Italy will now forever be etched in my mind as the land of Hello Kitty, Che Guevara and pink. I used to be obsessed with Hello Kitty when I was in my teenage angsty goth phase, but I would never have liked it if it was this mainstream. The other night we went to a fancy disco close to Federica's house in the Le Marche region, where we spent the weekend, and I even saw people wearing Hello Kitty there. I've seen car seats, suitcases, T-shirts, watches, ice cream... you name it. Che's face is everywhere too. Even on beer bottle labels alongside Hitler and Stalin.

But the most shocking thing for me is the pink. I would say about one in 10 men is wearing pink. Pink shirts, pants, shorts, hats, shoes, ties, and man bags. There's an abundance of purple too. I don't find it bad. Just shocking. You definitely didn't see that in Canada when I was there 2.5 months ago. Let me know if that has changed.

I'm spending a glorious day just "being" today. I have been craving a day to just do nothing.... meaning no travelling or sightseeing. We decided to come to Rome afterall. Mo is in love with Roman history so it just seemed wrong to skip it. And it's a good thing we came. The weather has been nice (last night anyway, I haven't gone out today). Last night we took a "caj stroll" (Mo's term) around Rome and eventually made our way to the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine where we just sat and looked at them while Mo told me all about the history. There was a nice breeze and hardly any tourists. And then we bought Bacardi Breezers from a sandwich stand and wandered around some more. It was awesome.

The last week or so has been amazing. After our little blip in Sorrento (which, again, was good but the heat traumatised us, and the people on our last day sucked). I really didn't want to leave Croatia, but we made our way back across the Adriatic and spent the weekend with Federica and her parents in Porto Potenza Picena. I could write an entire blog on the food her mom served us. We were pampered to death. It was a fabulous weekend.

Tomorrow we're off to Nice. We don't have any accommodation, so I really hope we won't be sleeping on the street. That would definitely colour our experience of France.