There were a few taxis lined up outside Garibldi Train Station and we got lucky by choosing the right one. Our man spoke English, rode Moto Guzzi motorcycles, was scrupulously honest and had studied in Devon during Mrs. Thatcher's reign in the 1980's. He told us a few stories about life then, they involved mindless violence after the pubs closed and generally he said it was an eye opener. He also told us Italy was totally corrupt and also filled me in on the Franciscan Monks who run the Soup Kitchen by Via Valenzia. That place had puzzled us last year as queues of immigrants waited outside that building, this year there were even more people. Our Friendly taxi driver told us this is due to the fact that more Italians had joined the queue due to rising poverty levels. All interesting stuff and not a bad education considering we were only in the car for 10 minutes at the max.

13 Euros later, we were dropped off in the Studi Citta area outside our Hotel of choice, The San Giovanni. Grant & I had come across this area last year by luck, it's the Student Quarter of Milan and its a fine place to take in the joys of Milan. It's hard to put your finger on what makes Milan such a great place, it's just superb to find a roadside bar, enjoy the chaos of the traffic, sip a beer and people watch. We checked into the quirky San Giovanni Hotel - another 1 star establishment by the way but a million miles away from the Methadone Clinic that we stayed at in Calais. Angelo is our host and is a nice guy, he recommends us to eat at one of his latest ventures, a little restaurant down the road. We take his advice and head to the Rosa Bianco Restaurant. It was a great little place, the food was very good, we had beer, vino collapso, coffee and some lemoncello. It cost half of what we thought it would be. We then headed off for some street theatre. We found an excellent roadside bar teeming with life and plonked ourselves down for the duration. We had a great time getting into the spirit of things Italian. The swerving traffic, beeping horns and rude gesticulations to bad drivers. The ladies of Milan were also very pleasant to look at and if any young bachelors out there are looking for a young lady, then I suggest that Milan is a great place to go on a potential wife hunt.

Rhid has been plagued by a cold on this trip and sought comfort in drinking Manhattans, he said they were very strong. I stuck to Italian Ale - "I know my limits and exceed them"*. We had great fun and left at god knows what hour. I then introduced Rhid to the joys of getting lost in Milan. I don't think Rhid was too impressed. Yes, Milan had once again geographically bamboozled me!! I knew we were close and set about asking other late night revellers where the hotel was???? We did get lucky and were just around the corner.....so thankfully we got back...but had to wake Angelo up to let us in. We stood on the balcony and took in the charms of Milan. It's great, go there. Tomorrow we'd be heading to Aulla via Parma.

* J.Egan Esq.