Parkrun 3: 35.35. Age-graded 43.23%

Today, I had Christian take me down the hill again (oh, the luxury), and this time I was well hydrated, but didn't eat anything at all beforehand. I'd forgotten my key, so Christian gave me his, as he was going up to Handy Cross to persuade people to try diving.

I had fairly bad sciatic hip pain going into the run. I set off sedately again, and was able to keep running for the whole course. The hip pain was almost immediately replaced by outer right knee pain, but it resolved itself after a few minutes. At the steps, I even had legs enough to overtake with giant walking strides. That felt good.

Just after the turn at the far end of the Rye, a man calling out generally encouraging things to runners told me to relax my shoulders. He was right - there was a lot of tension in them.

At the 4km marker, I decided to try pushing myself a little more. I finished in 35.35, one second faster than the week before. I had no nausea at any point in the course. After collecting my things and stretching, I felt equal to setting off for home straight away.

The walk uphill was still not going to break any records, but after some tea and food, I was able to actually get stuff done for the rest of the day. It told me that it was time to push myself a little more. My legs were stiff, but not sore.

Parkrun 2: 35.36. Age-graded 43.21%

After some research about nausea while running, I made sure I was properly hydrated, and I decided to eat a protein bar as it wasn't as fatty.

Christian dropped me down to the Rye this time. It was a grey day, and I felt like I'd need a second layer (but knew I'd soon discard it). I knew the ropes, and generally felt more comfortable, so found a spot and we set off.

I made sure I took off a lot more sedately this time. I was able to keep running for the whole course (apart from the steps, and the small amount of uphill immediately after them), and my familiarity with the course meant that it didn't seem so endless. I even had enough steam left to do a little sprint for the finish, encouraged by a man who was overtaking me. After that though, at the finish, I felt a little nauseous.

I took two minutes off my time, setting a new 35.36 PB, which was great.

The walk up the hill was still fairly slow and painful, and I was pretty useless for the rest of the day. My legs hurt for maybe 36 hours this time.

Parkrun 1: 37.32. Age-graded 40.99%

Christian was up early to go out on this day, and so was I, so I thought it was an ideal day to finally use my shiny parkrun wristband that had been gathering dust for about a year.

I walked down the hill to the Rye (which may have been a mistake), munching on a couple of bits of flapjack, and followed all the people, found a place to leave my extra layer, and had a talk from the race organiser about the course etc.

We all walked to the start, which was in the middle of the Rye. After more chat and applause for milestone people, visitors, and volunteers, we were given the countdown and we were off.

I set off a bit too fast, predictably, and felt myself flagging not far into the course, but slowed down and kept myself running. Having the leaders sprint back past us on the top of the weir was pretty depressing.

At the steps after the far field, there was no way I was going to run up them, so used that time to walk and catch my breath. I started running again at the top. But on the return behind the weir, I started feeling quite nauseous. I slowed down as far as I could, but had to walk again to make the nausea stop, which was disappointing. I didn't feel ready to run again until the last bit of the weir, and I took it very easy around to the finish.

Each km marker felt a lifetime apart, and it took a big effort to keep myself going. My first run in years, though, and I managed a 37.32. I was hoping for around 30, but my fitness was certainly not as good as I thought it was. The people were lovely and encouraging, though. It's a very welcoming environment.

Anyway, lots of room for improvement. Next time will be better!

The walk up the hill to go home was pretty tortuous - my legs were really sore, and I had next to no energy. I spent most of the rest of the day on the sofa recovering, and my legs hurt rather a lot for the best part of the next week.

The road home: St Cirq to Calais to Folkestone to HW (with DIY meals courtesy of Carrefour and Sandie)

We were up early, and packed to leave around 7am. We'd said goodbye the night before, but Sandie and Charlie were up, and we said goodbye to them again. Sandie packed us off with some spare bread, and she'd given us her supply of confit already, as Leader Price had had none in stock for us to buy (and we reimbursed her, of course). She also gave us an extra bottle of wine to replace the one that had exploded in our tent the year before. So very generous.

And then we were on the road again, on another brilliantly sunny day. We took a wrong turn getting to the A20, but soon set ourselves right.

