If I had only known that on the day I arrived in Milan, arguably the world's football capital, there would be a match between AC and Juventus... This probably contributed to there being very few places to stay that night in Milan, all of those available being stunningly expensive. In addition to the transport strike while I was in Bologna, I decided against staying in Milan, giving myself only a few hours there. It has far more of a 'big city' (ie dodgy) feel to it than Rome, and there are too many hawkers for my liking, but I liked what I saw. The cathedral was predictably undergoing renovation, obscuring the facade, but you can still make out what a fantastic building it is on the outside as well as inside.
And that was that. A few coffees later and I was on a train to Bergamo. I met up with a particularly hot Canadian couple who were going the same way as me and after much confusion we arrived at the hostel together. I think the function of this particular place was to bring back down to earth those who, like me, found that Italians are the most friendly, warm people in the world. The first words of the staff were "You're late. I was expecting you at 6." Well vaffanculo to you too, shiteface! He was phenomenally rude to the Canadians, slightly less to me.
As if by some strange design I ended up at an Italian/Japanese restaurant for my final meal in Italy. That being the case, and having done 5 years of Japanese food IN Japan, I HAD to eat Italian, although I did wash it down with a bottle of Sapporo Biru. Now before anyone calls me a culinary snob, or an etiquette Nazi, picture the scene : you go to Japan, or China for that matter, and you see tables full of locals at a western restaurant, and to a man they are eating chips...with CHOPSTICKS...with soy sauce or a wasabi dip... That would never happen, but think about how shocked you would be, just for the sake of the story. So, imagine my surprise when I turn around in this restaurant to see tables full of westerners, butchering their sushi with KNIVES AND FORKS!!! Letting the soy sauce soak deeply into the rice! It was somewhere between frightening and hilarious to watch. And it made me think fucking hell, I've been away for a long, long time.
