With only three more days off for the rest of the tour, yesterday's in Rome was to be much cherished and Dan, Pete and myself took the opportunity to play tennis. A good friend and Roman resident Marco Caviglia offered us a game at his club. and what a club. The Foro Italico was host to the 1960 Olympics and current ATP world masters and WTA tennis events. We played as early in the day as we could possibly manage, an 11am kick off, but after an hour, the sun was just too much. The club is luxurious with all of the clay courts being surrounded by seating and the exclusive membership is based on achievement, Marco is clearly of a level able to play here as he effortlessly whitewashed me in our singles game towards the end of the hour of doubles fun. We also had a lovely lunch at the club and Marco then offered to drive us back to the hotel which meant me climbing in the back of his Volvo.

The day off also fortunately aligned itself with the World Cup Final. Congratulations to Spain, worthy winners. We are all looking forward to the Spanish shows coming up! After watching the match in one of the hotel function rooms, a few of us wandered across the road for a late night bite and a beer. I ate a whole pizza which was a mistake as I simply was not hungry. I'll never learn and consequently, it took me ages to get to sleep. I did though, eventually and woke in time for a midday breakfast. Some time on the computer, tea with Dan, some editing and video planning and it was time to leave the hotel for Perugia in deepest Umbria.



The cloud formations were beautiful in the distance as we drove towards Ciampino airport where the Embraer Legacy waited. It just struck me that they relocate the plane every day as we lane at Fiumicino every night but due to excessive parking charges there, the plane gets flewn, by different pilots to the cheaper Ciampino every morning at around 6am. Obviously Ciampino closes at a certain time otherwise we'd land there. Anyway, we were off again for 40 minutes and past the spectacular thunder-heads inland which were producing some storms in the Perugia area. When we landed we heard from Bernie that we had just missed a torrential hail storm which partly caught the venue but the Umbria Jazz festival is well organized and suffered no inconvenience.

The town of Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria and is situated right in the heart of Italy. It is clearly a notable artistic centre and the Umbria Jazz festival, probably one of the most important jazz festivals on the circuit has been held here ever since 1973. As we drove in to the slightly run-down outdoor sports arena, we could see that we were overlooked by the old town perched high on the hill. The organizers have done a great job here with wonderful facilities and great backstage areas, we had a dressing room each, presumably for bands that don't get along.

John here shows off his first prize in an inter-dressing room recital...



Mike, Ulf and Bernie...



The R500 is the favourite machine for the drivers



Almond Fish biscuits...a speciality from the region...



What a larf...promoter, manager, drummer...



Tim borrows a swiss army knife from Mark's tray on the stage.



The sun sets over the venue



The winner of the 'ugliest hotel' contest 2010. Thank god we didn't have to stay there.