Packing. It sucks.

This morning I got this photo from Ignacio, showing him, Edu and Chema and a bunch of other guys finally winning the Flynn's Inn pub quiz in Karlsruhe. Looks like a great moment, shame I wasn't there to see it. Good work!

Went to Torino last night to watch Palace play Chelsea on TV. We lost 2-0. We need, in my estimation, about 3 more very good players to have any chance of staying up. Good to see the new signings anyway. I have lots to do now as I'm leaving very soon, so I couldn't stay around in Torino which is a shame. It's a good city. Good to see Andrea and Carlo again.

On Saturday, I'm off to Verona to meet up with Jacopo and then go to his parent's place in the mountains near the Austrian border.

Some photos from Jenny's visit.

My sister Jenny has been here the last few days. On Thursday we went to Bonassola, a little beach resort a little way down the coast. It was busy but a good place to swim. The water gets deep very quickly, so you can just run in and dive. The water is very warm now.

We ate that night in a traditional Genovese restaurant, just off Corso Torino. It was small and family run and you could see the cooking going on in the kitchen. There was the proprietor, his wife and his mother. The food was extremely good, I had fresh pasta in a sauce of broccoli, oil and chili, and Jenny had a vegetable soup. The soup was very special. I guess the vegetables were very fresh. In the kitchen, we could see one of the women sawing away with a mezzaluna at a huge pile of them. For second course, we both had fish. Together with a bottle of rosé from Puglia, it was a very fine meal.

We visited the Aquarium on Friday. It's Genova's biggest tourist attraction and was rammed. The fish were great but the other people inside, banging on the glass and shoving in front of each other, nearly drove me crazy. It was also sad to see big animals like dolphins and penguins in small tanks.

That night we went down to the Corso D'Italia to take in a few seafront bars. The weather is just starting to freshen up, but it's still warm enough to go out right by the sea.

Yesterday we went to Nervi. Jenny had a good seafood salad, and in the park afterwards, we found two four leaf clovers. I have one in my wallet now. Nothing exceptionally fortunate seems to have happened yet, but I did get the last copy of the Gazzetta dello Sport from the newsagent this morning.

I've just come into the lab to watch the 100m final. At the moment, in these Olympics, Italy and Britain have almost exactly the same number of medals, 6 golds and 20 in total. This seems fair enough - the populations are about the same size. However, the Italian press are delighted with the performance, while the British press are moaning as usual..

A lot more exciting than my weblog is this one, which is being kept by a guy competing for Equatorial Guinea in the olympics, in the shadow of the great Eric 'the Eel' Moussambani.

"I feel like unless I go out there and do something ridiculous, like win or come last with my shorts around my ankles, I'm not going to get any slack cut for me.

Genova is not a bad place for recycling. Despite the shortage of parking spaces, there are recycling bins for paper, glass, plastics and cans kerbside all over the city. Even more than there were in Karlsruhe, though there most of your recyclable stuff was collected from your door. In Milan, you even have to pay per kilo for non-recyclable rubbish, which is a great way to get people to think before they chuck things out.

The impression I've formed after 11 months is that the UK is a filthy pit of thoughtless consumption and waste. It's pretty bad where I live in south London, where we have to walk about 5 minutes to get to a recycling site, and most people would have to go further. But Edinburgh really is incredibly bad. There's one tiny set of bins in the middle of the city where you can recycle plastic, and a few other bins for glass, but that's your lot. People throw out huge amounts of glass, plastic, paper. Urgh. And people in the UK like to think that Italy is a bit backwards.

This Sunday was the big summer holiday, the city was very quiet and I spent most of the day sitting on the beach at Quinto. Then I watched some olympic highlights on the BBC website. The Italians won two gold medals on the first day, in cycling and fencing. Peopla are very pleased. The Gazzetta dello Sport had also had some really good photos from the games. In general, the standard of photography in the Italain media is very high.

Perfect weather today. Bright sun and blue sky and breeze. Humidity down to tolerable levels.

This weekend is ferie agosto, the biggest holiday in Italy. It's always on the 15th August, even when that's a Sunday, so the Italians don't actually get any extra days off work this year. Still, there will be almost nobody working. There are some random things going on in the centre of town though, which I might go and have a look at. The city will be pretty deserted. Everyone in Italy seems to have a relative with a house in the mountains somewhere, which is where they go for the whole of August.

