Atri nights

We're in the medieval hillside town of Atri. It's approaching midnight and the place is buzzing with young people including a phenomenal number of children. The young people here do what the old people do on a Saturday night; they sit outside cafes watching the world go by. It's all very sedate... Even card games are banned here!

We spent the day, yet again, sitting on the beach, eating fruit, drinking granita, playing card games and floating on lilos. 

Nathan got told off in a supermarket for not wearing a T-shirt this morning. The people here are incredibly friendly, but scratch the surface and you'll find a very strict set of Catholic morals, which often preclude overt displays of sexuality or behaviour perceived as such. 

There's a man who comes to the beach bar who has the lowest voice I've ever heard. It's the vocal equivalent of a bucket of chocolate burned slightly around the edges; rich, deep and a little crusty! He sat down with us this evening and almost sent me into a trance. He could make a fortune reading books at bedtime. He was amused by the fact that everyone was calling me Ben as it's not a name you tend to find in a place where every word ends in a vowel. When he found out that the name was short for Benjamin, he said the word to himself four or five times. I felt like I'd been given an Indian head massage!