Benvenuti a Calabria! Welcome to Calabria and in particular, the very small town of Cessaniti where my mum was born and lived the first 19 years of her life. Cessaniti is set in amongst the rolling, green hills of this beautiful countryside. From here, I can see the sea as well as lots of other small towns along the way. We were met at the airport, Lamezia Terme, by my uncle and cousins. The welcome was huge. Massive bear hugs, several in fact and lots of kisses...

Today was not a day to visit local sights. The clouds have rolled in and the temperature has dropped to half that we had yesterday! So today we plan to stay in town and, weather permitting, maybe take a trip into Monza and have a look around. We leave our hotel room and head off to Zia & Zio's house. On arrival it starts to rain. This ends our plans to do anything at all so Zio puts on a DVD of Lino's & Silvia's wedding and we watch that with some intere...

Today we have made our way to Verona - famously known as the City of Love! This magical city has been carved out of the 13th century and married into the 21st with ancient buildings housing designer brands such as Gucci and Armani. We march down via Giuseppe Mazzini along with an endless stream of other tourists making the pilgrimage to one of the most famous locations on earth: Casa di Giulietta. We squeeze our way into the courtyard containing the balcony where...

The shopping extravaganza did not develop into the disaster that I expected nor the feast that Johanna hoped for. Milan is a premium shopping city where only the best is sold; well, at least that is the perception that is created here! The local Myer like store called Rinascente, represents only the best money can buy in all of Europe. Here you will find representatives from Prada, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Jimmy Choo, Valentino, Bvlgari and Armani, just to name a...

For those that were concerned about our safety in Arguata, we did make it home alive, well according to Tony I was the only one worried. He said we were perfectly safe however I've learnt that if he says everything is fine I should be worried! We got back to Genova at about 10pm and then had some dinner at a pizza restaurant just below our hotel. If you think that we are eating a lot of pizza, you're right. If you haven't had pizza in Italy you'll know why when y...