Tuesday 31^st July

More travel stories from Chris and Angela…

While they were in Florence recently, they went to see – Madonna!  Along with 85,000 or so very thrilled and excited Italians, in a huge stadium.

Madonna is now 53 but has lost none of her shock value.  In fact, said Angela, she was totally outrageous and as shocking as could be.  I asked if she had shown her bottom to the crowd, because I had seen a (shocking!!) photo of her doing so to the (shocked) inhabitants of St Petersburg.  Yes indeed!  She showed her everything!

She sang old songs – Like a Virgin, very s-l-o-w-l-y and erotically, and new songs Bang Bang (You Shot Me Dead), I think was the charming title, and the song came complete with a gun and filmscreens full of splattered brains and gore.  (NO not the old Cher song, equally charmingly titled Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) – I did ask…)

Angela tried to take photos of Madonna on a high wire, Madonna leaping and prancing but, she said, Madonna moved too swiftly, like a rattlesnake.

The concert finished close to midnight and they very sensibly caught a taxi back to their hotel, where their three friends, Jim, Liz and Susan were waiting, very sad that they had chosen not to attend the rattlesnake spectacle.  But…the taxi driver was not particularly interested in them or in their exact destination.  He let them out on a dark street and whizzed off.  They didn’t have a torch and had NO idea where they were, so they hopped from foot to foot, laughed a bit, and trudged around the empty streets until eventually, they found a nice warm welcoming bar where they could regroup, slake their thirst, and then formulate a plan to seek out their accommodation and their friends.