The sky at about 7pm last night, seen from my bedroom window. I thought it was rather beautiful, though perhaps the photo doesn't quite capture it as it was. 

It's amazing how much joy the little things can bring...

• Being able to have a nice shower without having to hold the shower head as I have had to do in my past two dwellings
• Looking at the bath and thinking I might actually be able to have one in it! (because it's not rank like the last one...)
• Being able to lie on a comfy sofa and watch well-tuned TV
• Being able to boil the kettle in the kitchen to make a cup of tea (much simpler than the tea arrangement I had in Brescia!)
• Actually not minding spending most of the afternoon ironing most of what's come out of my suitcase because the iron and ironing board were both nice!!

I'm sure there are other little things which have come up during the day which I now can't remember... just really enjoying it here! I know this may all change whenever a flatmate moves in, but at the moment it's the first place I've lived where it's really felt like I have the whole apartment at my disposal, rather than just my room... I really hope whoever moves in will be lovely and we'll get on well! I think I like it because it's the first time I've ever moved in first. I've always shared
flats/houses (throughout uni and since) but this is the first time I'm just sharing with one other person and I've got here first, so I can settle in and organise how I like, and feel slightly more in control! 
It will be nice to get my timetable and see when I'm actually going to be at home!! I doubt I'll have much spare time! I guess my timetable will change a lot as courses change so I'm never going to have a totally fixed routine, but some framework will be nice...

Earlier today I went for a wander into town. Didn't see much more than what I saw when I came for interview, but it was lovely to be able to wander round at leisure rather than sweltering in 35 degree post interview stress and wanting to get to the station to get a train I could actually afford back to Brescia... 
Mind you, it's still very warm, and check out the blue sky in this picture! I would actually quite like the cold to come as I haven't really got enough summery clothes that I can actually wear to work... 

 
Anyway, I think it's so beautiful here. This is supposedly one of the most beautiful squares in Italy, and I have to say I agree. I adored Trento when I lived there, I even loved Brescia, but I think Udine might already be my favourite... which is odd because I didn't think it would be. So far I haven't seen anything I haven't liked, and everyone has been so friendly. 

I went to the tourist office and asked them for information about the city and the region. The girl was so lovely and loaded me down with about a hundred maps, guides, brochures etc... I will never have to go to a FVG (that's the region I now live in - Friuli-Venezia Giulia - to those who aren't in the know ) Tourist Office ever again as I have all the documentation for every town/city I'll ever be able to visit in the vicinity!

(My own personal tourist office...these are all the different guides and maps she gave me (the maps are all different!)

She was really helpful though and I feel like I know where most things are now...  I've been investigating train times and prices to go to all these various cities, so that as soon as I have time I can start going to some of them! It's a shame I don't have a car to explore some of the smaller places (the ones that will be difficult to get to on public transport), but I will do as much as I can. Anyway, as I said before, I doubt I'm going to have much spare time anyway! Most of my time is certainly going to be taken with panicking over lesson plans and grammar explanations... I guess the first year is always bound to be the hardest (having not built up a "bank" of lesson plans and experience of teaching any particular points). I hope to survive!!! 

Tomorrow I have my first staff meeting. It's a development session for all staff on "exploiting textbooks and lesson planning". It'll be a nice chance to meet all my colleagues. Bit nervous if I'm honest, but everyone I've met so far has been lovely. Then in the evening I'm observing from 6-8pm - the beginners class I'm going to be taking over which is currently taught by my boss. So, the first day with actual "work". Then nothing again until Tuesday when I have 2 hours of training and 2 hours of observation. Then another couple of hours training on Friday 1st, including getting my provisional timetable... then the following week I start proper teaching - ARGH! 

Right, I'm going to go and do some more of that novelty lying on the sofa watching TV thing now! Actually the move has taken its toll a bit - I'm really achey today! Calves and upper arms really quite sore, grr! Hope I can walk properly again tomorrow!!  

BEDROOM

  
LIVING ROOM

KITCHEN

BATHROOM

The full set of pics with captions can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=224701&id=223300445&l=c593b78e3a

Haven't been out yet to take one of the outside...will add it shortly! Although it's not that pretty...

