Italy so far...

Well, we have had a fantastic trip so far!

It started off extremely well with an upgrade to business on the Sydney - Singapore leg, but then it was all down hill. Our flight was - Sydney, Adelaide, Singapore, Bankok, Zurich then to Milan.... I almost lost it at one stage....

Once at Milan, we had to pick up the car. And what a car it is! A Fiat Panda - 1.2 litres of pure performance! It is quite exciting belting along at 150km down the highway with trucks and Audi zooming past, beeping, flashing lights etc. The joys of driving in Italy.

After 36-40 hrs of travel we arrived at Monterosso on the Cinque Terra. Stunning.

The next day we stretched our legs with a 12km walk up mountains and down clifts with a walk between the 5 towns. Breathtaking views, beautiful little towns. Unfortunately for John he spent the next 3 days in pain and struggled to walk! He claims walking is a different fitness to cycling...

After the walk, a day chilling out on the beach was in order. Demolished a few books and soaked up the sun. Bliss!

On Monday we went to Portofino which was stunning. The town is really beautiful, the harbour was full of super yachts! We walked out to the light house and went to a museum. It was a great day and definately worth a visit. Except that the going rate for a Bellini is 25 Euro!

The following day we had to make our way here to Lake Garda - again an eventful 4 hours belting down the highway in the Panda! (John loves the Panda. His favourite game is Panda spotting... we have seen everything from 4x4 to the very old... Oh the Panda!).

So here we are at Torbole on the shores of Lake Garda. This place is stunning and I would definately come back. We are only a very short drive to Riva which is a beautiful town. Not only that, there are beaches here!

Anyway, we arrived to find Scott had purchased a swanky new Canon camera - which I consequently hijacked and have become the team photographer. You can see some of the pics off Scotts camera at www.flickr.com/photos/scott-b/

Unfortunately I have not yet downloaded the photos off my camera, but stay tuned!

In the mean time, Team Bladerider has been eventful. See Scott's blog for an update. Basically, there have been a lot of foils breaking which is a problem because there is still 4 days until the racing even starts! Lets hope they can get more sent here before its too late....

On the lake, the wind is blowing but by the afternoon the chop gets quite big. The problem is that John does not know how to sail down wind in the chop - he is the king of cartwheels! Consequently he spent all night awake thinking about it... Hopefully he will work it out soon!!!!!!!!!

As to who will win - I think it will be the English guy Simon Payne. He has a Prowler boat (the opposition!). The consensus is that the Bladerider is quicker up wind, but the Prowler is quicker down wind...

We will wait and see.