In April I rented a little studio apartment here ...

...with a courtyard that looked like this ...

... on a street that looked like this ...

... with ever-changing markets that looked like this ...

Oh man.

This place is so, so wrong.

My toes are painted, the most scandalous clothes I own are packed and my pennies are ready ...

Yes. I am really bringing all the pennies from my penny jar (I conveniently have about 3 kilos of American pennies collected over six years of living in Alaska ... ) to use in the penny slots.

And yes. It's true that the most scandalous clothes I own is limited to a full-coverage push-up bra, a slightly low cut v-neck T-shirt and a really long tank top that could possibly pass as a dress.

Last night we got to Cesana Pariol, home of the 2006 Torino Olympics bob and skeleton track. We have a few days before we start sliding, and my coach and I walked around town, stopping in at the little information centre. I about fell over with excitement when I discovered they had one of the Olympic torches there on a stand in the window.

Oh, you know, walked around Milan, bought some Italian clothes, went to the Duomo, the usual ...

Seriously, look at this thing ...

Let's just say that the Canadian landmarks like, oh I don't know, West Edmonton mall and Anne of Green Gable's house don't really measure up.