Not Carluccio's

Plan A - go to Dental Hygienist in Aberdeen and then head to Carluccio's for tea.
Plan B - go to Dental Hygienist in Aberdeen - emerge to torrential rain and howling gale, and head home. Drinking bottle of Prosecco (gift from Rachel and Stephen) as a homage to Italy.

I first went to Italy when I was about nineteen with my friend Anne. We stayed in a mixture of apartments and hostels - Florence, Pisa, Elba and Rome. We travelled outward by train and home by plane. At the end of our holiday we had to meet at four in the morning at a little square in Rome and were taken to a military airport. It was a student flight and the plane looked like a sad cast-off. I set out with £70 and came back with about £20 - and a lot thinner. One of the highlights was getting a letter from my Mum delivered to the hostel in Rome. I still have it. Another was the hot bath when I got home - hostel showers were fairly tepid.

More recently Rachel and Stephen were married in Venice. It was fabulous. I loved the Italian Civil Ceremony which placed a lot of importance on the responsibility of bringing up children. We then had an amazing multi-course meal on a galleon which cruised the waters round the city.

Steve and I did a walking holiday, ending in Florence, about 18 months ago. Highlights were Statue of David - and on a more mundane level, a fabulous little
restaurant we discovered in the back streets! Once a foodie, always a foodie!

I loved this film: