The morning of the next day in Milan was spent organising tickets and what not for our train to Aix de Provance in the south of France. After some bullish negotiation by me and some polite recovery by leigh we manged to organise everything. Next we went to the Duomo to go inside the church, we figured out that everything was closed on the Monday so thats why we couldn’t actually go inside when we were there the day before. Next stop we did pretty much what we did the night before but this time we actually went inside the castle, although because of us misunderstanding the times,(castle closes at 7, everything else inside the castle closes at 4.30) and our piss farting around all we got to see was the inside of the outside if can understand that.
From there we back traced our steps again from the previous night and went to an area with some chilled out restaurants, ate dinner, then with the cheers of Italian fans egging us on just down the road we wandered into a bar to watch the last half of the Italy v Germany world cup. This would have to be another classic night! I have seen crazy Aussie Rules fans, rugby fans, but now I think I have seen the most passionate fans ever. Italian soccer (well i really should say football while in Europe) fans are a bunch of passionate nutters (in a good way). After seeing the little bar we were in go off, we followed the crowd to the Duomo where we saw Italians running, chanting, lighting flairs and cheering in absolute happiness. A must see for anyone. There is a statue of some bloke on a horse just outside the Duomo…i could google it but at the moment I don’t have time, I have a photo though!!. Stef and I jumped the barrier like everyone else did, climbed up and waved flags while chanting chants. The day was a great contrast for the same area during the day has such a police presence, then at night there was not one in site. Glass from broken bottles littered the ground, people getting in Testosterone fueled fights….well I didn’t see any but I am sure there were some somewhere :-). I must say the Police in Europe know when to stand back and watch the crowd have some fun!! After so much excitement we stumbled to bed to wake up at 5:45 a few hours later to catch the train to Aix.
Aix so far has been brilliant, pretty much due to two things. This was where Stef lived while she was studying in France, secondly we were here while France played Portugal. So now we have been in both countries and watched the match where they have now got into the final. Italy vs France. France celebrates in a complely different although in a similar way. More reserved, not as much emotion although very crazy and wild. Stef thinks it is because they believe that whenever they play they will win or something along those lines. Not only this they also believe there god and savior Zinadin Zidane will bring them to glory. After having dinner in a very nice restaurant, and then watching the last bit of the soccer and seeing the crowd react to France winning, we followed them all to the main fountain to see flairs, flags, and general crazyness for the second night in a row. I must say football has been a main feature and a cause of much fun and frivolity throughout our jaunt through Turkey, Greece, Italy and now France. I think I am becomming a major fan.
In terms of being in the right country at the right time I think we have pulled off a coup. After Italy cheated its way past Australia in the world cup they fortunately managed to get past. I have now forgiven them for their evil indiscretion. I don’t know who I want to win, probably France because we will be here when it happens but there is something said for the way the Italians celebrate a soccer win that makes me kind of wish for them to take home the glory.