Italy

What is your favorite holiday? Why is it your favorite?

I went to Italy with my ex and his parents. They did not get on. Ex and I didn’t get on either, but I loved his parents. They were the start of showing me the fault lines in my upbringing, I will always be grateful for that. They were also fun and dynamic. Good people.

We started at an Italian holiday destination called Terracina. It was lovely. Beautiful beaches, a relaxed lifestyle, stunning ice cream. Kind people. The walks over the top of the town were beautiful and the views out of this world.

We visited Monte Casino from there, which is an experience you need to have for yourself. Only then will you understand how ingenious humanity was hundreds of years ago, and how determined after WWII to make things right.

The installation made of rusting WWII guns part of the way up says everything about the waste and futility of war.

We also visited Rome. The juxtaposition of truly ancient and modern was mind blowing The streets of Caesar, Marcus Aurelius, Nero. The Vatican. Modernity.

I did have a problem at the Vatican though, all that priceless art that does of course need protecting, and Street children in Brazil being gunned down at the time we were there. I don’t understand why any church needs such treasures. There should be a limit. Surely the greatest treasure there are the bones of St Peter, The Pieta, and the Basilica itself?

Sorrento

Down below Naples, is beyond stunning. I don’t know if it’s as quaint 40 years later, but I can’t imagine that the Italians will have allowed the type of change that’s ruined so many of our local towns and villages in the way we have. I hope not anyway.

Can’t imagine walking down ‘The Drain’ in Sorrento and finding a charity shop.

From there we visited Capri, Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the Amalfi Drive, including Amalfi.

Oddly

It was in Capri that my ex started to understand me. As we arrived on the boat he looked at me and said “I don’t want to get off this boat, I don’t like it here.” I immediately told him to stay on and go back because I knew that feeling very well.

It’s inexplicable. You arrive somewhere you want to go, somewhere you’re excited to visit, and the feeling when you arrive is horrific. I got it in the air above Guernsey in the Channel Islands, which is a perfectly stunning place. There is absolutely no logic to the feeling, but there is a reason.

Ex had an awful day, his parents didn’t understand at all. But I did. He caught his white trousers as he got off the boat and covered them with mud. He dropped an expensive camera lense and cracked it. He argued constantly with his parents who were no help at all.

As we sailed back on the boat the tour guide pointed out a very high cliff where a Roman Emperor would simply throw off people who upset him. Ex just murmured “Ah that makes sense now. I will never come back here.”

I still don’t know what happened to me in Guernsey but something did. It’s a past life feeling if ever you get it. Just shake it off if you’re on holiday, but if you’re moving house do not live there! You have been warned. You’ll never settle.

The mutual understanding didn’t last long though. 🤣

I relaxed

For the first time in my life. Putting to one side how stunningly beautiful the country is, how lovely and funny the people, the sheer history of the place, the incredible scenery, I was happy.

And you can‘t bottle that! Fortunately you can buy it.

Deb xx