Part three of my trip to Italy shows some of my photos in and around Bergamo. Part 1 - the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Part 2 - Milan.

Properties in the old town start from around 2 Million Euros.

My full Italy set can be seen on Flickr.

Here are some of my photos of Milan from my recent Italy trip. Read about the Formula 1 here.

The Duomo (Cathedral) in Milan. The outside is surrounded by shopping centres.

The side of the Duomo.

Inside the Duomo, the detail in the sculptures and artwork is amazing.

A priest at work.

The artwork including the flooring was very detailed.

This is one of the statues. There were a number like this including statues of people being hung, I don't think there were age restrictions on entrance but the place certainly had a lot of unsuitable sculptures for children.

This one looks to have inspired Star Wars.

A very grand roof of a shopping centre.

Leonardo da Vinci

More amazing Architecture.

See all the pictures of my Italy trip on Flickr.

Also check out my Florence trip.

We choose Monza as our first grand prix and what an amazing weekend it was! We had general admission tickets and found a good view from the Lesmo corner though it was a long walk from the F1 Village.

We paid extra for parking (about £60) however it got us very close to the track and saved getting a bus. Traffic wasn't too bad on Saturday or Sunday, we were staying in Bergamo and it took about an hour in our fiat panda. Roads around the track are closed on the day however our parking pass got us through.

Flights into Milan (Bergamo) from Ryanair are cheap but Bergamo is still 50km from Milan. The toll road between Bergamo and Milan is fast and not too expensive.

Here are some of my pictures from the day:

The F1 village had stands from each team to buy merchandise.

The McLaren car.

Close up of the McLaren.

Kimi had a lot of fans.

Italian passion (and alcohol).

Lewis Hamilton going past at 190km/h.

Jenson's bike (we think).

Where we watched the race from.

The safety car.

Jenson fans!

Mark Webber after spinning out in front of us.

An autograph Mark?

The same Kimi fans on another day.

We had good view of a screen and the track.

Me on track.

The old track still loops around the new track - you can see how steep it is here.

Track walk after the race.

Parts of the pit wall after the race.

The only way I'm going to get up here is in photoshop....

The start/finish line.

Another view of the old track.

Full set of photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pwhite/sets/72157622265561939/

An exciting new web service has been launched this month for Internet shoppers allowing them to ask an expert about a product or service. Product Recommend then emails a recommendation, if its not what you're looking for simply reply and they will refine your search. Product Recommend was started with one aim in mind, to bring the personal experience of shopping in a physical store to the Internet.

Many sites already offer automated comparison features but you can never replace the sound advice you get from local retail stores. Product Recommend hopes to bridge this gap by offering their retail and web experience to anyone with a question about a product or service. The site is very simple yet remarkably powerful, designed to be used by people of all ages, without having to register and it’s free to use.

The concept was dreamed up by two graduates in the West Midlands and has been designed to work with popular social networking sites such as Twitter (@productrec) and Facebook.

Co-founder, Peter White, describes the idea behind the site; “We wanted to replicate the personal and friendly in-store experience online, you can ask for anything from a gift idea for your grandmother to the best digital camera within your budget".

Price comparison services have had a meteoric rise in popularity in recent years, however only provide automated 'price comparisons' for a specific product or services: Where as Product Recommend has the added benefit of personal advice.

The service was launched in the UK during September and can be found at www.productrecommend.co.uk

I was reading this article on the BBC site about various statistics about young people. As usual the BBC used it to help their war on drinkers and in doing so they missed the most interesting statistics.

As you can see the country with the highest rate of bullying is also the country which enjoys school the most leading too a few different conclusions:

1. Turkey also has the highest number of bullies and they all report being happy.

2. Kids who get bullied also enjoy it in Turkey.

3. Turkish bullies target kids in the Czech Republic (or New Zealand).

4. The report is bullshit. 

Web hosting is a competitive market and its often hard to tell a good web hosting company from a bad one. How do you know which hosting company has reliable fast servers, excellent customer support and all the features you could possibly want from a hosting service?

One service to check out is Web Hosting Geeks, they have been comparing, rating and reviewing hosting services for the past five years. Their site categorises web hosting from low end budget hosting all the way up to dedicated servers and vps hosting.

Details of each hosting company and packages are clearly displayed along with any prices and awards they have won. Web Hosting Geeks comparison features even go into the niche categories such as green and carbon neutral web hosting.

I don't go to school anymore but if I did these are the top 10 things I would buy for the back to school season:

1. Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition (3 User Licence) (PC) - £59.99

Office 2007 Home and Student includes all the essential applications you need for school including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.

Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition (3 User Licence) (PC)

2. HP Photosmart C4580 All-in-One A4 Printer - £53.99

Printing out coursework and notes is as important as writing them, you need a good quality, fast, reliable printer.

HP Photosmart C4580 All-in-One A4 Printer

3. Textbooks - 35% Off

Whatever course you do you're going to need textbooks fortunately Amazon have upto 35% off a wide range of books.

35% Off Textbooks on Amazon

4. Apple MacBook 13.3" - £899

Want to look cool at school? Join the Football team, alternatively impress your friends with this top of the range MacBook. 

Apple MacBook 13.3-inch Laptop, 2.4GHz, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, GeForce 9400M SuperDrive

5. Powerball Neon White Pro - £17.99

Show off your wrist action in the playground with this Powerball Neon White Pro.

Powerball Neon White Pro Signature

6. GNR  22"  Widescreen Multimedia LCD Monitor - £115

A bigger monitor means better productivity, meaning better quality work and better grades (Its easier to tile Word and Facebook windows too).

GNR TB2200W 22

7. Samsung F34 16GB SD Flash Camcorder - £169.99

Never have to worry about falling asleep in class again with this Samsung F34 16gig Flash Camcorder. Simply record your lesson and watch again later. (Works better if you watch back on the above 22" Widescreen Monitor.)

Samsung F34 16GB SD Flash Camcorder - Blue, (34 Optical zoom, 2.7

8. Western Digital Elements 1TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive - £61.97

Every year someone writes their coursework and their computer crashes - don't be that person. Backup your files to this 1TB Western Digital External Hard Drive.

Western Digital Elements 1TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive - Black

Alternatively this portable 320gig External USB Drive would be perfect for taking in and out of school.

9. Apple iPod Touch 8GB 2nd Generation - £152

Listen to educational material and pretend you have an iPhone on this 8gig iPod Touch.

New Apple iPod Touch 8GB 2nd Generation

10. Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (PC) - £63.99

Now is the perfect time to preorder Windows 7 before the price goes up!

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (PC)