Tuscan castles, clapping and MEAT!

Ooooo, it's been a little break again, but I was in Italy for a few days so presumably, you'll let me off.....No? Ah well, not a great deal I can do about that. Ha ha.

I have to say I was a tad disappointed that when I got to Italy, the first two days were cloudy with rain. I was like, erm, did I get on the plane, or did I forget and just go home to London? Did it really happen or did I just imagine it? I definitely did not sign up for wet week. But the Italians know how to do cloudy, better than Britain. It was still very warm (mid to late twenties) and when the sun was allowed to break through it was great, but still, it was rather comforting to know that other countries experience a dismal grey - supposedly - summer day every once and a while.

Needless to say, Monday and Tuesday were much better as we left Modena and headed for Tuscany. Wow! I think that's all you need to say really. Castle after castle after castle after castle. And not a ruined castle in sight, like in Britain. These were intact castles dating back from as far as the 13th century and were pretty freakin' awesome! Couple the castles with scorching sunshine, windy cobbled streets and coloured flags flying everywhere and vino running like water, and you've got yourself an awesome combination.

Now, for all you vegetarians out there, you might wanna skip over this bit, but you meat eaters listen up. Oh my God, the steak! Its called Fiorentina, I think, and its from the biggest cow which they breed for these mahoosive steaks. Oh my God, they were hacking at the meat before you're very eyes, it was incredible! And three of us shared a steak and guess the weight........go on guess.......no really guess...........

1950g   (and you were charged by the hundred grams.)

Argh! Bet you didn't guess right. It was insanely monstrous but absolutely delicious. I just kept thinking of my friend L. She would have loved it so much. MEAT! MEAT!

OK, veggies, you can rejoin us now. And my final little rant is about Italians on planes. Now, in general I love you guys, you have an awesome country (though the politics leave a little to be desired) great food, sunshine and many other amazing things like art and architecture and gelato! But really, do you have to scream every time the plane moves an inch? Do you have to clap once the plane lands? That's my worst one! You don't clap a landing plane, anymore than you clap at the end of a film at the cinema. Oh, it makes me really angry.

Ok, so they were fairly young, probably mid teens but still, why? why? why?

The other funny thing about Italians is that they cannot queue. They just don't get it. They try their best at every opportunity, to cut in, to bypass the queue or just feign ignorance to the whole queuing system. hmmmmm. I guess it is stereotypical that Britain's love to queue, but its not even that, it's more than we understand how to queue and we do it properly. No one likes to queue, everyone wants to be at the front of a queue, so therefore not have to queue at all, but realistically that never happens.

Anyway, I should stop ranting and get off to work. I don't think they'll be impressed if I'm late after three days holiday.

Enjoy your Thursdays.
xxxxx