By the way, the school is literally a one minute walk up the road which could not be more perfect!  The station is right opposite the school (so also about a 2 minute walk, the extra minute to allow for crossing the road!). I was a bit worried being near the station would be horrible, but actually it doesn't seem bad at all, and in terms of going places it's fab! 

Haven't heard noise from a single neighbour here and don't think I will - woohoo! The trains noise isn't that bad either. I'm on the seventh (top) floor, thank God there's a lift in this building! The view is of the railway track so not great, but from the balcony you can also look across to the mountains. Also, I'm not overlooked by anyone which is nice - makes a change from having someone else's window half a metre away from me on a corner!! So far so good!

00.17 on move day. Blogging this first part just to give me something to do to keep busy!!

Mum and Dad's flight was slightly delayed so they got to Bergamo airport a bit late (10pm). First hitch was apparently that they were told to get the bus to go the car hire place, but the car hire lady was waiting for them at the terminal, so they had to wait for a bus back again. Welcome to Italy. At 11pm they were eventually on their way to get the car. Apparently the car is huge... great for luggage, possibly not so great for driving. I have only driven a "big" car once and that was a Peugeot 406 estate laden with all my belongings driving back from Exeter after 2nd year... we're now looking at never really having driven a big car, never having driven 300km and never having driven in Italy. I am starting to get a little nervous now! 

Anyway, for them then came the fun bit of finding the hotel. Late at night, dark, one google map to follow... they are lost. I have been trying to help via phone by looking at maps on screen, but working out where they actually are has been interesting, and English mobile abroad to Italian mobile or vice versa isn't exactly cheap. As I write I am REALLY hoping they have now eventually found it as they are SO close..... just all a bit stressful for them, especially when it's now very late and we've got a long day tomorrow so getting to bed a bit earlier would have been ideal! I of course am still set to the routine of not sleeping til 2am, so despite needing to get up at 7am tomorrow, I'm not yet actually tired and so am going to have to settle for not much sleep.  

00.27.... still nowhere near the hotel. Oh dear..... this doesn't bode well!

00.32... WOOHOO! They've finally arrived. Dare I say that they could have been to Brescia and back by now?! Better not   Sleepy time now. Won't be on again until I'm in my NEW FLAT in UDINE! 

When I arrived here just over a year ago I had with me.....

• Laptop bag 
• Large holdall full to the 23kg limit
• Hand luggage sized suitcase

(Sort of like this except I had the suitcase not the rucksack - this was coming back after the summer!)

 I am leaving with...

• Laptop bag 
• Large holdall full to the 23kg limit
• Hand luggage sized suitcase
• 2 small boxes of books
• 1 medium box full of folders, books etc
• 3 full-to-the-brim box files of notes, lesson plans, materials
• Rucksack 
• 2 blue ikea bags with textile stuff
• One large ikea paper bag of shoes 
• Two canvas bags full of miscellany
• Red plastic box with various equipment in
• Printer box (stuffed with as much stationery and electrical stuff I could get round the printer!)
• Ikea foldable chair
   
• This was in the interim packing stages (hence the hangers not yet being packed and only half the boxes being there!)
  
  (As it looks now, just a bit of a blurry photo...)

I guess I haven't really held back on accumulating things and bringing more things out from home everytime I/someone else made a trip out here! But then there wasn't really any need to hold back, since I always knew I was planning to stay in Italy another year and so could just move with all my stuff. I'm going to have a VERY hard time when I do decide I want to move back to England though...  let's not worry about that yet though!

My landlord/lady (complicated as the son is the official landlord and I pay my rent to him, but he doesn't do anything in terms of managing it and we always deal with the mother or step-father for everything else..) just came round to give me back my deposit and check the room. I had specifically arranged that she could bring cash as I don't have an Italian bank account (remember the whole Barclays Italia fiasco?  Wasn't that a long time ago now!). She came without any saying that she'd do it by transfer.... err, no. Anyway she was quick to suggest she went and withdrew as much as she could from the Bancomat and will transfer the rest to my English account, which is fine by me. It would have been a pain having it ALL go to English account as I do everything in cash here, but I've got enough to see me through until I next get paid (in November - eek!). Anyway she said I'd been the perfect tenant and they'd have trouble finding someone else like me! I have no idea what I've done to deserve that description as I don't feel like I've done anything, but perhaps that's the point! I've paid my rent on time every month and haven't broken anything!! Woohoo! I also thoroughly cleaned the room today and it's now looking very empty but very tidy. 

