Hullo!

I'm back from Italy. It was a strange little place, rather rainy and dirty grotty cities with graffiti. So much like London then!

I did like Italy though, all the streets are narrow and dark and rather scary on a dark night. I loved wandering down odd streets and coming across ancient churches or ruins.

Pisa, was dark and spooky though, and rather run down. We went to the tower and climbed up it which was the oddest thing ever, you lean with the building and start walking up one side of the staircase and find yourself on the other! And at the top with only a thin bar stopping you from slipping off of the steps and falling does odd things to your centre of balance!
THe place we stayed at was odd though! It was basically a B&B set up by a rather enterprising woman in the spare room of her 3rd floor flat. who spoke no english. and my italian is limited to "Hello" "Bye." "Thanks" "Excuse me" "Welcome" "ice cream" and "How much does that cost?"

She got rather excited by the fact i was travelling with my mam though and pinched my cheek lots which hurt. And hugged me loads. And offered me what looked like Liver on toast. I opted for the nutella at breakfast time. Which they all seem obsessed by. Its everywhere, in ice cream, in cakes, on the breakfast table.
Needless to stay I spend much of my time hiding from her.

On the second day we went to Lucca, which is a lovely little medieval town about 40 minutes away on the train from Pisa, its exciting cos its mostly pedrestrianised (which is a good thing considering the driving skills of most italians!) We got a tandem and rode it the 4km around the city walls, which was an experience! its horrid not being in control of your cycle and i was at the back all the time and feeling like it was gonna tip over!
Anyway here are some pictures from that part of my adventures and I'dd do the rest tomorrow.

Me at the Tower!

Climbing to the top!

Lucca