I cannot believe that one week ago
We were in Italy
We had just enjoyed a hot and sunny afternoon
At Lido Locarno
On the Swiss shore of Lake Maggiore
It was my birthday
42
And we were all recovering from a horrible journey
From our house in Kent
To our holiday home near Luino
Overlooking Lake Maggiore
We arrived at Gatwick in good time
Handing our car over to the Valet Short Stay Parking
Was simple and smooth
Checking in our hold bag, car seat and buggy was easy
We made it through security without any drama
And were all relieved and excited to be on our way
Then we saw the dreaded Departures boards
And the words you never want to see when flying
Especially with four young children
DELAYED
GATE INFORMATION AT …
At first it did not seem too bad
Just over an hour to wait for information
But the information did not come
Nothing
Just the time of promised information kept slipping
We had planned our trip and packed our bags so carefully
The booked flight was at just the right time for Edie to nap on the plane
And the rest of us to eat breakfast
All the food was eaten during our wait at Gatwick
Esther, William were so good
Eating their food and reading their books
Edie and Bea were good too but needed a lot of entertaining
We thought we might waste some time by going to a cafe for breakfast
But there were queues for seats at every one
It was very stressful
The lack of information made me incredibly anxious
And the day just seemed to go from bad to worse
The total delay was three hours
Edie fell asleep just as we were called to board the plane
She had five minutes in our arms
Before we had to wake her for the flight
By the time we arrived in Milan Malpensa
My nerves were in tatters
We then had to find our hire car
Which was fairly straight forward
But involved hanging about with all our bags and tired children
We drove off in the car at the time we had expected to be picking up the keys
For our Bookings For You villa
We still had over an hour’s car drive ahead
And an Italian supermarket to grapple with
David did amazingly well driving the enormous seven seater hire car
But he too was stressed
More than I had ever seen him before
The supermarket almost broke me
We chose to visit a small one in the town
And I could not find any of the things we needed
No cereal
No fresh milk
No apples
I bought loads of bread and cheese and ham
Nutella
And breakfast cakes
I also bought pasta and pesto in various guises
The food that would punctuate our week
Picking up the keys from Hotel Camin in Luino was easy
The staff were lovely and friendly
The directions we had been given by Jo from Bookings For You
To get us from the house to the villa
Were comprehensive and clear
We found the villa before dark
And were able to appreciate the beautiful view over the lake
From the terrace
The road to the villa is steep and windy
But no narrower than the lanes where we live in Kent
Having said that
I was in awe of David as he handled the large van we had hired
On new roads
Driving on the wrong side
He was just awesome
The shared drive
Belonging to the villa and three or four other properties
Was incredibly steep
Perhaps a 45 degree incline with a sharp bend in the middle
I insisted that we all got out before David drove the van down
David did it
But not without a lot of thought
And when he parked the van he was incredibly worried about it
Leaving it in gear and with a large rock in front of it
To prevent the van rolling
After that first night
We always parked the van on the road at the top of the drive
And walked up and down
Even with all our bags and shopping each day
I think we all preferred that
Than risking driving the car down
Jo had told us about the drive
But we had not appreciated at all
How very steep it would be
The villa itself was lovely
And it was such a relief to finally arrive
We were too tired
And felt too battered, bruised and broken by our travels
To do any more than
Feed the children
Bathe the children
And get a good night’s rest
Before my birthday on the Friday morning
While we made tea and assigned rooms
Unloaded and unpacked
The children found the loungers on the terrace
And sat and enjoyed the view
Happy too to have arrived
And to not have to travel anymore
We were all hoping that good would come with the morning
And it did!