In Brive, we stopped again to charge and have a very welcome coffee in the hotel. And then onto Chateauroux, in the increasingly cloudy conditions. The supercharger was next to a posh restaurant, right near an airport. After looking at the restaurant menu and deciding it wasn't for us (it was early for lunch anyway), we walked to the Carrefour, with Christian turning back to the car about two-thirds of the way there. It was good to get some exercise.

In Carrefour, I bought things for lunch (meat, cheese, olives, fresh rillettes) and the all-important supplies to take home - rillettes, sirop, wine, chocolate, Pim's biscuits. Christian picked me up (after helping with choosing the wine), and we got back on the road - the long way due to some roadworks.

After a while, we ate our lunch while driving, which Christian felt it necessary to take a picture of. Our next stop was the Rungis supercharger, in the car park of a Novotel, on the outskirts of Paris. This was a fairly short stop - Christian got a coffee. The furniture in the hotel was very funky. There was cycling on the TV.

We continued on the Paris ring road, and came across some rather nasty traffic, on some uncomfortably narrow roads. I didn't like it at all. It thinned out before too long, and we were on the open road again.

Our next stop was at the Senlis supercharger, in the car park of an Ibis, mostly in the middle of nowhere. I stayed in the car, while Christian went inside to get a coffee (I think).

Then there was very little traffic to Calais, as has been the case before. It was a pleasant part of the journey. We were ahead of schedule at the Eurotunnel, but hadn't bothered to change our crossing time, asssuming that we'd be able to jump on an earlier one.

Big mistake. Much like the way over, there were huge volumes of people waiting, due to extra border checks, and we had to take the crossing that we had booked. Even that looked to be delayed. We settled in for a few hours' wait, and finished our 'lunch'. We eventually got on the train without much fuss, more or less on time, and set off.

The train journey was uneventful, apart from the fact that we managed to get a carriage where the suspension was busted, and so we bounced around like crazy. At the other end, we drove off into the dark night on the wrong (er, right) side of the road. It was very late and we were both very tired. We made it back to Wycombe and fell into bed.

_____________________

This was a very interesting holiday. It was stressful as far as having responsibility for the car, and its ability to get from A to B with enough charge. But the flexibility was lovely, and we were certainly able to see more things than normal. The method of travelling with enforced stops to charge was not a difficulty, but in hindsight I don't think we'd do as many miles as we did on the day from Italy to France. It's the sort of holiday I would want to do again, now I know what to expect.

Preparations, swim in the river, and the big soiree

It was all hands on deck today, to prepare for the soiree. Sandie had Matt and me chopping mountains of shallots, carrots, apples, tomatoes, and strawberries. Then we got all the chairs and tables out and hosed them down.

Then it was lunch time, and we ate the strawberries with cream for dessert (they were supposed to go into a coulis). They were very good.

Rachael, Charlie, and the kids went for a walk, and went too far and had to be rescued in the car

Christian and I escaped at this point, to go for a swim. We chose not to go to Grolejac, because of the sandy lanes - I was worried about the Tesla getting stuck, and Christian actually agreed with me. Instead, we went to Saint-Julien-de-Lampon. We first tried parking in a caravan park, and, finding it full, crossed over the bridge to the other side of the river, where there was ample parking (if you call a field ample parking).

We got out our gear, and found a spot on the (dirty) crowded bank. Christian went storming in, as usual, but it took me longer, as the water was pretty chilly. I did get in, though, and it was very refreshing. It was very shallow, and the current was therefore very strong. Therefore, lying down in the water, and lifting your feet off the bottom was quite fun.

Christian went in again, and then disappeared on a toilet/ice cream mission - failing on the ice cream. We packed up, and went into the village in search of ice cream. We failed, though it was a nice little village. The cafe we went to look in was very quaint.

So we kept on, following the river for some time, noting all the other good places to swim that we spotted. We stopped in Souillac, in another vain attempt to find ice cream. We parked in the museum, and wandered through the mostly deserted streets. The town was congregated in a large square, watching a fairly random marching band playing very loudly. There was no ice cream.

We gave up, and drove north through the town, making one more fruitless stop before joining the A20 and driving back to St Cirq. We had showers, helped Sandie set the tables, and waited for the guests to arrive.