We're going to have some fun on Wednesday. I feel it's going to be a day to just get through, haha. Will be great to see mum and dad - shame that it's only for about 8 hours! But 8 very important hours!! The biggest problem is going to be finding anywhere at all to put the car outside to load it up... then obviously trekking up and down 100 steps lugging all those boxes isn't going to be much fun... oh and then there's the small matter of me managing to drive on the right side of the road (in both senses), finding my way out of Brescia, not annoying too many crazy Italian drivers by dithering because I don't know where I'm going, and finding the way in Udine...and finding a space at the other end to unload again. Thank GOODNESS there's a lift in the new place!!!! 

Two days!  It actually hasn't been nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I haven't really done anything (except a lot of reading!) but don't feel like I've been too bored at all. So that's good. I'll still have a another 9 days before starting work anyway, although I'll have all the new things to get accustomed with! 
Might have to start doing some lesson preparation at that point too, although of course it's kind of difficult when I currently have no idea whatsoever what courses or levels I'm going to be taking. All will become clear soon enough! My boss also said in his email that there will be some lessons I can observe and plenty of time to get used to things over the first few weeks, so I'm not too worried. 

Had a nice but eventful day yesterday!

In the afternoon I went to the other event I was talking about in my last post, which was the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year photo exhibition. I was so glad to spot that this was back on again. In the past I've always gone to it in Bristol, and it's one of my absolute favourite things. I managed to go this time last year shortly after I had arrived, so was pleased to make it this year too! It's held at the Brescia Natural Sciences Museum, which is rather hidden off a back road about 1.5km from my house. Pootled down there while it wasn't raining, and thought the exhibition was fantastic, as always. Only one snake this year to give me a fright! I went round twice and would really quite like to go back again. I think it's such a shame it doesn't seem that well publicised (or maybe just attended) here. In Bristol the museum is always completely packed, and when it's on at the Natural History Museum in London you have to pay to go! I highly recommend it to anyone! 

Anyway, once I had dragged myself away from that, I had decided to go to the supermarket on the way home, which meant exploring a different one since good old Pam (the supermarket I usually go to) is in the other direction completely. I knew there was another one opposite the hotel my parents stayed in when they came to visit last February so decided to try that.  I was walking happily along, past the Wind shop where I was debating whether or not I can save money by taking up their offer of buying an internet key and activating a new sim and then having half price internet for 6 months, or whether it's actually more sensible just to pay full price and keep using the one I've got (probably the latter as I think the saving I'd make would be about €5 overall, but I would have a new internet key...). Anyway, whilst contemplating all this, I was just walking on autopilot because I knew exactly where I was going. Or so I thought. I turned up the side road I thought the supermarket was on, and then realised I'd been walking for quite some time and hadn't yet come across the supermarket. Then I got to the end of the road and realised the hotel wasn't there either. Yup, I'd missed the right road and had therefore walked three sides of a square going the other way to get to it. Found it eventually and got (I hope) last little bits of food to last me the last 2 and a bit days! 

On the way back past the bus stop (right opposite my house), I checked times for later that evening. There was a bus to my destination at 8.42pm. Perfect for getting to 9pm Taize meeting. However, when I came to leave, I was a tiny bit later than I wanted to be because I'd got caught up watching the coverage of Popey in Hyde Park (it was great to be able to watch the BBC for a bit as live coverage is available abroad whereas iPlayer isn't...). Then, it was absolutely pouring with rain, and I mean POURING. I equipped myself with my purpose-bought large umbrella (because here when it rains it really does rain...) and headed down to the bus stop, a journey of about 1.5 minutes from my front door. It took me a minute or two standing around in the rain to notice there was a sign pinned to the bus stop saying "fermata soppressa" ie.no buses stopping there until the end of service on the 18th. It was the 18th. GREAT. The alternate stop for the number 17 when there is a deviation is miles away. Got totally drenched walking through endless puddles to try and make it in time (my shoes did NOT enjoy that), but the bus was going down the road as I came round the corner. Missed it by about 2 minutes (I blame the Pope...). So I ended up having to walk all the way to destination. Luckily it's not actually too far, but I did turn up at the church totally drenched and with very wet feet indeed, but also very happy to be there. 

