We were up quite late last night, for us that is. We did not leave to go out for dinner until after 8.00pm Such a spectacular day yesterday and it took its Toll. Pun intended

But it is has gone 8am and Ilze is still asleep in spite of the booming from the nearby Campanile. She took nearly three hours over her blog last night and I have invoked a new rule. One page, 10 pictures.

I have been awake since 4.30am. Woken by the mosquitoes to which Ilze seemed impervious. I think they prefer red wine drinking victims in Florence and she only drinks white. Then the rubbish collectors came, not once but three times at one hourly intervals starting at 2am. Our street is lined both sides with four story apartment blocks and the disposal of domestic rubbish has been cleverly thought out. On the pavement, directly under our window unfortunately, is what appears to be row of trendy Italian design stainless steel waste bins. A foot pedal opens the top and it wasn’t till I saw local inserting impossible amounts of refuse that I realised that they were simply a portal to an underground receptacle. A truck and crane then come along each night to empty them. Colour coded, refuse, recycle and compostable. Very clever, very noisy.

Why not close the window you all reply? Well there is this flashing blue light from a device by the front door. No idea what it does. We first thought it might be the room heater controls but after playing with it for an hour and the room seeming no cooler at a till a baking 24C and fearing I may be launching a NATO missile strike across the Mediterranean, I gave up and covered the light with duct tape and we leave the window open.

Never travel without duct tape.

What is it with Italians and the heating? It’s about 19c to 23 C last couple of days and they are already in three layers and full length down jackets. And who puts the refrigerator in a cupboard inside the wardrobe? It took us days to find it. Actually it’s quite good because the heat from the fridge turns the wardrobe into a useful drying cabinet. We are going to need it to-day because I discovered that the bathroom sink overflow outlet is connected straight to the floor. For gods sake, the Italians invented plumbing.

And then there is the ubiquitous “porta blindata”. You take a magnificent 3inch thick double mahogany door and on the back you rivet all this white painted iron work so you can attach an electronically operated lock with a tiny red button that you can’t find in the dark and it is all on the inside. Are they trying to prevent their guests from escaping?

Later, whilst sitting on the loo, drying my shirt with the hair dryer and remembering the good old days in the 60s, ironing dry my one good pair of Levis so I could go out, the bells started again.

Is t his real life or a Monty Python sketch?

AHH the bells, the bells!!!!!!

One page.

Log out screaming.