Dove Vai???

That's right people...where the hell am I?? In Italia people...beautiful, thin person centric Italia and oh boy has fat little me been eating up a storm!! So, I know I've jumped ahead so where to begin, where to begin....

Well last Thursday/Friday (9/10September) our Italian viaggio began...this little trip has been about 10 years in the planning. Despite G-Star's heavy Italian origins she had never had the opportunity to travel to her homeland to visit the rels and see the sights. So, with our new attitude (including the Fat Crusades) we decided that this year was the year!!! So the planning and preparations were well underway when the first phase (Living Biggest Loser) commenced and in no small part the idea was to be svelte and fabulous prior to departure...well I've always had the fabulous people but the svelte, as we all well know, is still a glimmering beacon of fatless hope on the very distant shoreline.

So...on a 2.30AM flight to Dubai, the G-Star, Madster and I set our weary but excited eyes on the bright shores of Dubai (for our one day stop over). Being the exceptional parents that we are, we actually sent the Benji to the bright and exciting climes of Sydney to stay with relatives (long story...has a lot to do with not having the constitution to drag a 16 year old boy around churches etc for 4 weeks with the constant drone of I'm bored and are we done yet ringing in our ears!!).

Now as we all know my Fat Crusade blog is not about my wild and exciting experiences abroad NO...rather it is about one little fatty wagging war on fat and the fitness industry WORLDWIDE...and as such regaling people with tales from the continent about how (and better yet if) it is possible to travel, enjoy and live la dolce vita whilst still desperately trying to lose (or at least not gain) weight!!!

As you can no doubt appreciate almost a week has lapsed since I started this blog entry and much has happened in that time. Attempting to blog about my fatness and travel at the same time is more of a challenge than I originally anticipated but I have blocked out a good couple of hours to do justice to my fat studies abroad and regale you all with my tales of formaggio (cheese) and Vino (wine).

So, having landed in Rome and made our way to Sorrento (including Amalfi, Capri) up to Florence and across to Rimini the one factor that seems to have remained constant on my Italian Viaggio is my obsession with NOT PUTTING ON WEIGHT! Now I know that that may seem like a seemingly simple and straight forward concept but unfortunately not so simple in practice. I don't know how many of you have had the sheer unadulterated joy of travelling to Italy but to say it is magnificent, amazing, incredible, la dolce vita is, in truth a complete understatement. Added to this that the weight/fat loss and 'fitness' industry appears to have completely bypassed the Italian population it is suffice to say my fat loss crusade has come to a grinding halt for the past two odd weeks.

In spite of my best efforts the food has gotten the better of me over here...pizza, pasta, formaggio, vino etc etc. It's not that you are constantly eating but rather when you eat...YOU EAT!! Added to this the only exercise I have been getting is walking...walking tours of Rome, Walking tours of Florence, walking, walking, walking...which I am hoping in some way offsets the eating but psychologically this is a real mind f**k on me because in spite of my obsession with not gaining any weight I have been unable to show even a modicum of restraint when it comes to eating and drinking.

There is also a decided lack of gyms and personal trainers evident in any of the Italian cities. Individuals seem to be into cycling and jogging and I am sure (???) that at the more expensive hotels there may be gyms for guests but to date the hotels that we have stayed in (ranging from 3 to 4 star) have had non existent exercising facilities...there was a pool in Sorrento but given it was about 20*below there wasn't much slow burn cardio going on there!

I continue to be challenged in terms of trying to by clothing...apparently in Italy no one is fat and if you are you really shouldn't show your face in public...maybe a slight over exaggeration but hey...

The young and fabulous (teens/20's) all appear to be very slim and healthy (apart from the massive numbers of Italian Ragazzi who smoke) there have been sightings of rather chubby (overweight) bambini (toddlers, little people) and the older generations (after they settle down) appear not to care all that much about their weight but rather just embrace and enjoy life.

From a fitness perspective...all I can say is thank the gay gods for the Washinator and his obscene amounts of cardio and weight training prior to our departure. G-Star and Madster have gone a bit pazzo (crazy) with the shopping side of things so the upper body strength and fitness gained through my punishments with Washi have actually proven a great assistance in lugging extremely heavy bags around the countryside.

We are having a relaxing day here in Rimini (Wednesday 22 September) and have gone for a couple of really nice long walks (slow burn cardio - that is then off-set by the food!!) Tomorrow we are off to Venice for 4 days and then gay Paris! The hotel we are staying in in Paris is a bit more up market and I am hoping has some gym facilities so I can ease myself back in to some sort of regime prior to my return to Australian shores.

The more we travel around Italy the more convinced I am becoming that 'fatness' really is a global issue but if and how cultures deal with it appears to be incredibly different...

Anyhow, I am not all that confident that I will have good news for you people when I get on the death dealers back in Brisbane once we return...however, never fear because the fat crusade will continue...

Your Italian F'Athlete
Ciao!!!