And arrive they did. Sandie was so pleased that Guy's family and the other neighbours were in the same place for the first time since he died - it was a fairly subdued gathering, but very nice. The food, as usual, was superb, and the wine flowed freely. The 'band' chose not to play in the end, as they only had one song - The Wombles, for some unknown reason. I had learnt the melody on the pennywhistle, but John just used the PA to play jazz (at Sandie's request).

As Christian and I were leaving early the next morning, we went off to bed before the festivities had finished.

More relaxing in St Cirq

Not a lot happened on this day. It was very relaxing.

Charlie and her other half, and their boys (Teddie and Ronnie) and Chris arrived very early and made lots of noise, and promptly went to sleep.

Christian went early with Sandie to Gourdon, to the market, and bought lashings of saucisson. While I had a lie in and sat in the lovely sun for a while.

The market excursion got back, and John, Rachael, Eric, and Matt arrived later.

We all sat down for lunch, which was the usual delicious slap-up, and then I brought the tables and chairs around from the front of the house, and we set up the marquee and John and Christian the PA.

Once done, Christian took John for a drive in the Tesla, and he predictably drove too fast. Then it was time for dinner and eau de vie. I spoke to Chris after dinner about his rowing. He invited me to join on the Thames any time I wanted.

There was a game of poker at the end of the table, illuminated by the barbecue lights. Then it was time for bed.

Relaxing in St Cirq, and dinner in Le Recoux

After a bit of a lie-in, we got up and had coffee and croissants (Sandie had made them the night before).

We then went supermarket shopping with Sandie for last minute things like Cabicou and bread. We bought ourselves eye drops, beer for Claire, and chocolate, being introduced to Leader Price for the first time, which we liked.

Back at the house, we had lunch and mooched around. Then we helped Sandie get things out of the cabine, and sorted out a few more things for her.

Then we headed off to meet Claire and Adam for dinner. The drive was a bit longer than we'd hoped, but it was through pleasant country, and we allowed enough time to get there.

We drove via La Roque-Gageac, as Sandie had recommended it (and there was a mini-festival happening there). The town had very dramatic backdrop of a very large wall of rock, and a lovely part of the river.

We also had a little stop in Beynac, which is a small, medieval, and very hilly town right on the river. We drove uphill on the very narrow roads, avoiding other traffic narrowly, and after the town, drove in a large arc, doubling back on ourselves to have a look at the Chateau. We paused, but didn't get out of the car. The other road back into the town was just as narrow and scary, but we made it back onto the D703 without incident.

We then drove on to Saint-Cyprien, and on to Mouzens. Claire's directions were very good, and we found the house easily, after winding uphill through some lovely woods. The house was a new build, with a tower, and really beautiful. The garden was well tended, and there was a huge back yard.

We went inside, had a drink, and nibbles, and caught up. Adam was absorbed in his video game, and throughout the rest of the evening, he explained to us all about PokemonGo. Claire talked about their trip in Japan, which made me more determined to go one day.

Claire had made an amazing Moroccan dinner, and we had strawberries for dessert. It was a lovely evening, and so good to catch up with her.

We drove back to St Cirq without incident, let ourselves in with the key that Sandie had given us, and went to bed.

Back on the road: a big day's driving to St Cirq

The alarm went off most unwelcomely at 6.30, and we were up and packing the last of our stuff in time to get downstairs at 7am. Rich was dutifully waiting for us, as he had asked us for a lift to somewhere near Turin. We grabbed a few things to eat from the breakfast table on the way past. I also picked a bit of lavender to take with me.

We were on the road just after 7am - another beautiful day. As we drove through the Verona morning traffic on the way to the A4, we put Rich in charge of music on Spotify. He made some very interesting suggestions. Christian countered that by putting on the Dave Matthews band. I didn't mind them, though for some reason I was on edge that morning.

We stopped at a services for coffee. I stayed in the car, but Christian and Rich had to contend with a very pushy queue apparently. I was glad to miss out on that one.

Back on the road, and the Tesla was giving dire warnings about range - I guess this was the main source of my unease. I wasn't very used to how to deal with that.

