Catania

Anna Marie keeps composed in the middle.

Day 11: starts with the 7am boat on wings to Milazzo, followed by the 9.45 bus to Messina, which was waiting a few more minutes for the passengers off the boat. I'm glad I didn't know that, or I'd have been panicking, instead of casually strolling on last. There's an hour before the 12.20 Catania train, which is packed. Luckily the boys love it all. So the 7 hours travel with all our luggage went well, except Ollie puked on the boat while Louis slept. Marie had a bag ready, as the seas were rough, and they'd been staring down at the seat, while playing with their train track. They carry a bag of toys each. This helps a lot when sitting around waiting. Otherwise a full days travel would be not much fun.

Catania is a bit dodgy but nice, apart from around the train station.

Ollie gets blown away by the noise

Day 12: we walk around, catch a tourist train for kids - couldn't really hear a thing over the rattling, played in the park, had a sensational lunch, shopped a bit.

After too much transport, a tram ride is still so so good.

Etna is close and smoking. Apparently Catania's been completely wiped out a 7 times by eruptions, and also from earthquakes. Most dogs answer to the name "Lucky".

Some little shopping centre in the town centre.

Day 13: we fly early. We're a bit sick of getting up early every odd day. The plane goes ok. From Bergamo,  we drive into Milan, as it's some holiday, so they tell us there'll be no traffico (Italian for traffic - see you're getting it already).

Tyre kickers welcome in the Mercedes shop.

Milan's cathedral is amazing, but outside, I'm tired of dodgy people trying to hussle us for a euro. We stop for a coffee, and couple of snacks, and get hussled for 55 euro instead. The tram is a gorgeous old historic thing with heaps of beatiful woodwork inside.

Day 14: we go to Danilo, Yelena, Josipa and Anna Marie's house for breakfast and lunch. In the afternoon, we have our hearing degraded while watching Anna Marie playing volleyball. Their team is called Vbest, and the others are EasyVolley, so cheering is easy. The drums and the trumpet thing are even more annoying than a whole cup load of vuvuzelas.

Day 15 or thereabouts: is home sweet home.