Went to Benetton this morning, to exchange the jumper I bought on monday (in the sale) for one the right size. I hate exchanging things even in Britain - I don't know why, I've worked in enough shops to know it's no big deal - so I was nervous about things somehow becoming complicated, but of course it went smoothly. Summer sales are a serious business here, particularly in the big chain stores like Benetton - absolutely everything in the store is half price for a week to make room for the 'autumn collection'.

Benetton has lost credibility witht he discerning Italian designer-label buyer. This is chiefly because all their clothes are now made in China. Why this should be such a big deal I don't know - in my experience, all designer clothes fall apart after about 3 months no matter who made them - but they don't like it here.

I went to fnac afterwards, the big books/cds shop which I think is French owned, to buy another Dino Buzzati to read. In there, I noticed two books of 'Francesco Totti Jokes'. Totti is Italy's most famous footballer, who is Beckham-esque in his command of life and language. However, the jokes were pretty weak, and tasteless. Here is a representative example:

Totti: Doctor, I've got diarrhea
Doctor: Have you tried lemon?
Totti: Yes but when I took it out.. (etc..)

Oh dear.

Arena di Verona

So indeed going to see an opera at the Arena di Verona is one of the best things ever. I went to see Il Trovatore with Jacopo, his sister, and their partners, on Satruday night. We went in far too late, and ended up sitting on the second-to-back row. The stage was miles away, but the sound was still perfect. Fortunately, I remembered my binoculars - essential for long distance opera. The scenery and so on was by Franco Zeffirelli, a famous director of opera who did an excellent job. The way the stage was used and changed as the opera went on was great. At one point the castle tower in the centre of the stage was opened to reveal a gold chapel inside, which was so impressive some people started clapping, though the loggionisti quickly told them to shut up.

Il Trovatore is a lot of fun. The tenor, who plays Manrico (who is Il Trovatore) has an aria ("Di quella pira ") where he has to finish on a huge high C. This wasn't in Verdi's original score, but has been traditional for 150 years, and can make or break a performance. It happens in scene 2 of act 3, so you have the whole interval to look forward to it. Our Manrico, Marco Berti, managed it with some considerable aplomb, and the audience cheered and clapped until he consented to sing the aria all over again. If anything it was even better the second time. The opera continued in strong form with hundreds of gypsies, dancer, nuns, acrobatic soldiers, monks and real, live horses to add to the spectacle. It was superb - 3 and a half hours, sitting on a stony seat, seemed to pass in about 5 minutes.

As well as the performance itself, there is plenty more to add to the experience of going to the Arena. One thing is to think about the Romans sitting on the same actual seats to watch gladiators and lions. Another is to watch the rich and famous going to the expensive seats (€160 a go) in the centre of the Arena. Then you have the libretto and refreshment vendors calling out their wares in four different languages, with various degrees of proficiency. And right at the beginning, when the house lights go down, everyone in the high seats lights these little candles, which looks really magical.

So, the pictures: here.

Oh, and it didn't rain until we were one hour down the road to Milano, after the opera..

Today is the last day the student cafe is open, and also the last day the bar in Albaro is open before the big summer break. Lots of the guys here are taking holiday too, so it should be really quiet. I might sneak off to Parma for a few days. Sounds like an interesting city, though it'll be steamingly hot.

First, this weekend, we're making an attempt to go the opera in the Arena di Verona. I'll try and take some photos if we make it...

If you have 'flash' installed, the ideal way to get in the mood for the forthcoming Olympiad is to play 'herculympics', including events like minotaur throwing and centaur showjumping, together with ancient olympics trivia questions between each event.. this is what we pay the licence fee for!

It rained late last night, which poses an interesting question: what if it rains at the opera in the Arena di Verona? I might find out on Saturday night..

Am beginning to get used to the humidity. You have to walk very slowly everywhere. For dinner, you have to eat a large salad, mostly because you can't handle the idea of working in front of a hot cooker for any length of time. Fortunately, Italy is well cut out for good salad eating. It's easy and cheap to prepare a large plate of dark rocket leaves, perfectly ripe Sicilian tomatoes (called "grappolo" when they are sold "on the vine"), and some Crudo san Danielle, which is the main rival to Parma ham. It's not as sweet and has a more distinguished texture, in my opinion. Add some fresh sardines perhaps, a couple of panini, some high quality olive oil and a little pepper, and you're sorted out.

Almost two years ago, our AI building in Edinburgh burnt down, and today it seems we're finally getting the first installment of the insurance money. This is great - I'd completely forgotten about it, so it's like winning money.