We were planning to drop Rich somewhere near Turino so that he could get into the city, but Christian thought about dropping him elsewhere near a train station so that he wouldn't have to wait with us at our first charge stop at Cavaglia. We decided on Santhia as a good option, as it was on the opposite side of the motorway to Cavaglia, though the trains didn't seem very frequent (according to the website I brought up on the Tesla's screen).

From the road, we saw the amazing basilica at Novara. It would have been so nice to have had the luxury of stopping to look at interesting things, but we just couldn't. Soon after, we were at Santhia, and drove into the small town to drop Rich at the train station. We said goodbye and he was on his way.

It was a short drive back over the motorway to Cavaglia, and we had enough charge left not to have panicked. The supercharger was in the car park of a golf course. There was a nice bar there, and we sat for a while and Christian had a coffee (as usual). I ate the rest of the muffin that Christian had bought for me at the services.

Back on the road, just after all the Turino exists, we hit miles of roadworks - just with barriers up beside the road, but a bit tedious to have to go slowly (though good for charge). We drove on for some time along nondescript roads.

We stopped at another services for some food. Christian got a baguette, and I bought some ham and cheese to just snack on. Here the road started to climb into the mountains, and the charge required for this leg changed all the time.

We reached the French border, and paid quite a lot to go through the Mont Blanc tunnel. It was very long, and not very interesting. The Tesla was confused again about the tunnel - thinking it had to go over the mountains above. We didn't make up as much charge on the way back down the mountains as we thought we would, but we still made it to Chambery with a little to spare. I was totally exhausted by now - nodding off in the car.

The supercharger in Chambery was in a giant retail park. We parked up, set to charging and went to find food. We decided on sushi, but found (after some confusion due to the language barrier), that the place was closing just as we walked in. I was too tired to make decisions, so after Christian got annoyed at me, we went into KFC. They had no twisters, so we had some other chicken things, and a Caesar salad.

When charged enough, both car and people, we were on our way again. We skirted around Lyon, and had an unscheduled stop at Vienne, off the A47. There was a supercharger there, in an Ibis, and Christian wanted another coffee. There was a Tesla taxi charging at another of the points. The man helped us get the coffee from a machine, but Christian managed to put a cup that was slightly too small under the nozzle. Oops.

Back on the road, we took a good few minor roads to get to the next charger. And then the rain started. And went on and on. It was very heavy. We had our fog lights on, but people kept flashing us. It was very annoying.

Eventually we got to Clermont-Ferrand - the supercharger was in a Novotel car park. It was cold, post-rain. We decided to have dinner there, but it was very early, and so we had a short wait before they began seating people. I was tired, and despite thinking through the French I was going to speak to the waitress, I got it wrong, and she looked at me blankly, and then both she and Christian corrected me. It was a nice enough dinner (I think I had a chicken breast, and Christian had duck).

After dinner, we took the roads through town, sharing them with trams. It seemed to be a nice town, with a dramatic looking black gothic cathedral on the top of the hill. From there, we took hilly back roads back to the main route, and after a fair journey west, we joined the main road going south.

Our final charge was at Brive, which was a Mercure hotel. It was very dark by this stage. Christian was tired, and so he went into the hotel to get a coffee, while I stayed in the car. I didn't have much energy for a wander.

The drive from Brive to St Cirq was easy enough - Christian felt better after his rest. It wasn't very busy, and didn't take too long.

We finally arrived in the vicinity of St Cirq around 11.30. We took a wrong turn as we didn't have the location of the house in the satnav properly. After an extra loop, we eventually found the right turn, and drove in to the top of the property. It was cold when we got out of the car, and much later than we'd wanted.

Sandie was still cooking in the kitchen, and welcomed us to the blissfully warm house and showed us all the new work that had been done upstairs. It was very impressive.

We fell in to bed very soon after. It had been an incredibly long day.

