What a day

We have arrived happily in our Italian villa. Read no further unless you want to be stressed out/bored

Up at 4.15am
In the car 4.45
Arrive at #3 daughter’s 5.45
Metro 6am
Newcastle central station 6.20 (Ella showed me the €30 her Nanny Sue gave her, and decided to give her £2 coin to the homeless man in the station)
7 am X Country train £46 left on time (LNER on strike so later more convenient train not available)
9am Arrive Edinburgh
Walk along Princes Street to tram stop (why not have one at the top of Waverley Steps.)
9.15 on tram, £26
9.45 arrive Airport
No check in till 11
Coffee and Danish pastry in Costa
11 am check in - got priority stickers on bags as only 80 mins in Schipol
1pm flight departure delayed
2.30pm flight left, later time than our connecting flight was due to leave Schipol
Ate KLM sandwich
4.15 pm European time in flight announcement that 4 onward flights had gone so passengers would stay in hotels. 2 flights, including our Rome one were delayed till 5pm
4.30 arrive in Schipol
Asked for fast track through passport control
Raced 1.5 km to departure gate
4.55 Arrived at gate, flight still delayed, problem with computer system at gate
5.45 flight left, all en route for Rome
Ate another KLM sandwich and #3 daughter and I had wine with it
6.15 arrived Rome
Mr C went straight to car hire while we trekked 1km to baggage claim
6.45 Unbelievably our bags were already there - because of the delay they made it
Phoned Mr C for directions to car hire
Arrived at car hire, no Mr C who had decided to meet us but we’d arrived up a different way
Found him, got car, photographed scratches and drove off
#3 daughter very stressed with Mr C’s driving too fast and tired children poking each other
Slight mishap at the toll when Mr C inserted his credit card in the slot for €notes and it got stuck.
Phil sent me a dropped pin of location of gates to our villa which was only 5 mins off main road through a village called Pantalla.
10.45 Arrived at gates and Thomas and James let us in.
Children all disappeared to explore the villa
10.50 #2 daughter got us all a large gin and tonic and we adults sat on a lovely terrace just off our bedroom and caught up with our chat. They’d had a lovely day in Rome. They had a little video guide for the boys. Thomas loved it, James ok, but both flagging in the intense heat when they went across to the Palatine.
Entrance to Colosseum 80c each child, €1 for Irish EU Phil, €26 for the Brexit Brit.
Villa lovely (but Daughter not happy with hard sell by owners to buy their wine, buy a tour of their olive groves, buy special pods from them for their exclusive coffee machine, no plunger in the cafetière, bulbs not working in some lights, nowhere to store food apart from fridge, and not even salt and pepper in the kitchen. Stingy show for €6000 and €400 extra for aircon. No wonder they have a helipad on their nearby property.
12.10 am bed