Miles later ...

And we're home. Briefly, to be sure, but home tonight. Today began with time for our usual breakfast on the terrace and a last practice of my Italian with  the waiter in charge this morning before we retrieved our cases and schooshed down in the lift to the cave-like hotel entrance to wait for our taxi. This was driven by a charming ... child. He had an older woman sitting in the front with him; I wondered if he was learning to be a taxi-driver, though he seemed extremely confident in the totally terrifying morning rush-hour traffic. Even the woman in front had the odd sharp intake of breath - and I did notice the boy crossing himself after a particularly near miss of a motor scooterist.

A brief sojourn in the hell of any airport departures - the strangeness of finding ourselves suddenly surrounded by Weegie voices - and we were boarding. I'd paid extra for seats nearer the front for going home - it feels somehow less claustrophobic- and we ordered G&Ts and a sandwich and were on our way. Today's photo is the most dramatic of the set I took as we crossed the Alps - the pilot told us we'd be going right over Mont Blanc, but I loved this severe ridge rearing up on the left of the photo.

Everything went as planned, though we found our Dunoon taxi which met us at the airport having to plough through the Friday evening traffic through Greenock and a huge queue at the ferry. We sailed over in brilliant sunshine; it was two degrees warmer than Naples had been. 

My garden is suddenly full of blooms and scents and wild grass, and my neighbour has done her work well with the watering can. I hung out the first batch of washing at 6pm and took it in, bone dry, at 8pm. We ate out of a tin and a packet and it was delicious; we drank wine from the box in the fridge. We're both falling over with the need for sleep - for which we also had to change the duvet in view of the change in temperature from when we left.

Ciao !