“Is that dog dead?” asks Maryann in a curious kind of a tone, pointing ahead of us. I follow her finger and see a large tan and white heap in the road. It doesn’t appear to be moving at all, … Continue reading
At pie-ah-zah dust-mote, turn right. My travelling companion and I look at each other and fall about laughing. Where?! The Italian pronunciation on the sat-nav is – to put it mildly – appalling. Still, it’s keeping us entertained, and we … Continue reading
I should have known things weren’t going to go smoothly when I arrived at Heathrow on 23 December and it took two hours for our luggage to be unloaded from the plane. I’d had qualms about checking bags in with … Continue reading
The ticket has finally been issued. Amid much ciao grazie-ing I’m off to wait for the ferry, or ‘nave’ as it’s known around these parts. At Villa you can catch three different types of ferry. The slowest, but also the … Continue reading
The distance from Calabria to Sicily is so small that you can see one from the other. The Messina Straits are, at their narrowest point, less than 2 miles wide. Unfortunately, to cross them you must jump over various fiendish … Continue reading
Dry grass rustles as lizards scuttle away from the heavy-footed human padding along the road. Most of the time you don’t see them, but every so often they break cover and skitter up a wall or across the road. I … Continue reading
Meg and I are sitting on the stairs outside the school. There’s a tiny wee boy from Carly’s class sitting with us, looking very shy. Meg’s phone rings. Yep. No, don’t worry. There’s only one student here at the … Continue reading
I’m most definitely lost. I’ve been driving for 75 minutes already and haven’t seen a road sign for the past 20. The road on which I’m driving looks like it’s still under construction and I have to say that I’m … Continue reading
Puffing into Bercy, having crossed Paris in rush hour with about five metric tonnes of luggage in tow, I congratulate myself on having made it in time for the train and without having aroused *too* much Parisian ire. This was … Continue reading
There’s the usual scrum for the Exeter train at Waterloo. It’s always announced very late, and you can spot the people waiting for it. They stare hungrily at the departure board, poised to leap into action every time the board … Continue reading