My last Taize service in Brescia So glad I was able to make this one, otherwise my last one would have been the one way back in June! 
I have been really lucky to have found such a great group of people here to share the Taize experience with. I do hope that I do manage to link up with the Udine group in a similar manner. It's looking hopeful as the exchange of emails so far with the couple I met has been positive and I do hope to go on the 28th. It's just a shame the really well established group meet so far away from Udine. Maybe someone can give me a lift...we'll have to see. 
Anyway at the end of last night's service I declined the chance to make a speech, but I did get to choose the last chant. I was very glad we hadn't done "In the Lord" during the service as I was able to choose that, a nice joyful one (most of my favourites are quite slow and wouldn't really do for the end of the service, or are ones not many people know...). I made them do it in English even though we always do it as "El Seynor" or "Meine Hoffnung". Really enjoyed that.
Afterwards we all went off to Il Cavallino for pizza - yum yum. I also treated myself to una birra and was surprised when they served it in English style pint glasse (pointed out by one of the Italians who was drinking with me). All in all a very enjoyable evening, and I got a lift home and got back at about quarter past midnight.

Probably got to sleep around 2am. Then, after hearing some loud crashing around at just before 3am, I woke up, but was trying to doze back off again when there was panicked knocking at my door. I hadn't yet woken up enough to respond properly as I wasn't convinced it was actually knocking at MY door, but then my flatmate burst through the door and put my light on, saying that she'd called the police because of the people banging the door down. What?! So apparently the noise that vaguely woke me up was someone banging really hard on our door... and because the neighbours have apparently been robbed before, she decided it was best to call the police.  So, at 3am, we had the carabinieri turn up. SIX of them...all with their guns of course...really rather a surreal experience. Not actually the first time carabinieri have come round in the middle of the night to where I have lived in Italy - in Trento my flatmate had to call them because of some trouble with an ex-boyfriend threatening to kill her . Anyway there wasn't much for them to do here obviously, except ask us both for documents and laboriously copy down the details. This is the third time Italian police have taken my details...I'd better not do anything wrong!! Anyway, all very bizarre. The policemen were swearing their heads off and also had a good joke when Isabella said she was Sicilian, calling in one of the colleagues because he was Sicilian too... laughing about needing to practise their English - the young one who was taking down our details said that he'd stopped a Danish couple last week who were horrified that someone so young couldn't speak English.... all very jolly. But really quite strange as well. Poor Isabella was absolutely terrified, as I daresay I would have been if I'd been awake enough to hear the noise properly. We managed to go back to sleep again though and all is back to normal now.... 
Oh and at least I found out that I'm not the first to have had trouble with the crazy neighbours...apparently the girl who had this room before used to say it was so awful she had to keep her window shut the whole time!! I couldn't bear the heat if I did that, so I suppose it's noise vs heat!! I do remember thinking how peaceful it was during the winter months though... fingers crossed for normal neighbours next time. Though, with the dubious location of the flat (opposite the station...) we shall see!!! 

I've just been fortunate enough to hear, for the second time in my life, a concert by the "legendary" Gustav Leonhardt. 
'Who?' I hear most of you cry...  Well, before the first time I had no idea either.

It was in Falaise, France in July 2007. It was the first month of my work placement at the tourist office there. I was living alone (I was there for 4 weeks on my own before the other work placementers turned up) and I didn't have a whole lot to do, so I turned up to pretty much all the events that took place. That month there was an organ festival on, and the main event was a harpsichord recital by this Dutch guy, Gustav Leonhardt (he plays several instruments - keyboard, harpsichord, organ, claviorganum (yeah, what?!) etc) . When I looked him up, he turned out to be pretty famous. The best thing was that under 25s were getting in free to this concert, so I went along and was very glad I did. Packed church, applause like you've never heard... he really was quite something. He was 79 at the time. I managed to get a few photos of him that night because he was posing for them! Below is him with the harpsichord he was playing.

