Wednesday morning we walked Amy to school for the first time in 20 years, but this time it was for her to set up an Italian/English exchange project, how she’s come on since Rockcliffe school!

After a late lunch we returned to Bardolino, where we were here last as a family in 2004. The heat wasn’t subsiding so the proximity of Lake Garda was perfect for cooling off, even though the water temperature was 26c!

Thursday was a day to tick a few boxes, Amy could use her Italian language skills sorting out a hair do for Rachel and I could use the town’s wifi to update the blog. Quite a bit of walking and cycling and on returning to the van we noticed people inflating huge water floating things that we had never seen before. We had a lovely Catalan lunch, which we were introduced to by Rob’s parents back in Spain, and in the afternoon I returned for a swim in the lake. This was the moment I discovered that I was surrounded by several giant lake inflatables, all piloted by Germans. As they were shouting at each other and I was swimming semi-submersed amongst them, it was gathering a distinct feeling of a scene from a WW2 sea battle. The only thing missing was the call of “Achtung, achtung, unterseeboot”! Oh for a harpoon.