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Here’s that Palladino goal I mentioned the other night, lovely stuff.

I’m not having a very good day, I’ve wasted most of it trying to sort out a hostel for Venice. It’s pretty much impossible on my phone so I had to pay for proper access. Unless you want to pay through the nose though, there’s very little on offer. So much so that I was actually thinking about just leaving going to Venice altogether but this would have meant loads more fresh planning to figure out a different route and schedule and I just couldn’t face it.

So I’ve had to book a hostel that is pricey and has rubbish reviews, I can’t say I’m looking forward to it much!

It’s a good thing that I had a lot of cheap days in The Balkans as Italy is proving to be very expensive in general.

San Marino is off my trip list (damn, that’d have been a whole new country scalp) as to get three I’d have to go via Bologna and I haven’t the time or again, the inclination to make more route changes.

I was going to go to Sienna today but there just isn’t time now so I’m going to San Gimignano. I have to change buses but I couldn’t hear the bloke on the other side of the glass so I had to try and decipher the pamflet he gave me, I figured it out just in time to watch the bus I needed going past me and I was only metres from the right platform. Very frustrating as I’ve got to wait an hour now and then I’ll be on the bus for an hour before another half hour wait and finally another half hour bus ride. With my late start to the day by the time I get there it’s going to be a waste of time, grrrr.

Can you tell I’m tired and grumpy? I’ll stop moaning now.

When/if I get to San Gimignano I think I will neck a bottle of chianti, th th th th th th. That’s my Hannibal Lecter impression.

I only stayed in the small and pretty walled town for about an hour and a half but I enjoyed that time. The surrounding Tuscan countryside is beautiful, if I was a millionaire I think I’d get a 2nd home there, I’d probably get a 1st home in Manchester while I was at it too.

I managed to grab a glass of chianti at the wine museum overlooking a sweeping landscape. I’m a bit of a philistine and clueless on such matters but this is what I paid for, ‘Colli Senesi Docg Selezione/Riserva’.

The joyous melodies of Devendra Banhart were a good choice to go with the Tuscany scenery, first up was his latest offering ‘What we will be’. It’s got more if a soul and funk vibe to his previous work, but it’s still has all the voice warbling and acoustic guitar trickery that is his trademark. There’s a bit too much filler for it to make my purchase list but I will be listening to it again.

‘Rejoicing in the Hands’ is an album from much earlier in his career and it doesn’t really do it for me, far too much filler. I can forgive him though as his next album was ‘Niño Rojo’ which is stunningly brilliant.

Before I left the town I treated myself to some world class ice-cream, literally. Pluripremiata Gelateria has twice won the World Championships in recent years and after tasting their gear I can see why. Yum.

I’m not feeling too well, this seems to happen every 3 or 4 weeks when I’m travelling. The lack of sleep catches up with me, I get run dow , I get a cold and then feel rotten. It passes pretty quickly though and I’m going to go out with Jukka anyway, I’ll be home soon enough and can rest up then.

He was kind enough to make me some sphaghetti at his gaff then we went to a few bars and ultimately back to Foco where we were the other night. It’s a really cool place but they need to sort out the tunes, some woeful stuff was coming out. Still, a good night was had.