il dolce di far niente

I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened before

Switchfoot rock!

There's only one way I can start this entry: oh man! What a crazy past few days. So much so that I've decided to post more frequently for my own sake, before I start forgetting the things I experience and the people I share them with.

Monaco was good to see - I visited with Brazilian, Roberto, and we spent the late afternoon there. It was a pretty quiet Sunday, with the exception of the Marina which was a buzz with a large carnival setup in whatever free space there is, which in Monaco there's little of. The wealth was understated in places, but you definately do get a unique feeling being there. The casino had a construction crane hanging over it and was half covered in scaffolding, but I'm almost expecting that now. I bet if I arrived in China tomorrow, the Great Wall would be closed for renovations. The year of the green wooden monkey construction worker?

I've travelled through four countries in the past two days, and it hit me the most on Monday afternoon after arriving in Italy, from Nice, via Monaco. I changed trains at Ventimiglia station where I ordered a brief lunch. I was greeted in French, tried speaking Italian, probably said something in Spanish, and God knows what the response was. At this stage I've decided to be a lazy ass and just use English wherever possible and ditch my single-phrase attempts. A friendly smile and a nod sometimes say just as much, anyway.

I spent Monday night and yesterday in Milan, the fashion capital of Europe. What an insane place. I first met an Asian guy in his mid-40s studying CS, who said he was from Cambodia. I thought that was cool, I'd never met a Cambodian before. But from then on, whenever someone new entered the room, he was from somewhere else: Japan, South Korea, Tibet... and man could he snore! He also took the liberty of waking up the entire room at 8am with "life is too short for sleeping" as his motivation, after keeping everyone awake the entire night. The irony, gah! I spent the day just taking in some sights. I'd quote my 'Let's Go' guide by saying that I saw the third-largest cathedral in the world, but it says the exact same thing about the one in Sevilla, so I'll just add that it was pretty darn gigantic. And I shared my first Italian lunch with Marko from Germany, which was the best meal in ages - perfecto...

il dolce di far niente
(the sweetness of doing nothing)

I'm spending two nights in Lugano, a small town in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino in Switzerland, where I'm chilling out from the city-vibe and "renewing" my schengen visa 45-day thing. Although they didn't stamp my passport upon entering Switzerland so I don't know how this whole thing is supposed to be controlled, actually it's confusing the hell outta me but whatever. I'm on track so it's their problem if there are any issues.

It's been overcast since I arrived and rained constantly today, so I'm glad to be heading out back into Italy (Venice) tomorrow.

Lastly, what do you do when you arrive in a new country at night, forget about exchanging currency and try buy SFr6 worth of food with a debit card that's only usable with a Sfr10 min. limit? Buy some Amstels of course! ;) Ciao, Auf Wiedersehen, Au Revoir!