September 2008

So, I'm off to Italy for the third time this year. At what point does it officially become an obsession?

Last year I went for a fortnight, exploring the North of the country and taking in some of the most beautiful lakes Italy has to offer. It was my first experience travelling solo, as I've normally been with friends on jaunts across seas.

I have to admit to feeling a bit homesick the first night I checked into a youth hostel in Genoa. I had never stayed in a youth hostel before, and was a bit wary of sharing a room with seven people whom I had never met before and all who spoke different languages to me. However, after settling in, I was soon speaking to people from all over the world, who had many interesting stories to tell. In total I stayed in three youth hostels throughout my trip and looking back I wouldn't have it any other way. It was a fantastic experience.

Looking forward to my third trip this year in a few weeks I'll not be wasting any more time visiting Milan again, perhaps only passing through to catch a train. I think I have seen everything there is to see in Milan.

First I'll start in Bergamo, where my Ryanair (it's not as bad as most make it out to be, honestly) flight arrives. The next day I hope to visit Varenna, a traditional Italian fishing village on Lake Como. As an avid fan of Sampdoria, I'll take in Atalanta vs Sampdoria in Bergamo the next day and use the opportunity to catch up with some friends from Genova.

The next day I'll be up bright and early to catch a train to Florence. I've never ventured very far to the south of Italy, so I intend to this time. I'm not particularly looking forward to spending four hours on a train but it'll be a good chance to read up on some books I've been meaning to get through.

I'm spending two days in Florence and hope to visit Fiesole to experience the authentic Tuscan way of life. I can't wait to taste the local dishes and sample the famous wines from the local vineyards Tuscany is reknowned for.

Only a five-day trip this time round, but I'm going to make the most of it. I doubt I'll be able to go again this year (unfortunately!).

On another note I'm starting Italian classes again next week at Aberdeen college. I've lost my touch a bit after having to stop 6 months ago or so. It's hard to motivate yourself to study a language at home, so hopefully being around other students is what I need to get me going again.

Working on a project today, I encountered a problem which has bugged me for ages when developing layouts using CSS for Firefox browser.

In Firefox, the scroll-bar only displays if the content takes up more than 100% of the browser window height. This proves a problem when switching between pages that do not take up 100% and pages which do - it causes the page to appear to 'jump', as Firefox adds the vertical scroll-bar to the right.

This is not a problem using IE, because the scrollbar is always visible, whether it is in use or not.

To overcome this problem is quite simple. We add an html rule to our CSS document as below;

html { overflow: -moz-scrollbars-vertical; }

This tidy little one liner will now display the scroll-bar in FF whether it is in use or not, preventing the page from giving the 'jump' effect.

Alternatively you can apply the following;

html { height: 101%; }

This tricks Firefox into reading that there is 1% more vertical space at the bottom of the page and therefore will display the vertical scroll-bar.