Another day on the beach then goodbye to the sea

So, we spent one more day on the stony beach, one more night on room service and if I’m honest we were looking forward to moving on, particularly as a family with a baby had taken up residence next door and the walls were not overly thick.

We had a fairly long drive to our next destination , a hotel near Viterbo so breakfasted and packed up in record time. Once more we went up in the lift to the car park, loaded the little Corsa and set off. We didn’t get very far as the pottery I noticed a few days ago was just down the road.... .... of course we had to stop ...... the whole outside wall was covered with ceramic fish...... I thought I was in heaven......We parked ..... ( I was driving) on the other side of the road, I left Dear Richard in charge of the car and went to spend some money.

The pottery was tiny, the potter a large man with industrial strength BO.... we had a chat of sorts, well it’s hard to talk when you are trying to hold your breath!!!, and I picked some fish..... he did a sterling job of trying to persuade me to buy a great many of his creations....his prices were a bit steep so we haggled, I took some fish away, he put them back and raised the price, I removed them and lowered it.....eventually, when my charm offensive had started to wear thin and fluttering my eyelashes wasn't getting the price any lower , we came to a compromise and he wrapped up my purchases. I skipped out of the shop and back to Dear Richard, who gave me the look that only a man can give to a woman, when she has been shopping..... and we were off once again. Once on the motorway we cracked on and were doing really well, until,

that is ,the traffic started to slow and then stopped altogether. We sat ..... and we sat for ages, every now and then things moved a little bit, we could see the queue up ahead ..... and it went on for miles ...... we both needed a wee..... is that psychological ???? It certainly felt pretty real at the time!!! Several ambulances went by on the other side of the motorway, but not a lot of cars, and a couple of police cars shot up the hard shoulder..... but we weren’t going anywhere. I spy was out of the question, mostly due to the fact that we aren’t 6 years old!!!! so we just had to chat... which we did for about three quarters of an hour!!!! Eventually, very slowly, the traffic started to move, and so we came to, and passed the site of the accident which had caused all the problems.... on the opposite side of the motorway there was a line of cars and lorries stretching for miles, my sympathies were with them and the drivers who had been involved in the crash, but at last we were on our way once more. We both heaved a sigh of relief and thanked heaven that we weren’t on our way to the airport..... then we raced to the next services for a much needed toilet stop !!! Feeling much better ( we also allowed ourselves a coffee, although had I not been driving it might have been a vodka!!!)we set off once again for Viterbo. Sally Sat Nav was behaving herself today and so we found our hotel without too much trouble , my hopes were raised as the receptionist showed us to our room...... he congratulated us for choosing the best room they had..... He showed us in ..... it was a suite with a living room, separate bedroom and in the bathroom a HUGE corner jacuzzi bath!!! I was very happy.....there was also an enormous balcony, Dear Richard was ecstatic...... finally ......finally...... a decent room.

But my dears , as we know , all is often not as it seems.......feeling in need of a drink, and having only tea bags, I nipped downstairs and asked our friendly receptionist for some fresh milk..... half an hour later he appeared with a litre carton, I poured it into the tea.... it was off!!!! We gave up on the tea and decided to find a supermarket.

Our friendly receptionist( who didn’t seem too bothered by the fact that he had tried to poison us with gone off milk) gave us ( pretty sketchy ) directions, we programmed them into Sally, set off and promptly got lost!! Well, we found the town, but not the promised large supermarket..... so we made do with it’s smaller cousin and bought enough to last us for a couple of days..... along with several bottles of wine, vodka and tonic ( for when the wine ran out!!)

We made our way back to the hotel and began enjoying the facilities.... well, what we wanted to do was have a lie in the sun, but this proved more difficult than one would imagine as the pool had been shut down for winter.....I am wondering if these people have any clue as to what a proper winter is like......once again it was about 25 degrees!!!! Along with the shutting down of the pool, the dismantling of anything that one might want to lie on had taken place, so no loungers...... only the bottom section of one of those covered bed efforts. We are nothing if not determined, and so put our towels out and laid down..... for about half an hour, after which time the flies were driving us bonkers and so we called it a day......

I was very tempted by the jacuzzi

but it had been a long day and I couldn’t be asked if I’m honest, so showered..... that was a bit tricky as it involved climbing into the bath, which was not easy for a

short person such as myself!!!

Next on the agenda was dinner, so we sprayed up and trotted off to the restaurant.....only two other tables were occupied, and it was a large space so we were rattling around like peas in a pod. Our waiter , Alessandro, was very attentive and extremely camp and the food was delicious, but it was quite pricey.

We decided to go back to our suite and have some drinks, but it wasn’t long before Dear Richards eyes were drooping, and to be honest I was knackered too, so we turned out the lights and I drifted off to sleep to the sound of silence..... for once no traffic noise ( we appear to be in the middle of nowhere....) or noise of any description.... bliss .