Anyway, in a similarly bored state now, I was scanning the events guide for Brescia a couple of days ago, and spotted a familiar name! I confess that I had to double check it really was the same person (by looking at my photos from Falaise), but there he was. 9pm on Thursday 16th August, Organ Concert, Gustav Leonhardt, Santa Maria del Carmine, Ingresso Libero. 
Perfect! The church literally 3 minute walk from my house...free entry again! (I think people pay a lot of money to see this guy, but I'm broke at the moment!).

Well, he's now a very sprightly 82! The concert began unannounced, to a packed church. The programme had a list of 10 pieces on, all by different composers. I found it a bit strange that nobody at all clapped in between pieces. This was the opposite problem to the concert I went to at the Teatro Grande, where everyone was clapping between movements of Beethoven's 3rd symphony (to much tutting from the lady beside me!). Here there was just silence as he went through all the pieces, which felt a bit strange to me.I lost track completely of how many pieces he had played so had no idea which was the last anyway, but luckily other people had been paying attention and when he had finished the whole church broke forth into applause which seemed to go on forever. The organ in Santa Maria del Carmine is a beautifully ornate one, built in 1629. It's raised up so we couldn't see him while he was playing (great shame, it's nice to see the footwork etc) and he was just standing up there to bow. He had to come back six or maybe seven times and the applause was still going! Afterwards lots of people were hanging around to meet him, and a whole crowd of young guys (maybe music students?) got him to autograph their programmes. I really wished afterwards that I had bothered to as well... oh well. He seems like such a nice man though, shaking hands with everybody and listening to them (I assume he must speak some Italian since most of them were talking Italian!). I just find it really funny that he's Dutch, I'm English and I've now seen him perform in France and Italy... 

Funnily enough this was the second organ concert I've been to in the recent past. I don't really make a habit of attending them but in August Dad and I went to hear David Bednall, a talented young organist - aged 31, 51 years Leonhardt's junior! - who  was playing in St James' Church, Taunton on the organ there. Well, the organ there was built in 1861 so that was a lot younger too! Anyway, his concert was also very enjoyable, with the bonus that the organ was fully visible so we could watch everything he was doing. It was a shame that only about 20 people turned up to hear him... oh and another contrast with tonight was that he got applause and did a little bow after every piece. However, I think the applause at the end of the performance tonight definitely made up for the lack of it during the concert.... all in all, I'm glad I happened to read through the events list and spotted that it was on! It was just a shame Dad couldn't join me at that one too!

I also spotted something else is on which will be my treat for tomorrow or the next day... more details to follow perhaps!
Only 6 days to go now!! I've done everything on my "to do" list. Just got to pack up my clothes and last things (but will wait until at least Monday to do so I think). I went to Ikea today again to pick up some last things which I 'need'. Mostly I went because I fancied eating Swedish for lunch.... timed it REALLY badly though and ended up on the most ridiculously packed bus because it was lunchtime and schools had just chucked out. What's worse is that the bus went right past my old workplace, so lots of my ex-students got on the bus too! Oh well, luckily I had got one of the last remaining seats before the bus turned into a cattle market with kids crammed in every available space... won't be doing THAT again! (But the meatballs were worth it!).

Oh and I found out my new address yesterday... will wait and post photos and details once I'm actually there!
I'm also really happy because I've just had an email from the man I met in Taize who took a group there from Udine this summer. He's sent me some dates of Taize meetings in Udine and stuff so that's really good. Just got to work out how to get to them now! (a whole new bus system to investigate!). Although sadly I've just realised that the ones I was really keen to go to are actually in a village outside Udine, about 20km away... if I had a car I'd be ok, but without one I'm not going to make it unless there happens to be someone who travels from Udine. The other problem is that they start at 9pm and I could well be working until 8pm or later, so it's going to be tight time wise. Fingers crossed!! At least the other ones are in town, albeit the other side (4km away). 

