Was awoken at 6 this morning to the news Osama Bin Laden has been killed. Normally I would be bit antsy being woken that early but it was more of a reprieve from the bed.

Italy has many wondrous sights, has glorious smallgoods, tomatoes one could only dream of, a sense of style known worldwide, for the best part of 1,000 years ruled the known world, and of course the Fiat 500. Why then does this highly evolved race have no idea of the following:

Beds - I am of the belief that all Italian beds are left overs from Mussolini's torture chambers. They are either rock hard or so soft a half set jelly would offer more support. Italian beds must surely have the Italian Chiropractic fraternity rolling in wads of cash.

Pillows - Essentially a cement bag with a pillowcase. About as neck friendly as a set of gallows.

Bread - Great for rustic white loaves but forget it for normal run of the mill sandwich loaves. Their "American" style bread resembles bread as much as I resemble Naomi Campbell. The only reason I can surmise why they call it American is it is tasteless and has no substance.

Toasters - Have not seen one apart from the farcical French job we had in Rome. Another Naomi Campbell moment. They don't have kettles either but the ever present Bialetti has soothed my scorn on this front.

Tomato Sauce/Ketchup - We bought a bottle from old mate's alimentari to appease the offspring but it was met with a face pull from them which suggested the contents of the bottle were a concoction of urine, faeces, and McDonalds pickles. I gave it a taste and it was like cold, undiluted Heinz tomato soup. Naomi is back again.

The girls would like to add public toilets I am sure but so far apart from the Autogrill dungeon in Bologna I have been unscathed.

Ah well nothing like a good vent whilst consuming a breakfast of 3 pieces of half burnt wafers of carp bait, and a cup of the strongest coffee known to man.

Still it's worth it for the view.

Off to Lucca today so hoping to find some wifi so I can upload my rants and sort my Dream Team before I return to the 16th century here in San Romano.

So two posts for the price of one today as it's not fair to have a negative start to Lucca, unless I order toast with tomato sauce, have a need for No 2's and a lie down.