...After the Pasta at the cafe, we headed back to the Hotel and had a chat with Angelo the owner. Once again the dreaded European Union came up in conversation. I had wondered why prices had gone up a lot since my last visit to Italy a couple of years back.......Angelo told us that taxes had gone up......but he saved the best till last.......income tax is now around 80%........so that's 80 % to the governemnt and 20% for Angelo. I wonder how Angelo would vote if there were a referendum on Italy leaving the EU?

Around 8.30pm we decide to head out and find a cafe.....in the dark the shutters have come down on the shops and there yet more graffiti....even the shutters that have had professional graffit have been graffitied.....and then that's been graffitied over. It gives the place a late 80's New York feel...except this is Milan and it's too chilled out to be bothered about the unending Graffiti.

We agree that we'll sit down at the first cafe we find as we dont want to get lost again....so the first thing we do is walk past the first cafe we see...saying it's a bit posh or something and then walk past another 20 or so cafes...net result, yes we get lost again. so spend another hour trying to get back to the hotel..eventually we find it and then make a pact that we'll walk in the other direction and sit down in the first cafe we see. We walk past the first cafe we see........but this time dont get lost as the second place we find is a bit of a curiosity in Milan...it's called The Lord Beeching and it's an English themed pub. Oh no I hear you say...but this one is a bit different. It's not serving bacon and chips to fat tattooed skinheads watching Wayne Rooney on the telly. The pub has been done out as a colonial type boozer and has a telephone box in it but funnily enough it's not cheesy. No one sits inside the pub, this is Milan, everyone sits outside on the tables and get's served by nice waitresses.

There's another curiosity about this English Pub...it's the only building in Milan that hasnt been graffitied.