Hotel Vecchio Castello Cremona

... get hit by a car." He stopped outside one gate and turned and looked at me. Stupidly, I continued walking, which took me right by him. Out of nowhere he turned and bit me on the leg, below my knee. Then he started circling me and barking, and I FREAKED OUT. I started screaming "NO!" and pointing at him, the blood rushing through my ears. He stopped so I kept walking, not hearing the music anymore but feeling my heart pumping almost out of my chest. I walked ...

... in a much better mood than before.

The next day I had my Italian/English lesson with Daniela. It was rainy and gloomy and I wasn't in the mood for it-we were going to go to the grocery store to practice my speaking (I was going to order meat for her). Once we got there though it was fun, we walked around talking about items, she was making a cake so we went through the sweets aisle and if I mentioned I hadn't had ...

... really tutoring, but mostly I would just read them English books so they could hear the correct pronunciation. Not bad. They put out a plate of more sweets and seemed offended I wasn't shoveling them in my face even though fat Allison would have loved to do it. As the conversation died down I mentioned how cool it was that they lived in a castle, and the dad lit up, and took me on a tour. We went in every single room, on every single floor ...

While staying in Matera, we were lucky enough to be present for the annual festival, held on the 2nd July, where the town celebrates its patron, the Madonna della Bruna (the Brown Madonna). The festival starts at dawn, with Mass in the Cathedral, and culminates in the evening, when the statue of the Madonna della Bruna is taken from its Cathedral home and is raised onto a large papier-mâché float. A colourful procession winds it's ...

... I'm meeting two of my friends from class in Milan, so I'm sure that will be fun as well. I feel ridiculous that I'm homesick when I'm in the country of my dreams, living an easy life filled with food and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. And now that I have no guarantee of a place to live after November, I need to take advantage of the short time I am here.

So anyway, now you are caught up on the life of Allison. I hope you all are doing well, I miss you all!

... straight for the men's locker room. I thought to myself "wow, as a 6 year old that's amazing that he can change into his swimming suit all by himself." But a second later Luisa charges in there after him. I froze for a second, then realized that mom's are given special privelege to go in the men's locker room. And apparently as au pair I am also given this privelege. In America, the little boys go into the women's locker room. But here, all the mom's ...

... they have a meat slicer thing here in the house) and so good. And the cheese. Oh the cheese. Definitely one of my favorite times of the day, eating cheese with my roll and wiping up the leftover olive oil on my plate. Mmmmm. I think I overindulged however...I had to get up at 6 because of stomach pains. Too much good food too fast!

The next day Luisa picked me up and drove me to Brescia to register for my Italian class. And Brescia ...

... me a lot of time to think about a suitable Christmas present for Hoges when I soon next saw him back in Sydney. I needed to find something meaningful that would wholeheartedly convey my gratitude for the incredible opportunity to go to the Ferrari factory with him, but I was racking my brains without success. And then I finally figured it out – such a thing had been there beside me the whole evening. The leftover Nelly Furtado CD would do nicely.

A really early start today (thanks to the lockout policy), I was out the door at 9:00. I bought myself a 48-hour transport ticket to cover me for all my metro needs until my departure on Monday. I started my day down at the Duomo. It was quite amazing on the outside. I was prepared attire wise with pants to permit me entry into the cathedral. Inside was definitely nice compared to some other interiors of Duomos; however, I think St. Peter's still takes the cake. This Duomo actually ...

Birds. Like bicycles in Amsterdam, birds must be the most likely cause of death in Milan. Not because of bird flu though. And not everywhere in Milan. In fact, just at the Duomo. And not all birds. Just pigeons. But there are a lot of them, and they thirst for human blood. Don't say I didn't warn you. I know all this from a few minutes waiting at the Duomo with Egyptian fellas who kept handing me seed because the birds engulfing me did make for quite the ...