Window Shopping

The hideous cold caught up with me again yesterday. Cold shivers, hot sweats and the barking cough persisted through the night so decided I needed another rest day and sent Johnny out alone.

Internet strength at our apartment here is excellent so got up-to-date with the finances and the Diary then had a nice sleep. Must have done the trick because feeling much better this morning. We had a casual start to the day and a visit from our landlord's errand man. I asked some questions about this apartment and it transpires that there are only three apartment holiday rentals in the complex of about 50. He said we are living like the Milanes, which is what I hoped to

achieve when I booked apartments in these cities.

Eventually we got out into the street and rounded the corner to discover that it's Market Day. From one intersection there were vendors in each direction as far as the eye could see. In each street it was food and produce on one side and everything else on the opposite side.

After browsing a little while the tantalising smells began to overwhelm us and we just had to eat. I had pistachio encrusted salmon and Johnny had a pasta dish which forced me to restrain him from licking his plate.

Satiated, we set off to do some serious window shopping in the Fashion sector of the city. Boy, Oh Boy, it's serious business here. Lots of colour and just like Paris, plenty of fur. Again mostly mink,

chinchilla and fox dyed lovely bright colours.

Note to Lesa. Plenty of eye candy here. Every time we sit down for coffee or a meal there is always more than a few young men making the view pretty appealing. Either Milan has more than it's fair share of handsome young men or a group of them are following me around and taking a table nearby just for my pleasure. Sadly, no photo's to add to my Diary. I thought that might be imprudent of me. So anyway, as you can probably imagine, I am feeling 100% better tonight. Our landlord qualifies for the above category too.

No ancient ruins today but we did see some interesting statues, motor vehicles and other curious things. Spent an hour or so in a lovely park which seemed to be dedicated to the entertainment of children. We noticed that most of these children were accompanied by women

whose first language was English so we assumed that they are probably nannies. They didn't really look and sound like mothers.

Late afternoon had us thinking about food again. We weren't ready for our evening meal so popped into a bar for a coffee. The cake display was pretty tempting and we both chose a slice of pear and chocolate flan. It was possibly one of the nicest things that has ever passed my lips - and that's saying something. We took our time over our coffees and flan to give our feet a rest and by the time we emerged again into the street it was dark. Quite mild though, not nearly as cold as Paris. The evenings here are really pleasant.

Taxied back to our Porta Romana corner as the moon was rising over the Gate. Didn't have far to go to find another tempting restaurant, so in we went and both ordered Caesar Salad with chicken.