Prada, Gucci, Versace etc

Today we tortured ourselves by visiting a shopping mall near Scarperia. The mall consists of outlet stores for Prada, Gucci, Versace, Ralph Lauren, YSL, D&G etc etc. A stunning place to shop...but on my EUR40 per week I will probably never be able to purchase anything there! However, for all the females visiting us over the next few months, it's highly recommended. I don't think I've ever seen such beautiful shoes - I may have to start saving some of my pocket money. We did manage to buy something...from the Lindt outlet store! What an incredible shop - piles and piles and piles of Lindor chocolate balls. Exercise will start tomorrow I promise!!

Other than that - Mathew and I started "school" this morning. The NZ Correspondence School pack hasn't arrived yet so I've had to devise some lessons. Boy, teaching is hard work! And Mathew and I are going to have some challenges remaining on good terms. But I think for the first day it went well. He started his blog and spent some of the morning going around the property taking pictures to add to it. We then did some maths, started a project on Scarperia and another one on countries of the world, tried to learn some Italian and practised his guitar. We learnt for 3.5 hours...long enough in my book! He is very keen - I think mostly as it takes him away from Ana! She and Ralph spent the morning exploring shops and some of the local villages. I'm getting the feeling from the talk this evening that tomorrow may involve a trip into Florence. Lucky them!

We are now all sitting (minus Ana) watching the Netherlands vs Italy Europe 2008 Soccer game. Netherlands is up 2-0. I'm just enjoying watching the Italian players - they do have style!