TESLA LOG:
 21:15 - 22:26 - St Cirq - 49.3Miles 386.2Wh/mi - ODO 10980 
 20:59 - 21:15 - Impasse de l'Étang du Griffolet, Ussac, Aquitaine-Limousin-Poitou-Charentes - 15.8/16.6kWh 95% eff. 339V 0A 67/100% Disconnected Tesla SuperCharger 
 19:43 - 20:55 - Impasse de l'Étang du Griffolet, Ussac, Aquitaine-Limousin-Poitou-Charentes - 85.1Miles 270.4Wh/mi - ODO 10931 
 18:50 - 19:40 - La Croix de Barre S, Prondines, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes - 30.2Miles 421.6Wh/mi - ODO 10845 
 17:43 - 18:49 - Rue Georges Besse, Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes - 52.4/53.8kWh 97% eff. 355V 0A 97/100% Charging Tesla SuperCharger 
 15:47 - 17:42 - Rue Georges Besse, Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes - 114Miles 321.9Wh/mi - ODO 10815 
 15:34 - 15:49 - A47, Ternay, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes - 10.5/11kWh 95% eff. 345V 0A 78/96% Disconnected Tesla SuperCharger 
 14:23 - 15:32 - A47, Ternay, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes - 64.3Miles 288.1Wh/mi - ODO 10701 
 13:20 - 14:23 - Rue Eugène Ducretet, Chambéry, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes - 57.1/58.8kWh 97% eff. 354V 0A 92/96% Disconnected Tesla SuperCharger 
 11:08 - 13:19 - Rue Eugène Ducretet, Chambéry, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes - 121.2Miles 292.9Wh/mi - ODO 10637 
 10:02 - 10:59 - Via Valle, undefined, Piemonte - 40.1Miles 349.2Wh/mi - ODO 10516 
 09:09 - 10:03 - Strada Statale 143, Località Gerbido, Piemonte - 51.9/54.1kWh 96% eff. 351V 0A 85/90% Disconnected Tesla SuperCharger 
 08:59 - 09:08 - Strada Statale 143, Località Gerbido, Piemonte - 3.6Miles 349.2Wh/mi - ODO 10476 
 06:54 - 08:56 - Via Giacomo Puccini, undefined, Piemonte - 128.5Miles 315.4Wh/mi - ODO 10472 
 05:55 - 06:40 - E70, undefined, Lombardia - 31.3Miles 331.5Wh/mi - ODO 10344

Sirmione (Garda), swimming, and trattoria dinner

We were up again earlyish today. Having decided that we wouldn't go climbing, this was designated as the day to visit Sirmione on Garda. It was already a beautiful day, and I think we made the right choice.

After a quick breakfast, we got on the road. Our first stop was the Verona supercharger again, to top up after our local journeys. We got in touch with Pete and Cinzia, but they were busy and weren't going to be able to meet up.

After a short journey on the now familiar A4, we took the appropriate exit, and after a short drive, found ourselves on the outskirts of town. It became apparent, as we drove up the length of the peninsula, that a lot of other people had the same idea, and parking was at a premium. We passed a car park with a huge queue, went up further to find that the other car parks were full, turned around and drove all the way back down to a half empty car park that would involve a walk. We were OK with that.

We parked the car in a lovely shady spot in a park beside the water, paid for parking, and set off walking. We wanted to swim, but decided not to take snorkelling gear or towels.

We tried to keep beside the water, but after a detour through a car park, ended up on the road again, which was on the opposite side of the peninsula. We looked in a few shops (I was searching for shoes), and started checking out menus for lunch. Christian got some fresh lemonade from a stall just outside the castle, and was surprised when it was horrendously sour.

After having a look in the water of the small port and seeing large fish, we walked across the moat's drawbridge, through the gate and into the old town. On the way past, we had a look at the castle. You had to pay to get in, and we decided that we had more important things to do. Instead, we glanced at what we could see, and kept on our way.

Inside the walls, it was a different world. It was quaint and cobbled and lovely. There were people everywhere, and restaurants, shops, and gelato stalls. After a few side streets, we turned left, and had a look at the restaurants down there. We settled on one called Modi, which was near the ferry port. We ordered two courses from the efficient waiters. I ordered melon and proscuitto for a starter, and Christian ordered mussels. We were both pretty full after that, but there was still a main to come. I had calamari and chips, and Christian had mixed fried seafood and chips. We could barely jump over the plates they were that big, but delicious. I finished my calamari, but very few of the chips.

