Hotel Davide Rivoli

... and feeling as if I were about to burst, a homemade artichoke pie and goats cheese specific to the region made an appearance.
"Which do you want?" Carlo asks me.
"Both" I hear myself respond.
As I picked the final crumbs of the pie off my plate, and licked the soft cheese from my fingers, I could feel blood being shunted from every non vital operation (limbs, skin, brain) to my stomach. A shot of espresso, saved me from an imminent food coma, and gave me the requisite energy to ...

... it lacks in size, it makes up for with its incredible variety of the weird and the wonderful. Live eels squirm around each other in open tanks, swordfish proudly displaying their swords in the air, are slowly cut away as successive customers place their orders. Buckets of whelks sit next to fresh slimy squid and firm octopus. As I move in to get a closer look the hawkers move in, keen to give me their pitch. They go off on their sales rant, but a ...

A day of riding trains, late trains. Again I feel as if I'm missing something as we whiz past quaint towns and bright blue seas. A stop in Nice provides and opportunity to walk along the beach. Despite our proximity to Africa there's still a pretty good surf pounding the beach, almost enough to surf.

I spot another group of travelers, 6 in total, and catch the familiar white and red patch on a bag. Its always nice to run into some fellow ...

... clutch. Kev couldn't raise a smile from Mr misery on his right, the lights changed and the Hearse driver left us for dead!!!!!!!!!!!
One more chance to ignore Doris, a quick u-turn across six lanes of traffic and two tram lines and we were back on course for the hotel.
Finally arriving at the front of the hotel doors after covering 1040 miles in the ever surprising pooper. We emerged with no aches and pains (caused by the pooper).
Bring on the return.............!

... rolled up in Annecy, Kev still at the helm. Annecy was what more like
what we were expecting - there were people! Spot of lunch listening to music to
watch the girls go by was in order.
Annecy, a quaint little backwater, set within the basin of the mountains, with a
pictureques lake, lovely bars and jammed to the rafters with tip top totty - France was
open for business and business was good.
Gary had ...

... So we made sure to walk through the red light district because it is a friendly part of town with some very "smart" ladies to look at. It's interesting admiring someones "intelligence" via your eyes. The roads in Amsterdam a mouse maze of turns and canal crossings eventually leaving without a ****ing clue as to what direction you are going and since the city was built to look like ripples in the water after dropping in stone, but only half circles, it gets a bit ...

... went to the river once. The night before I left we went to Torino and had a very strong time there. Andrea cut my hair after not having done it since departing for Australia, it was a big thing for him and for me.

When I parted ways with the guys it was an emotional time, we had formed something of a brotherhood over the short time and then having to leave was very difficult. I hope to see them all again one day. My brothers from Ivrea!

... important, and this can lead to serious arguments

-the younger Italians embrace American traditions too much

-equal amounts of trash as in American cities (again, except for Naples, which was a metropolitan garbage can)

Final analysis:

The Italians have got it right. Warm, gracious, passionate people who are classy, worldly in knowledge, and respectful of foreigners. Americans can learn a lot from many aspects of their culture.

... Madre di Dio, on the
east bank of River Po. It's modeled after the Pantheon in Rome.
Built in the 19th century... so pretty much like the Rotunda in UVa. It
was such a hazy day that we couldn't take a good picture of it. We walked
toward the city center, passing many palazzos and strange decorations they put
for the interuniversity Olympics ...