Finally in London

9 August 2004 departure from Brindisi with the RYANAIR flight. Arrival at around 21.35 at Stansted, a place about 60 km from London. Overnight at the airport. 10 August 2004 Early start by National Express coach to London. The journey is interesting; the roads, despite it being very early and raining and cool (what a difference from warm Italy), are teeming with cars, motorbikes and lorries all in a line and respectful of every rule; the scenery is typically English: green lawn, terraced houses... At every stop the driver announces it in a plaintive tone, a video recalls the safety rules and reminds you to collect your luggage.

We get off at Victoria Station, a wild place full of all sorts of characters, signs in various languages warn you to watch out for pickpockets; in an instant the decision is made: we have to reach the hotel by taxi! Besides, it's raining and a man at the station's information desk declares that the fare is around £9. The taxi we booked is typically London: black and a bit odd; we reach the hotel in Prince's Square for £9.40. The building of our hotel Kensington Court is Victorian, semi-detached, white with staircases of low, narrow steps and bathrooms up top. We visit Kensington Park. We leave the park and venture into the centre among shops and many exchange offices called, in the French way, bureau de change.

We reach the Science Museum opposite the Victoria and Albert and next to the Natural History, but we're tired and it's already late (almost 6 pm) so we go out promising ourselves to return; entry is free as in almost all London museums. 11 August we reach the Marble Arch tube station (meanwhile we photograph everything photographable) to take a look at the Italian newspapers (around there are Repubblica, Corriere della sera and Settimana Enigmistica) and to drink. We emerge at Marble Arch and, after making friends with some royal pigeons, we reach Oxford Street, packed with shops of every kind, with good-quality clothes and varied goods at varied prices. The weather is decent even though a few drops had been spilled on Admiralty Arch; by now our feet are covered in blisters but I don't pay attention and press on undaunted.

Near Piccadilly there's a tourist office besieged by Italians and I stock up on leaflets, in addition to those already taken from the hotel and in the places we visited. We reach Trafalgar Square with the marble lions assailed by little children from every nation; I also glimpse the National Gallery (which is free to enter too) but you can't see everything in life! Near Whitehall (home of the Home Office) an old lady, curious about our attention to the map, points us the way to reach the city's most characteristic monuments,. Between 15.45 and 16 we stop to see the changing of the horses (there are many onlookers watching the ceremony and there's plenty of… fragrant dung left by the aforementioned!).

The government buildings are imposing, as indeed is the whole city; London is without doubt a spectacular, majestic and magnificent city, as are its prices! Private cars are few and the ones you see are mostly upper four-star, while taxis of native make roam the centre far and wide followed by the picturesque double-decker buses. Downing Street is a bluff, a gate prevents ordinary mortals from reaching it while the police are present with a large deployment of forces; here too an anarchist Italian loudly complains about the English prime minister, who shortly arrives like lightning in his official car accompanied by a procession of other vehicles. We see the legendary Scotland Yard and the parliament with Big Ben, which marks time every 15 minutes with its chime, familiar and adopted by many pendulum clocks all over the world.

Below the parliament, pacifists protest with sit-ins against Blair while waving the pro-Olympics 2012 flags. 12 August: at breakfast we're always among the last but we like to take it easy and watch TV in the morning even though the programmes are abominable. We take the 52 to go to Russell Square, home of the British Museum. On the bus I chat with a typical elderly Englishwoman, from whom I learn that Londoners don't have the habit of travelling for their holidays, unlike other Europeans. Outside the imposing British structure a street vendor sells hot dogs and Coca-Cola. At last we go into the British, and first of all we admire the Rosetta Stone, found by a French soldier in Egypt. Everything is exceptional, majestic; you don't know where to look (and where to photograph)! The visitors come from everywhere: Italy, France, Japan.

The Parthenon is almost all there and there are finds from Puglia too, dating back to the ancient civilisations that inhabited our region. There are also sections reserved for Africa, for the discoveries made in the eighteenth century, there are ancient clocks dating back even to the sixteenth century. We continue to Blackfriars bridge, where the body of Roberto Calvi was found back in 1982, and from afar you can make out the legendary London Bridge. 13 August. we head towards the National History Museum. The route that takes us to the museum leads us to Notting Hill, an elegant district with antique shops and antique dealers. The Natural History Museum is majestic and demands careful pauses in all its sections; moreover the lights increase the heat enormously and this creates a bit of discomfort. As in every other place we visited the children are numerous, of every race and colour.

14 August: Portobello Road. The area is crowded with people of every kind; as usual there are many Italians. There's plenty of stuff to look at: junk, antiques, there's even a nice butcher's and many Italian restaurants. 15 August: we arrive at Bari Palese at 10.50, ten minutes early, twenty if you consider that we set off at around 7.20.