The funny waiter brought our bill for us, and we settled up and continued on our exploration. We went further into the old town, and turned right soon after. We found ourselves at a beach with big rounded pebbles. Lots of people were in the water. There was no space on the 'beach' itself, but I stood with my feet in the pleasant water while Christian went for a swim. I wanted a swim too, so I put our stuff on a big rock along the way, and had a deliciously refreshing dip while Christian minded our things. It was cool, but easy enough to get in the water.

Christian got in again after I got out, and clambered up the slippery rocks to get back to me. We walked on along the shady boardwalk towards the tip of the peninsula. We came to another, larger beach, with a long jetty, but decided not to go for another swim. Before the jetty was a curious small section of water sectioned off with rocks, with a pipe running into it from the land. Turns out Sirmione is known for its thermal springs. The water was so hot it was uncomfortable. There were some people in the little pool, but a long way from the inlet. Very interesting.

At the tip of the peninsula, we turned back up the hill, and through a lovely shady park, called Parco Maria Callas (she had a villa here). On the left was a performance space, and a lot of operas were scheduled. Further on were a few spa resorts, which looked lovely, and no doubt expensive.

And then we were back in the busiest part of town. We looked in the windows of a few shops - they carried a lot of cat and owl gifts, and Venetian glass. We, however, were after gelato after our walk. After negotiating past some unwelcome traffic, we found a place with an impossibly long counter, and I took ages going up and down it to decide which flavours to have. I settled on melon and tiramisu. They were underwhelming.

We wandered back to the car, taking our time in the heat. On the way, we saw a coach driver break off his wing mirror by cutting the entrance to a car park too close. Silly. Christian cooled the car down in advance.

Back at the car, we collapsed into the welcome cool, and started our journey back. We were in fairly desperate need of water, so we went looking for a supermarket, or at least some kind of shop. We followed signs, but had no luck. Instead, we found a large bargain shop (think Leader Price or Lidl) that I thought would probably keep water. It was actually really good. It had a lot of good fresh food. I got a big bottle of water, a big bottle of iced tea, and some coconut chocolate Bounty-style things. And it was all dirt cheap.

We thought about driving back via Affi, but decided it would take us too long. So we went back to the good old A4, and after a stop at the Verona supercharger, were back at the villa. Tonight was the evening that we were all going out for dinner together at the local trattoria. Christian and I decided to brave the pool as it was our last chance, and while I did get in, I got straight back out again. We lay on the loungers in the garden to dry off in the sun. It was lovely.

We had showers, did the bulk of the packing, and got ready to go out. The trattoria was a short walk up the hill from the villa. We took seats in the very simple establishment - Christian and I were sitting with Caroline and Greg. The menu was difficult to translate, so Christian employed the services of Google, and also an English version did the rounds. We all ordered three courses - I had penne bolognaise, veal (they didn't have the rabbit from the English menu), and chocolate salami. I'd forgotten that I'd had chocolate salami in Sicily before. It wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be - a little too biscuity. I should have had a tiramisu, or the profiterole ice cream like Christian.

As Christian and I had an early start the next day, we excused ourselves during dessert, saying goodbye to David and Jenni, and walked back to the villa before realising that we had no way of getting in. Climbing the gate looked too much for us. So Christian went back, got the remote, and hid it behind the gate after we'd used it.

We went straight to bed. Thankfully the room had cooled down by now.

A day discovering Verona

We were up relatively early today, and got ourselves ready to have a day in Verona.

We drove into town, planning to park in the Arena car park, but we had difficulty finding it, so parked in the Citadella car park, which was right beside the Arena anyway. We drove down to the bottom floor of the underground car park, which was fairly narrow on the way down, but not impossible. It was cool down there, and there were hardly any cars.

We took the stairs up to ground level, when Christian realised he'd forgotten his sunglasses. He went back down to get them, and we set off to explore. We headed towards the Arena, having a look at the fountain and gardens on the way. The Arena was absolutely huge, and there were huge pieces of set piles around the outside. The operas running were alternating, so they have to change over between every show.

The queue to get in was horrendous, so we decided to do other things and come back. We wandered down an interesting looking street, and found some tasty gelato. I had pistacchio and an amazing chocolate. I poked my nose in a few shoe shops but found nothing inspiring. We had a message from Bridget to say she wanted to meet up for lunch, and so we decided to try and see Juliet's balcony on the way. The googles let us down, and we ended up with a nice view of a B&B that happened to be called Juliet's balcony.

