The airport run

A long and difficult day. The windscreen wipers - tergicristalli in Italian - packed up on the hot run back from Pisa airport two days ago.

Much fiddling by mechanics determined a motor failure. I went over to Borgo San Lorenzo to have the motor fitted at a Renault garage.

It turned out the wiper mechanism had completely seized  from dust, or the ingress of water or maybe the car sitting in terrific direct sun heat at Florence and Pisa airports.

A bold and very handsome young mechanic laboured at the mechanism - with a screwdriver and hammer. In the process a part fell off. He welded it back together but being an aluminium composite it is unclear how long the fix will last - there being no right hand parts available in Italy.

Later I set off for Pisa airport again as the light - but not the temperature fell - to pick up P and A. Their flight from Manchester was delayed by terrific storms over Germany (half a million lightning bursts in a night apparently).

Eventually we got home through the relative cool of the night. But it was getting on for 2 am by the time we got back to Monteloro.