DAY ONE OF OUR HOLIDAY: Wednesday 2nd July

The day had finally arrived. Everything was packed and all that was left to do was have a quick cup of coffee and jump in the car. Today we had a chauffeur… Robert had a new hat on now that having passed his test, (and was insured to drive my car) there is one less thing to organize when going to the airport. He dropped us off and then texted to say he had arrived home safely…. also to say that after all, he had gained a first in his BA degree at Loughborough University. It was as though we had all won a prize, brilliant news!!

The flight over to Venice was mostly smooth, quiet and full of geriatric holiday makers (us included!). Apparently, the main runway is out of action and under refurbihment, so having approached it from another direction we missed seeing the wonderful buildings on our way down. Stepping off the plane, it was just as I remembered – like being wrapped in a warm blanket, how I had longed for that feeling again!

We collected the car (Fiat Grand Punto) and arrived at our hotel in Quarto d’Altino in record time, did a quick turn around and were out again by 6 o’clock. I picked a name from the map, towards the nearest mountains and Graham dialed it in to the satellite navigation system we’d brought with us. After about an hour, we stopped to have the sandwiches we’d brought with us. The mountains that I’d so hoped to see were proving to be quite elusive, this probably had something to do with the sky darkening and ominous drops of rain began to fall on the windscreen. We set off again hoping this was to be a passing shower…how wrong could we be! The raindrops increased their size until visibility became also impossible, even with the windscreen wipers on their fastest setting and then the hail began… it wasn’t ordinary hail, this was ‘serious’ hail where the noise was so deafening that it became impossible to speak to one another and so heavy that we feared for our safety. We passed a bridge and the cars that had parked both sides in an attempt to gain shelter. Turing round, we hoped for a space there too, but we were just too late. After about ten minutes, the storm did lessen and the cars began to drive off, so we followed only to find that the gods had not been appeased and we were under attack again. This time there was no shelter, we could only stop and pray… My lasting vision of this episode will be of a lady, who, caught out on her scooter, had taken refuge in a bus shelter…if only there had been room for two!