on this trip every day is different, the days seem longer.

However, I've put together a little list of things I have learned so far in my travels. Here we go.

1) I am definitely, totally and completely an extrovert. This often surprises people (especially people from school as I was generally more reserved than other students) but this trip has shown it so clearly to me that I re-charge and get energy from being around other people. I've realised this becuase it has been extremely difficult for me travelling alone and whenever it happens that I get chatting to someone I feel a little surge of cheerfulness and relax more. It's not to say that there haven't been times on this trip I have enjoyed being on my own, but in the end I am more energised being in good company than always by myself.

2) Always keep your passport strapped to yourself

3) Travelling takes a certain kind of humility I find hard to act with. Being in foreign countries where you don't know the language or the way the transport system works, you have to ask questions. And inevitably, you're going to get things wrong and end up apologising to people. Sometimes I feel like all I do is apologise - for ordering the wrong way at a cafe, for sitting in the wrong seat on the train because I can't read on my ticket that I have got a stand-only ticket, for walking in the wrong entrance to a building because there are no entry and exit signs. And so many other times. I like knowing what I have to do in order to be in control of a situation and travelling teaches you that you've got barely any control over what happens to you - only over your own actions and how you deal with the situations you find yourself in. I think I have good manners and try my best to be gracious in embarrassment, but I have to admit this has been a real lesson for me in humility.

4) It is possible to use a towel the size of a handkerchief to totally dry yourself and long hair after a shower

5) Education seems pretty damn good in Australia, especially the cost of universities, compared to lots of other countries (this comes from many conversation I've had with people from different countries; I'm not making a judgement call on whether education overall is better in Australia)

6) Always keep your passport strapped to yourself

7) I've yet to have a coffee overseas that has been better than what we can make in Melbourne. Sorry my Italian friends!

8) Chocolate is so much cheaper in the chocolate-making countries, especially in Berlin and Vienna

9) Melbourne's public transport is embarrassingly bad

10) Always keep your passport strapped to youself

11) People do weird things in their sleep (for instance, there's a girl in my hostel room at the moment who is from Peru and will wake up at odd times during the night shrieking in rapid Spanish)

12) It is possible to live without an iPhone. That was a hard habit to break but my hand no longer searches in my pocket for it when I am bored and I no longer think "I'll just look that up on my iPhone!" when I am trying to find a place or need to find something out. Of course, as soon as I get back home the reunion with it will be a happy one :)

Ok, goodbye to Rome then and hello Florence tomorrow!

Happy New Year everyone, I heard it was a bit of a scorcher in Melbourne for the festivities so I hope you all rang in 2011 in air-conditioning!

Anyone made any resolutions for 2011? Apart from the usual lose the tyre around the waist or lower the credit card debt? One of my resolutions for 2010 was to get my driver's licence. And I did it in late November - less than a week before I came to Europe. At least I made it in the year, even if it was late!

It's not yet 2011 here - this evening the main festivities are happening in one of the main piazzas in Rome - I've heard it's crazy there and if it is crazy busy and loud by Italian standards then it's going to be mega crazy loud and busy by my Australian ones! So, I am doing my usual New Year's Eve and having a quiet one. I'm not really that sentimental about the turn of the year, in fact I find the thought of a new year always quite daunting. I much prefer to finish the year than start a new one. Kind of morbid I know.

Had a pretty quiet day today. I actually found myself in the slums of Rome - I was making my way up to a park because I was looking for a break from the business of Rome and obviously the hostel I'm staying in now isn't in the same kind of area that the hotel I was in before. However, I actually really enjoyed being there. It was the area that seemed to be mainly inhabited by Asians and Africans with all their shops. Honestly, the difference between here and the touristy main areas was startling. In a Melbourne context, it was like going from Brighton to Laverton. But I found myself so much more at ease here. I think this was due to a number of reasons.

The first was a lack of beggars. I haven't mentioned this before but Rome has an extraordinary number of beggars on every single street corner. It can get frustrating always being hounded by them (and they always know I am a tourist becuase of my pale complexion and red hair so they pounce on me) but today there was not one around - most likely because this is where they live and they were all out at work. Another reason is the lack of designer and exclusive stores. Warning, rant coming! I've always been vehemently opposed to paying for a brand name and have felt ashamed at times seeing my own sex's behaviour towards the acquisition of such goods (remember the frenzied scenes at Target for Stella McCartney's range? And they say that if women ruled the world there would be no wars!). I can appreciate something for its beauty, but the fact that it is Prada or Gucci means that a) obviously I won't be able to afford it and b) I don't want to buy it becuase I think of all the other things I could do with my hard earned money that would do far more for others and myself. Now there are a lot of these stores wherever I go in Europe and in the beginning it was nice - I could have a quick look and see some of the nice things and then move on and see something much more culturally signifcant. But after 2 days of this I'd had more than my share. And now, after 5 weeks of constantly being surrounded by it? I am totally sick of it. I admit I am sensitive to these things but I find it hard being in places that promote narcissim. I have a hard time enough trying to fight my own selfishness without being told I should embrace it because "I deserve it"!

Ok, I think I got that out of my system - it's just been playing on my mind lately and I have no one to vent to, so this blog gets the full force of my anger. Of course, it's exactly the same back home - there are the exclusive shops and designer boutiques in Melbourne. But at home I can avoid them like the plague, whereas over here, they're everywhere I go because they are targeting the tourists.

So anyway, today it was so comforting to spend time in reality as I walked through the poorer areas. And the mere presence of Asian and African people reminded me of home. Over the past year, through various experiences and now especially on this trip, I have totally fallen in love with how multi-cultural Australia is, especially Melbourne. So, give me the choice of shopping at the markets or at the big name boutiques and the I'll take the markets.

Just to finish up, I have to add how noisy Rome is! Either my hearing has gotten much better in the last week or Italians live with the volume up a notch or two above what I am used to! I think it is the latter. And I'm not complaining about this as a cultural thing - I think the enthusiastic approach to life is great - they certainly don't seem afraid of showing genuine affection for their friends. Sometimes, however, especially at night, it would be nice to be able to sleep without some guy called Guido professing his love for Maria by shouting accross the street and revving his Vesper engine. Just saying.