Chili's Italian Journey

Arrival in Milano - 14th May 2002

Whew.. finally! I am a patient fellow, but this sure was a LONG journey from NZ to Italy..
How many dreams.. I guess I shall write about that another time, now I'm awake and ready to go!

When I opened my eyes I found myself in a strange place full of people.. and this gal was pressing me to her chest like she wanted to smother me! Only slowly I got my wits together again and realized I finally had arrived in Italy and this woman was Dagmar, the one Jemma told me would be my next host on this trip. Well, we went through the presentation and since there were a lot of people standing around and wondering what she was doing with this little stuffed doggie, holding it in her arms and hopping up and down all happy and smiling, she told everybody my story.
Ahem. And I immediately got a taste of the italian character: These people are EMOTIONAL! Would you immagine that as soon as Dagmar finished telling about me travelling in Ricky's place and some of the things behind that, there were several of the women present who started to cry and also the men wanted to come near me and give me a hug and everybody got all teary and huggy and talked all together (I still have to get used to that! ) and I went from hand to hand, from hug to hug and everybody told me to PLEASE send all their love and hugs to Ricky immediately, what I am doing herewith, MEGAHUG, and so on.

What a pity Dagmar didn't bring her digital camera with her today, I think we would have got some really nice pictures of all this crying and hugging and cheering. But she promised she will bring me here again and we'll take at least some pic of the surrounding which was my first Italian Impresssion!

Very soon Dagmar decided to call it a day (she is actually a freelance she told me and goes to this office only more or less once a week, most of her work she does from home or travelling) and take me home! And there finally she was able to document my arrival also with some images! (Click on them to see me a bit bigger :)

Only when I found myself in front of a plate of food I realized I was positively STARVING!

And after a good dinner, I got myself some relax on Dagmar's terace looking at the evening sun.. I sure did miss the open air!

And in the garden I met Dagmar's first cat, Ciossi, who immediately was really nice and caring and asked me to tell her everything about my travels since she herself is rather fond of getting around. I gently told her that I was rather tired but that we would have more than enough time to chat over the next days! I'm very happy to discover that italian cats are much friendlier than those I have met unto now!

When I decided to get back inside for another bite of food I met Ketchup, the other cat, who was as dear as Ciossi, and told me she found the odours on me rather exciting and couldn't wait to hear about all the places I had been and the people I had met!

Since it had gotten rather late and I was starting to feel tired after all this unusual excitement after several weeks of total dark Ketchup invited me to come and sleep with her on her usual place on the sofa in Dagmar's study. And that's what I'm going to do :) See ya all tomorrow!