We moved on through the city to find the restaurant we were meeting Bridget at. On the way we saw lovely old buildings and some interesting markets. Arriving a little late, we found her at Osteria Ristorante Ponte Pietra. It was a beautiful, stylish, and small restaurant right next to one of the bridges over the river. She'd got us a balcony table. The restaurant had been recommended to her by her tourism contacts.

We got to chatting, and ordered food, and Bridget ordered wine. I had a really delicious cannellone parmigiana wrapped in aubergine instead of pasta, and Bridget and I had salads as well. As we talked and ate, I could hear the sounds of a jazz band wafting on the breeze.

Bridget told us about her work in Kosovo (and Chris's too for that matter), and I learned an awful lot about Serbia, Bosnia, and Kosovo and the surrounding area. I found it fascinating.

Once we'd finished eating, we decided to have a look at the markets. They were quite good, with trinkets and fruit/vegetables. Christian bought a panama hat (but not the expensive designer version), and we got some gifts for his folks. He also found some whitecurrants, and bought them. They were too bitter for me and Bridget.

We then moved on to find Juliet's balcony, and this time had success. The small cul-de-sac was full of people. As we walked/shuffled/pushed in, there was graffiti like I'd never seen on the walls. Apparently it's the place to profess your love. Inside, there were two balconies above, where you could pay to go into, a statue, and details of the place. We didn't want to go inside, but we got the measure of the place, and moved back into the passageway, where I finally got a photo of the graffiti wall with no other people in it (win!).

From there, we slowly made our way back towards the Arena, stopping for more compulsory gelato on the way. It was a hot day. I had stracciatella and framboise. Mmmm. At the Arena, we discovered that the queue had completely disappeared, and so we walked almost straight in to pay our €10 and go inside.

There was quite a lot of detail to read about on boards in the cool darkness inside, and we got our fill of information. It was built before the Colloseum in Rome in the first century. We ventured up into the open area, and its scale immediately struck me. The floor section was covered in red chairs, and the first section of tiered seating in similar chairs. But behind that were rings of stone benches - the main reason we chose not to see Aida there on the evening that we arrived. The orchestra pit was fascinating too - there was so much space, and the mic stands and cradles, and even XLRs were sitting ready for set-up. The set was on a massive scale, and you could see where entrances would be made behind the stage as cover had been set up for the doorways.

I went and sat in each section to see what the view would be like, and decided that the first rank of actual seats would be the best place to sit, though they are €75 seats. Oh well, next time for sure.

We made our way to the box seats at the back, and the control desk (Christian craned under the tarp to see all the tech, but couldn't get a look), and we headed back into the bowels of the structure, and back out into daylight. We had arranged to pick up Greg and Caroline from the station, and so we made a plan.

First we went back to the car, and Christian went down and dropped off our camera gear, and shopping, and anything else we didn't want. Bridget and I sat on a step in the shade and talked about weddings.

When Christian joined us again, we wandered to a cafe for a drink (Ristorante Ippopotamo). The menu was about four inches thick. I'd never seen anything like it. Bridget had an Aperol spritz, and I had an iced chocolate. I think Christian had a coffee. My iced chocolate was unfortunately a mile high with syrup and cream and all of the trimmings. I stirred it through and it didn't taste too bad. It was just the guilt of the thing.

Time marched on, and it was time to go to the station. We paid for parking (€18) went down into the car park, had trouble finding the car (oops), squeezed our way out through the ramps, and made our way through the centre of the city to the station. There were cars everywhere at the station, as they didn't have proper drop-off arrangements. We pulled over and tried to spot Greg and Caroline. Luckily they spotted us as they knew to look for the Tesla. As Greg was getting in, an idiot man nearly took the door off by driving too close. Yay Italy.

We drove back to the villa, enjoying the reactions of Caroline as she saw it for the first time. Some folks were going out to the local trattoria for dinner, but we decided to stick around and order pizza. Christian took Chris for a ride in the Tesla, and I explored the grounds a little - having a look at the overgrown tennis court, the driving range, the vines next to it, and the folly on the other side. The path up to the folly was steep and uneven - probably shouldn't have attempted it in my thongs. The view from the folly was beautiful, but my phone camera couldn't capture it at all.