On this day (September 13th) four years ago I flew to Venice airport and then travelled to Trento to begin my Erasmus experience! Mum came with me to help me bring out some extra stuff. We had fun staying the night in the most awful hotel in Mestre and then got the lovely little 3.5 hour stopping train first thing in the morning. It was good fun... I remember arriving in Trento and meeting my buddy, who took me to the wrong flat and left me there. I remember being totally confused and frustrated by the whole university system and the registration process. I remember being generally terrified! Still, 9 months later and I didn't want to leave...

Then, on the 15th September 2009, a year ago in 2 days' time, I returned . This time I flew to Verona airport and got the train to Brescia, on my own this time. My landlady's husband was supposed to meet me at 5pm or something outside the flat. I eventually managed to get in touch with him and he arrived at gone 7pm. I spent those two hours standing outside the front door with all my luggage... oh there have been some real joys arriving in Italy!!

Still, after another fantastic Italian experience, I'm still here... can't believe it's only 2 days off being a whole 12 months since I moved in to this flat!
Only 9 days now until I move to the new place. Hopefully finding the right place and getting into it won't be like either Trento or Brescia!!

The concert last night was fantastic. I'm so glad I went. I realised that I haven't been to enough classical concerts like that since I graduated. I used to try and go to all the university concerts, and others, as often as I could, but haven't done so since then really. I'll have to make a point of searching out opportunities in Udine as it is definitely something which makes me happy!!  The Teatro Grande really is magnificent inside. I did take some photos but I took them without flash and they haven't come out that well (blurry etc), so I won't upload them. But I was so glad to make it inside before leaving! 

Just for fun... a couple of weeks ago I left my house, went round the corner to Piazza Loggia and was confronted by this giant crocodile. I actually found it quite terrifying!! Just glad it wasn't a snake..!
 

Packing is getting under way. It's hard to believe how much stuff I have accumulated. There are so many things that I bought thinking they were just for this year, and that I would have to leave them behind at the end (assuming I would be flying back to the UK). But now that I'm moving within Italy, there seems little point leaving anything as it's all useful stuff and will be just as useful in the new place. So, I am trying to find a way to pack everything up so that it will still fit in the car and won't be TOO much effort moving.  Of course the biggest drag to move are all the books and folders, of which I have accumulated rather a lot. Nothing, obviously, compared to moving from house to house in the UK, but moving then was always a lot easier...

Here, moving is going to be a lot of effort whatever, as I live on the top floor of the building (100 steps up) with no lift. Going up and down in quick succession is going to be hard work! THANK GOODNESS I'm not going to be doing it alone! My absolute stars-of-parents are coming out to help me Thank you parents, and, I never thought I'd say it, thank you Ryanair!  

They are flying in to Bergamo on Tuesday 21st, staying overnight near the airport and driving to Brescia the following day. I've got to get a pass for the ZTL (limited traffic zone - apparently you can buy a thing that lets you in for 2 hours or something for €4 and you just have to register the number plate. I hope they can find somewhere to park reasonably near, as typically there are road works at the moment covering most of the spaces... Anyway, assuming that's all ok, we will then load the car and I will drive us the 300km from Brescia to Udine. This will be my first experience of driving on the continent! I should probably be more nervous than I am, especially as yesterday I realised I don't even have the first idea how to get out of Brescia (having never driven here before).* I am sure it will be fun though... and I need to get used to driving as soon as possible as I will be driving in my new job to go to companies to teach. What better way to get into it than a 3 hour drive, arriving in a completely unfamiliar city?! I will be very glad to have Dad at my side to help me through! It'll be like learning to drive all over again and I'm sure I can look forward to cries of "STOP" from mum in the back seat... just like the only time she ever took me out whilst learning at 17 - right mum?  (I'm only joking, don't be cross!!).

I have only seen photos of the new place, just as I had only seen photos of this place almost a year ago when I was preparing to move to Brescia! How long ago that seems! The new place does look a lot nicer though and I'm already looking forward to getting settled in. I think my room is going to be quite a lot smaller, but that's no bad thing (cleaning this one has been a pain!). I will wait until I am able to take my own photos of the place to share them with you...

