Surprisingly, we got up at a reasonable time and caught the Metro into Milan’s city centre. The first stop was the Castello Sforzesco, originally started in 1368, but torn down to use the bricks for the city walls in 1447. It was rebuilt over the years with help from Da Vinci. Personally I think one of my favourite features is the fountain out the front! We walked through the Castle to the park on the other side which houses the Peace Arch, Milan's equivalent to the Arc De Triomph. We walked down the main street, Via Dante, lined with exquisitely old [View Full Entry]

---

---

The Easter Bunny got up early on Easter Sunday to deliver Easter Eggs, but was bet by Carlo who was already up reading. The Easter Bunny quietly hopped its way around the house, into the kitchen, lounge and fire place hiding Easter Eggs for everyone. It even placed one right in front of Carlo without him even noticing! - He thought It was just an ‘inquisitive cat!’... or in this case, bunny. We all got up and found a big basket of large Easter eggs that Carlo’s parents had given us - I’m liking the Italian hospitality so far! We had [View Full Entry]

---

---

We started the day in style with breakfast outside on the patio in the fresh air, listening to the birds sing. First location for the day was Cividale, the closest town to Carlo’s house in Torreano. Cividale is what I’d describe as a typical Italian town, perhaps mainly for the architecture but also the narrow walkways between the tall very old buildings, with their shutters and flower boxes. They had recently done some restoration work on the town and found on one building that under the surface was ancient paintings on the walls, probably dating back 100s of years. After [View Full Entry]

---

---

Well, here we are, its Easter and the four of us are off to beautiful Northern Italy with our very own Italian guide, Carlo, to show us his home. The next few blogs will be able the adventures of Leah, Hannah, Carlo and Laki in Italy! Carlo and I left work early and met Leah and Laki at the Victoria Train Station to catch the Gatwick Express. With only the one minor mishap of Leah and I getting our liquids searched, and then thrown out, we were on our plane (with a bag of Leah’s lollies) - destination: Milan, Italy. Some [View Full Entry]

---

---

The week started off well, with Brendan cooking the flat a yummy dinner, and also being cheap-movie-Tuesday, we all went down to the ‘Muppet Theatre’ at the Notting Hill for a movie. However… it was Thursday that turned out to be THEE eventful day…. On my way to work it started snowing - very exciting! plus I also managed to catch my early train - a great start to the day :) I went to the supermarket after work, and got my basket full of goodies, but when I got to the checkout, I found my handbag had opened and realised [View Full Entry]

---

---

Sunday started with a city tour around Dublin by a proper Irish guy, accent and all. We had a look at the Garden of Remembrance, General Post Office and Phoenix Park. He taught us about the Irish Flag: Orange = Protestants, Green = Ireland and White = peace between the two people - kinda cool; as well as Irish folk song about Molly Malone - Alive, Alive oh! We went to the Guinness Factory for a tour. They had spared no money on their displays! It felt like we were walking through an adventure park, not a factory. After looking at [View Full Entry]

---

---

We got up early on Friday morning, and caught the bus down to Paddington Station. We grabbed a few supplies for the trip and found Beth plus the rest of our tour group, bumping into Klaus on the way (on a different tour). We started on our journey to Holyhead in Wales, picking up Nicola (friend from our Edinburgh trip) and some others. We only just caught the 2.15pm ferry sailing to Dublin Port, which if we had missed, we would have had to wait for the next sailing in the morning!. The boat trip took about 3.5 - 4 hours, [View Full Entry]

---

---

Following Brendan’s newly planned career change, and therefore location change, Leah and I took the opportunity to use Brendan’s free accommodation to visit Southampton, and have a free tour guide at the same time. By some kind of luck, 2 minutes after when we got back to office from lunch on Friday, there was a power cut. At 4.30, I finally gave up waiting, and used the good excuse to leave the office early to start our journey South. Brendan and I meet Leah and Waterloo and caught the train down to Southampton. We went into ‘Oxford Street’, the main restaurant [View Full Entry]

---

---

With both Irene and I having Birthday’s so close, it was party season at the Chippenham house! On Wednesday it was Irene’s birthday, so Leah and I gave her an early morning wake up call, singing ‘Happy Birthday!’ with a chocolate cake, candles, balloons and party poppers! The next logical step was to go up stairs and have the chocolate cake for breakfast. After such a sugar-filled morning, I was surprised when Michael said that I had been so quiet at work this morning that he thought I was out on site today! I meet Leah after work, and we [View Full Entry]

---

---

We knew how to start the day: gorging ourselves on Italian toast overlooking our canal. Today we decided to wander up through some ‘off the beaten track’ pathways to discover beautiful canal crossings around random corners. After making sure we got lost a few times, we made out way to Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo in Castello. Another amazing Cathedral, this one was built in the 13th-15th Centaury and holds the graves of no fewer than 25 of the powerful men who built up Venice. We had a little look next door at the Scuola Grande San Marco, now the [View Full Entry]

---

---