Milan, Italy

After a day off yesterday where I scarcely got out of bed except for dinner, today I made it to the gym and followed that with a wander around Milan for a couple of hours. One posh designer's store after another, the finest clothes, handbags, shoes, swim wear, you name it. When it comes to the price tag, they name it and the tune that's called is mighty steep. I came across a tiny store front down a side street, the shop devoted to swim trunks and a very cool pair caught my eye. When I asked what it would cost to get me into them, the very cool reply was 120 Euros! Needless to say I'll be wearing last year's model again this summer. Still, it was great window shopping, The weather clear, beautiful and warm and everybody dresses well and seems so relaxed. I fell into a little cafe for a ham and cheese pannini (grilled sandwich) and a couple of creamy Italian cappucino. A good afternoon.

We arrived at Milan's Filaforum to find our friends Rudy Pensa and Marco Caviglia there. Rudy had made and brought a new guitar for Mark that is one of the best instruments he's ever made, a dream guitar in appearance, playability and tone. It was great catching up on things with the both of them and look forward to the next few days while they will be with us.

What a gig, a stand up with seating round the sides and back. Thousands of wonderfully mad Italian fans cheering so loud it hurt our ears. Mark played superbly tonight top to bottom and it was one of those nights that it almost didn't matter where you put your fingers, we could do no wrong. A brilliant evening.

We ended the night back at the hotel with a couple of glasses of Italian wine and music courtesy of DJfletch.

So long,

Richard