TWELVE DAYS! 

British people are famous for being good at queuing, right? Actually, according to this article from August this year, that's no longer quite true: "British no longer willing to queue". Shock horror! What remains true though is that Italian "queuing" is a different matter entirely. I was looking on-line for a good quote from one of Tim Parks' books about living in Italy, as I know he has written humorously (more so than I could ever do) on the subject. My books are in England though and I can't find the passages on-line, so you'll have to put up with me...

This weekend, Brescia is celebrating the bicentenary of its grand Teatro Grande. I noticed in the events update at the beginning of the month that on Sunday night there will be a concert with the Teatro alla Scala Academy Orchestra. The concert is free, but you had to go and pick up a coupon, available from 11am today. 
I decided this was a brilliant opportunity, not only to attend a good concert, but also to see inside the Teatro Grande, which I still haven't managed to do! Actually they are also running guided tours over the weekend which I will try and go on as well. 

I hadn't actually realised that there was going to be quite such a scramble for the tickets (although perhaps that was silly because it is going to be a great event, and it's not often you get to go to a prestigious concert for nothing), but when I arrived at around 11.15am (I had originally planned to go this afternoon, glad I changed my mind!) there was a large crowd of people outside the door to the ticket office. I joined the back of the "queue". It was actually a reasonable queue, functioning in a fairly normal manner. I was glad I had my book with me as I could see it was going to take a while...
Now, normally, for some unknown reason, queuing in Italy has to be regulated by a numbered ticket system. You don't go to any office or the bakery etc without getting your number and waiting for it to show on the screen.  To be fair, this generally seems to work quite well (though in some situations it's still beyond me why people can't just stand in a line, but then I'm British...). It would seem today that Italians are so programmed to queue only with this system, that when it wasn't present, they had implemented it themselves! I had been queueing for a few minutes and was happily reading my book (p978 now!) when the lady next to me asked me whether there was a number to take from anywhere. I said that I didn't think so, and certainly none of the people who had joined the queue after me had done anything different from me. But then another lady appeared with a sheet of paper on which someone had written numbers from about 92-100 and was tearing off these tiny scraps of paper and handing them out. I got number 98, the lady who had arrived after me got 97 (of course...) and we established that the people at the front had numbers in the 30s. Great. The thing was, there was no "official" number system and it was actually just people writing their own numbers...all the people behind us just got out bits of paper and wrote a number on and that was that, the queue. Everybody was laughing about this auto-managed system. Why do it then?!! Why was it necessary?! I don't understand!! The people behind the counters inside neither knew of this system, nor cared, but for those in the queue it was okay, because we knew exactly who was meant to be in front of us and behind us! There was a lot of "what number have you got?" "oh, you're after me" going on. Surely, the order in which you arrive and stand is a good enough indicator of who is going first? Obviously not...

Anyway, after 50 minutes in the "queue" I was nearly at the front. Just the woman who had arrived after me in front of me. Then, suddenly, pushing through the crowd was a woman waving her number asking what number we were? 97, 98 we replied. Oh no, I'm number 66 'sono in ritardo' ! Yeah, really late! Of course she had no qualms about then just walking to the front and, by way of explanation, saying that she had waited in the queue for an hour and they were up to number 13 so she'd gone to do her shopping... the only bonus of that system I suppose. You'd never be let back in to an English queue just because you'd gone off. No, everyone has to wait right there in line! No wandering off and pushing back in. That's queue jumping, that is! 
Anyway, soon I was right at the front, the first behind the closed door! (Another Italian trait is that only the person being served is allowed anywhere near the counter...the queue has to start behind the closed door!). So nearly there! EVEN at that point, the woman right behind me was asking me what number I was, just to check she was next... she then turned to the person accompanying her and said "this signora, well, this ragazza really is next and then it's us" (!!). Oh the EXCITEMENT of being at the front!  One minute later and I was leaving, ticket in hand. Oh so simple! 

I'm looking forward to Sunday night now! It had better be good!!