Flight fine, collected at the airport by Emy and Eve, same people as last time. BA kicked shit out of my guitar flight case so much so that I'm going to have to buy a new one in Rome before going to Venice. Guitar ok though (remarkably). However hotel not. Picture the scene;room on seventh floor (not penthouse), outside window flyover with goods trains, beneath which early morning trams, add normal traffic of a busy city and you get nil sleep. Tony is fractious on our behalf, promoter suddenly invisible. Having said this last night had it's interesting moments. We were taken to a late night bar which was in a sort of run down scout hut in which every body was smoking, which is unusual these days. It was apparently jazz night but the members were more than happily singing Beetles songs clustered around an old piano with some guy banging the keys. We did get a couple of beers though and enjoyed the atmosphere which was pleasantly free of the smell of toilets as experienced in UK bars now post smoking ban. It was a sort of Italian bohemia. We're due to meet up with the keyboard player for rehearsals on thursday evening and all day friday before the first gig then it's up to Venice by train. Got a couple of radio interviews to do and we've been invited to a a party which apparently has a buffet and Eve is the DJ. Not sure what it's about but we are going to get free food so it saves money for beer. Bye for now I'll keep you posted.

Garce