Back in the villa, Jenni decided to organise a photo of everyone on the front steps, so Christian got his camera gear out, and using the car as a tripod, set up a remote shot of those of us who were there, leaving a gap to photoshop in those who weren't. As we were setting up, Matt and Jo arrived to loud cheers, having travelled from the hospital in Berne. Luckily, his face wasn't in too bad a shape. Some folks had set up a table for dinner in the middle of the square in front of the villa, so they joined us for the photo. Once taken, the crowd chanted for the car to move itself, and Christian indulged them. The next few hours were spent drinking and relaxing.

The people going out for dinner congregated, and we thought about our own dinner. There was still leftover pizza and pasta from the two previous evenings, and so we decided to just warm these up. It was a challenge without a microwave. Getting the oven lit was a real chore, but Christian managed it after having read the instructions. Che supervised warming the pasta up in a saucepan. I got some mozzarella out and in the end, we had a pretty good feast, with Che's amarone.

Christian stayed up to chat to folks, but I was exhausted and so went to bed after dinner.

Lazing at the villa, wine tasting, and home-made carbonara dinner

This day was extremely lazy. We got up with no clear plan, but with the vague idea that in our time at the villa we wanted to do the following:

• visit Verona
• go climbing
• maybe go back to Garda and visit Sirmione.

Over a breakfast of tasty coffee and cereal, and then surprise mimosas (involving David scaring the crap out of me by loosening the prosecco cork and then letting it pop itself - I think it actually hit the 30ft ceiling of the hall), David persuaded us to go wine tasting with them that afternoon.

We got ready, and headed off at about midday in two cars to taste wines. Jenni had selected a place called Pasqua, and Christian and I, with Rich and Che in the back, headed off. We found what we thought was the right place, only there was a giant gate that looked impassable. We went a little past, and found a car park, but decided that that was the back door for workers. We also consulted the Whatsapp group, and someone had said to press the bell. So we went back to the gate, pressed the bell, and the gate opened. We met the others inside.

It was a very modern building, and there were a lot of other people milling around inside. It became apparent that the other group had made a booking, so they couldn't give us a tasting. When Jenni asked whether there were other wineries nearby that we could go to, the woman played dumb and said no. Poor show. We left Pasqua and their airs and graces.

Jenni then directed us to a place called Tezza, which was nearby. A nice young man met us near the door, and invited us in. There was no one else there. He firstly showed us the wines that they make, and asked us to choose which ones to taste. David made most of the choices. We were then taken on a tour of the facilities, which was interesting.

We were shown into the tasting room, and tasted six wines: two amarones, three other reds, and a sweet white. They were all very good - interesting, and not too heavy. Christian chose one for Chris Kendall, and we paid our way, and headed off again.

On the way back to the villa, we stopped off at a wine shop called Cantina Valpentena. It was rather amazing. Lots of cheap wine, but the best bit was that you could just fill up whatever container you liked with wine, and paid by the litre. David bought a case of magnums of prosecco (yes, you heard right), and filled a jerry can with white.

With the important shopping out of the way, we headed back to the villa. Rowan stopped for petrol, and David came back with us in the Tesla.

I was starving by now (3pm?), and so I stuffed a few handfuls of corn chips in my mouth to keep me going. I think Christian went for a swim here, and really didn't last long. He jumped in, huffed and shouted, and pretty much jumped straight back out again. There was no way I was going in. It was absolutely freezing.

I took the opportunity to find some sun in one of the loungers on the grass. The sun didn't last long due to the tall trees to the west, but it was nice to feel the rays. When my lounger fell in shadow, I moved up the hill beside the villa to get the most out of the sun.

I'd had hopes that the home-made dinner this evening would be earlier than the pizzas. They were dashed. Turns out that Jenni and David had taken the cooking upon themselves, and it took a while. The starter came out (insalata caprese) and we fell on it - it was very good. And then, finally the spaghetti carbonara. It was good, but not amazing. I had some of the jerry can white, but decided I didn't like it.

After socialising for a while, we turned in. It wasn't a very late night this evening.