Hi Everyone, Happy Easter!!!! I hope you all have a great holiday and the easter bunny is kind to you. I am now in Madrid, Spain after spending the last ten or so days travelling through Italy. Italy was amazing, really beautiful with so much to see and do. I started in Rome and travelled to Naples, Pompei, Florence, Pisa, Venice, Verona and Milan. Rome was really cool, at every corner there is a historical building, fountain or square with some sort of significance. I visited all the main sights but the Colesseum was probably the highlight with Trevi Fountain being a close second. The people were really nice and I met a few cool people at the hostel. I took a day trip to Naples chasing the best pizza in the world completely unaware that there is some serious issues with the Mafia there at the moment ¨(something about them controlling all the rubbish collections and going on strike and then killing anyone who tries to pick it up). I didnt really notice anything I think I was too busy looking up trying to find the famous pizzeria. After I eventually found it I ordered a Margherita that tasted so good that it left me in no doubt that it was the best pizza in the world. I then jumped on another train to visit Pompei where there is a number of ancient ruins from the eruption of Mt Vesuvius. That was really cool, I will try and post some photos shortly. Next stop was Florence which rates in my top two for cities visited in Italy (Verona would be the other one). Florence was again really beautiful and a great place to just randomly wander around. I met two really cool people there, Janelle from Melbourne and Ashley from Ohio. We pretty much hung out up until we all left Milan. Janelle and I visited Pisa and took the obligatory photos of the leaning tower plus a few more exciting ones (which i will post at some stage). We ate alot of gelato, went out a bit, shopped and also consumed a fair bit of wine - good times in Florence. From Florence we all went to Venice which was a very surreal city. It was really cool to hear car horns but when you look around you only see boats. The canals were really busy in a few places showing just how skillful teh boat and goldola drivers really are. We visited all the main sights including St Marks square where we fed pigeons which was really cool, at one stage I has one on my head and about 5 or 6 on my arms, got some great shots of that too. That night we got into drinking red wine and made friends with a whole bunch of french school kids (who were like 15). They hid out in our room hiding from teacher. We then headed out for dinner and went to a bar to drink some cocktails, it was pouring rain so we were holed up in the bar for a while. After returning we had some more red wine and called it a night. Next day we did next to nothing, just walked around and did a little shopping. Next stop for me was Verona which is where the whole Romeo and Juliet thing comes from. The town is really beautiful and on the horizon I could see snowcapped mountains. The houses are all really cute with balconies covered in flowers. There is also a really big roman ampitheature and fort there which were cool to see. I would love to go back there again one day, it really was an amazing place but I only had around 5 hours there. After my whirlwind visit to Verona I jumped on another train to go to Milan where I was again meeting the girls who had been chasing up soccer tickets all day so we could go see AC Milan that night. The hotel was pretty s***ty and the stuff spoke no english and stuffed up Ashleys booking. We went out thinking we had resolved the issue but got a bit of a shock at 12am when we returned from the soccer (I will get into that in a minute, it was a crazy night all round). So we rushed off to the soccer and were running late at we were trying to make sure Ash had a bed. We eventually turned up at the soccer which was at San Siro (a good hour of town) thinking that we had just arrived in time for the second half. At the end of that half we couldnt work out why people were still hanging around so assumed there was a second game on. It was a little odd to us that they didnt shake hands at the end of the game but we dismissed it. 10 minutes or so later we were pleasantly suprised to find out that we hadnt missed anything at all as we had arrived at the start of the match - we stuffed up the start time. The game was really cool to watch, it was a great atmosphere with all the supporters really getting into it. We also got to see three goals which was great. After the match we grabbed a milkshake and then headed back to the hotel for sleep. There was an empty bed above me that Ash was going to sleep in. Not long after climbing into bed we got a knock and the door and the carzy spanish lady was telling us that she couldnt sleep in that bed as it was booked for somebody else (it was empty all night). We told her that we would both sleep in my bed and when the lady demanded that Ash pay the full price to do that (she already lost her deposit as they screwed up) Ash decided she was going to leave and go to the train station or a bar as she was leaving at 6.30am. I got out of bed and put clothes on (literally, thats all I did) and Ash went and got Janelle out of bed, who did the same. We then headed out to a bar just around the corner. Again we got into the cocktails and somehow started chatting to two Italian guys Roberto and Mario. Roberto gave us free Loreal samples as he works for them. When that bar closed at around 2am we jumped in Robertos car and went to some bar/nightclub around 10 minutes away. We partied there for a while dancing the night away and once all that was over (I think it was around 4am) we went to get some food. We drove to a small cafe that had pizza and sweets. We ate there and then jumped in the car again in search of hot chocolate. After that (around 5.30 or 6am) we dropped Ash at the station and Janelle and I got dropped at the hotel - a litte wasted. After sleeping for around two hours there was a knock at my door and suprise suprise it was the crazy lady telling me I had to leave as they were going to fumigate the room (The lady told Janelle the day before that she had to be out at 7.30am for the same reason). Half asleep I packed my bag and went to see where Janelle was. She had a free bed above her, so I climbed in and went to bed for another 2 or 3 hours. We then got up and checked out, ate lunch, went on the internet and left Milan. What a crazy night, It was so much fun. I didnt even see the sights in Milan, just the Soccer, but I dont think I missed too much. Italy is probably one of my favourite places so far, the food is really good and that combined with the previous 3 months of indungence in Asia and India my wasteline is ummm suffering to say the least or maybe I could say...expanded. I´m glad to be in Spain now which is going to be really cool and a bit easier to establish some good eating habits...well at least I hope so. The people everywhere have been really cool and I dont think that is going to be an exception here (although the languae barrier may make things a little more difficult). I am spending around two weeks here and will hen be going to Morocco and Portugal, cant wait. Hope everyone is going well at home..I will post photos at some point. Take Care Ciao Mandy