
…it sure is good to be back in the land of roast dinners and cups of tea. Nevertheless, my passionate love affair with Italy continues, and I’m even more convinced that I could happily live there at some point in the future (as long as I didn’t have to drive anywhere or queue for any form of public transport).
As I’m sure no one likes to hear about holidays they weren’t able to go on themselves, I’ll make this summary short and sweet with the help of dot-points:
And here’s what I learned over the last two weeks:
I could go on, but I’ve managed to catch myself a tasty throat and ear infection and early-morning RyanAir flights really don’t agree with my sleeping patterns. Until tomorrow, ciao, grazie!

Tomorrow morning at an ungodly hour Rob and I are off to Italy for two weeks. We’re flying into Rome (via Ryan Air so who knows how that will go… last time we flew to Rome on Ryan Air we had to beat old ladies with fur hats and kids with bags of duty free alcohol out of the way to get to a decent seat), spending the night there where we’ll meet my parents, and then heading on down to the Amalfi Coast. I have to say, of all the places I’ve ever wanted to go, Positano has always been top of the list. Last time we were in Italy we only managed to fit in Venice and Rome, so Rob promised we would go back to see Positano. You can see why:

Photo courtesy of Trip Advisor
How could you fail to be moved by such an incredible sight? Anyway, we’re heading down to Sorrento on Wednesday for a couple of days so we can visit Herculaneum, Pompeii and climb Mount Vesuvius; then a few days later we’re going to the Isle of Capri (hopefully if there are boats going out this time of the year we’ll be able to visit the Blue Grotto), followed by Positano for a few days, Amalfi for a few days, and then back to Rome for a night. If our last trip to Italy (February and March of 2007) is anything to go by, I know I’ll have an incredible time.
I hope the next two weeks treats you all well, and I’ll be back with loads of photos and Italian anecdotes for you all in a fortnight. Perhaps I could ask a few locals to do my terminology survey (see below post)…

Rob and Ben - future Brisbane City Council bus drivers
After a hurried appointment with the accountant this morning (copy-writing makes me a sole trader, who would have thought?) and brunch at West End, Rob, Ben and I went into the Museum of Brisbane (MoB) to pick up some ‘I <3 BNE‘ t-shirts. Modelled on the traditional ‘I <3 NYC’ tees, the Brisbane versions feature a green heart instead of the standard red, and are part of the Brisbane City Council’s push to make Brisbane a carbon neutral haven. At the moment the council has stands set up in all the local shopping centres to give advice and help to locals about making their homes and workplaces more environmentally friendly. All of the staff manning the booths and stands wear the ‘I Love BNE’ shirts, and the MoB is the only place you can buy them for personal use. As two travel-worn pop-culture fanatics, Rob and I had to get some.
While we were in the museum we noticed that part of the present exhibition is the scaled-down front of a Brisbane City Council bus, complete with a box full of bus-driver uniforms. Rob and Ben jumped behind the wheel and acted like all B.C.C. bus drivers do… like total lunatics.