October 4th

I know four people who celebrate their birthdays on this day. My good friend Louise, who turned 18 (I hope she had a ball celebrating it!), my friends Dani and Kyle, who turned 19, and my uncle here in Italy... whose youthful age I shall kindly not mention.

So on Saturday when I was collected in Venice by my auntie and grandma, I really noticed how close the end of my 'holiday' is. In the evening we went to a great pizzeria to celebrate my uncle's birthday with his family and best man's family also. We were offered final drinks by the owner (who knows my uncle), so I enjoyed some Limoncello which I hadn't sipped for a while.

On Sunday we had a big lunch with the family and Ugo & Karin, who came down from Treviso. Karin made a lovely apple pie, one the best I've tasted, she even made the pastry! I learnt I'm a bit too spontaneous for today's diplomacy, I shall try filtering my words in order to say what others want to hear...

In the afternoon, my auntie and uncle took me and Tommaso to Oderzo, saw some Roman remains and we sat in a chocolaterie/cafe which didn't serve iced chocolates or smoothies, all advertised on the menu. It did have some interesting cold drink ideas which babbo, I think I'll show you.

I met Alessandra around 6 and we walked around town, quite a busy day, to catch up. There was a sort of market around the centre, cucinavano castagne!! Molto autunnale :) Ho anche incontrato la Carlotta, con cui forse mi ritrovero'. Ah con l'Alessandra ho anche parlato in francese! Lei lo studia da 3 anni pero' non e' tanto piu' brava di me.. ma parla anche lo spagnolo ed un buon inglese. Oh I did find out from Alessandra, who's in her final high school year, about her studies. She has her 6 hrs of school every day, plus on average does homework and studies for an unbelievable 8 hrs in the afternoon! And often she still remains with work to complete! I struggle to imagine how these kids have a social life or fit in any interests. And the school year only started a month ago! The amount of work they're expected to do, plus some ridiculous things they study (as she's studying English, she's currently learning about the Victorian Age. Just like I'm sure all English students bloody do!) are incredible, am I glad I left in that regard.

After dinner (hence after being stuffed) I watched a nice telefilm, 'Coco Chanel', on the life of the famous French designer. Unfortunately the film wasn't in its original version, French, but in Italian. Quite a nice watch. The weather at the moment here is sunny but chilly, overall pleasant.

Until next time!