Wednesday, August 12, 2009

We are in Italy ...

Well at last after spending close enough to two whole days and nights either in a plane or at an airport we are finally here in Milan… the weather is quite simply stunning… VERY hot! When we arrived here in Milan it was 32 degrees and is meant to get there again today.
It sounds like August is the hottest month of the year everywhere in Italy. Still great to be in Italy… though I have to say between blocked ears , extreme tiredness , heck we were in bed and sound asleep by 8 last night… 33 hours in a plane or an airport really does take it out of you… I think the worst of it is not being able to stretch out. Our legs are sore as a result. Yeah so we were in bed early last night but had wanted something to eat before crashing thankfully we were able to find a pizzeria open early not far from the hotel… everything around it was shut up tight… not open again yet. It seems like everyone shuts up shop early afternoon and goes home for lunch and a snooze only to get back into it full on later. The restaurant in the hotel here didn’t even open for dinner till 7.30 so to find the pizzeria was fantastic! The young girl in there spoke beautiful English (though apologised for her poor English) which we were both eternally grateful for since our sleep deprived brains weren’t functioning all that well!

So we are off this morning to check out Milan… going to take the Metro into the heart of the city rather than try and find somewhere to park… seriously if you didn’t see it you really wouldn’t believe the way people park here… and everyone has small cars… the only bigger vehicles have been service type vehicles. The whole driving in Italy is an experience in itself… I spent most of the drive from the airport to the hotel yesterday in a flat panic… who moved the ruddy steering wheel???? Mind you I was awake enough to remind Chris that if he was driving he was heading to the wrong door … yeah he automatically went to the right hand side of the car to climb in to drive us from the airport!
The drivers really don’t seem all that horrific yet… Chris was disappointed that we didn’t get tooted at more often… though for one guy behind us our sitting in the middle of the street was obviously enough of an annoyance to make him toot at us! Chris loved it… it was like yeah now that’s what driving in Italy is meant to be! No lane markings mean it’s really hard to figure out whether it’s a one or a two lane road you are on… and then there are the cobbled streets… everyone was driving along the tram tracks… with good reason even in a well sprung modern car the ride was rough to say the least!

The other thing we have noticed is all the motorbikes we have seen here in Milan not one of the riders we have seen have had even a light jacket on, let alone a leather one… the women on the back all seem to have high heels… slip ons at that, no sleeves in their shirts and the number of the riders and passengers that are smoking while they are doing it is just unbelieveable! I am seriously going to have to try and get a photo cause it’s something else that just has to be seen to be believed!

Okay so we will be back later to hopefully show you some photos of what we have seen in and around Milan… hope everyone is well …

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3 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Sounds like a fab time although I would normally get into the driver's seat from the left door and seeing motorcycle drivers without jackets or helmets are common place around here. Can't wait to see picts!

3:39 AM  
Blogger Whimsical Woman said...

I'm impressed with the speed you managed to get a post up! Sounds brilliant. I'm not envious, I'm not, I'm not!

9:15 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh lord Cheryl you are bringing back memories and I am cracking up! PMSL!

9:52 AM  

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