Wednesday 11th May

Up at 7 and had a very good continental breakfast and Rosie had her Weetabix in our room. We got away at 9 on our way to Italy. We found the road easily, happily. We stopped off for lunch near Dijon (you might look at a map and be a little surprised….. we’d deviated by mistake! – but as it happens it was pleasant and only added about 30 minutes to our travel time).

Drove through Champagne country. Richard had planned to drive through Switzerland, but as luck would have it we saw a dirty great signpost directing us through the Mont Blanc tunnel and cutting out Switzerland completely.

Scenery was absolutely fantastic, of course. The Alps were truly magnificent and we stopped to take photos at a rest area with viewing platform. I had an interesting experience with a pissoir there and decided to change – I thought only the blokes had to use those holes in the ground these days! Too late I noticed a decent loo labelled for the disabled.

Driving towards Mont Blanc - magnificent! We went through the Mont Blanc tunnel – perhaps I felt a little claustrophic, but only a little - and emerged into Italy! We stopped to eat shortly afterwards. There was a good shopping centre with a restaurant and what seemed to be a duty free shop. It sold wonderful multi-coloured pasta, wine, chocolate, cheese – in fact just about anything mouth watering. We had a meal in the restaurant that looked more like a refectory. However, their idea of fast food was great. A lady stood next to containers of cooked spagetti making individual portions of sauce. Wonderful! I pointed to a lady walking off with hers and said I’ll have a bit of that, and so did Richard. She told us it was spaghetti pomadoro which we repeated faithfully to her amusement and pleasure. Did we want mozzarella? Yes please! So she tossed in a handful and stirred – fantastic! We bought a small bottle of wine to accompany it …. and another (well, I had most of it!).

A school party was eating and the reminder of the refectory was even greater! They were in high spirits and as we left one of the young teenage girls said “goodbye” nicely (I think she was being nice!)

Drove on towards Milan and made it into outskirts. The signs were very unhelpful and we didn’t have a map of the area. This was a shame, as it happened. We didn’t have a clue as to where the Hotel Trieste was. We phoned the hotel for directions. Manager said, phew, bit tricky. Drive into the centre (no, we were nowhere near the centre) and find a policeman. Ask him to direct you to Republica Square. When you get there you will see the Hotel Principe Savoy. Next to this hotel you will see a street called Marco Polo. This is where the hotel is. Well, we got to what we thought was the centre and asked for directions. We were quite a way away, unfortunately. I was by this time rather tired and ratty. Not helpful, but there you are. 11.30 and wanting a drink and bed in that order. Then I had a brainwave – what do you do when you’re lost – get a taxi!! We phoned the hotel again and this time asked the (English-speaking thank heavens) manager to send us a taxi. It was quite hard to see what street we were in, but I hared off down the road passing some very iffy looking young men and read the street sign. I went in the taxi to make sure he didn’t lose Richard in the car and we raced through the streets of Milan. It took a good twenty minutes to get there so heaven knows what time of the night we would have found it if ever! As it was it was after midnight when we arrived. Second floor, no lift. The manager did at least help with the bags.

Well I know I've slept in worse but this was definitely the "pit of despair" (did you see "A Princess Bride"?) No en suite bathroom - just a basin and bidet with an interesting sign on the wall

We’d parked on the street under the tow away sign – so I had to get up at 7 to move it. Fell asleep exhausted at 1am, only to be woken up by drunken son phoning three times to say (and sing) that he was enjoying his birthday. Bless him.