You what?

We made it. Just. I have to say that, as a previously well travelled bloke, I can report that there is no glamour left in going anywhere by plane. Heathrow was a swamp of anxious, hot, frustrated and ultimately, almost late people. With Mary entitled to ‘extra assistance’, we were unceremoniously ushered along and between queues and queues of people in a group of equally subjugated and harried folk who, frankly, could have been treated with a little more dignity. And it’s not as though the staff haven’t been doing this for a while. When we eventually popped out the other side at our gate we were told that our flight to Pisa was delayed by an hour because a member of the crew had tripped on something on the way to the plane. Perfect.

looking more glamorous than we feel

Did you know that, even with BA, short and medium haul flights no longer cater? You get a small bottle of fizzy water and a bag of crisps made from the final few potatoes left in the field. I’m not sure when that happened, but it all adds to the countless reasons why we won’t be flying again unless we absolutely have to. You can keep it.

Then things all got a bit fraught.

from our hotel in Pisa … mmm

We booked flights and car hire with booking.com in January. All paid for, including booking.com’s gold-plated car insurance – we were going to be driving in Italy, after all. Well when we got to Target (rent-a-car) we were four hours later than our scheduled time. And they had cancelled our booking and rented my car (I had paid for it in full) to someone else. They could offer me another, smaller car, for 20 euros a day more. What? But … well, you can finish that sentence for me. I had paid for a service and, frankly, should have been able to leave the car on their forecourt for 11 days, gathering dust and pigeon poo. No. We were late by an unspecified prescribed time. The booking was cancelled.

I took the car.

We briefly mentioned insurance. Both me and Target-man assumed that booking.com’s gold plated cover would hold. Which meant that, worse case, unless I got my money back from booking.com, we would be just under £200s worse off. It didn’t make any sense to me, but what else could I do? It was late, we were all tired. We needed to get on.

still standing

The story’s not over … frankly the worst was yet to come. And I’ll cut it short. I phoned booking.com that evening, who sided with the garage. I emailed them six times and got six different responses. The big and pressing issue for me was ensuring our insurance still held. I had paid £78 for the cover and the new contract from Target only had ‘basic’ cover, which meant I was liable for dirty floor mats. In Italy, without decent cover, driving was always going to be a fretful experience. Anyhow, for four days nobody actually answered that question. At which point they said I wasn’t covered, but would refund the £78 should I be able to prove that I had not broken the contract.

There was a lot of screaming going on in my head at that point.

siena from our hotel

I have, for now, given up on booking.com and rentalcars.com (their subcontractor) until the end of the break. At which point I’m going to relentlessly pursue them for: the additional cost of the hire car; the insurance money; an apology. Nothing is going to deter me. There is nothing in their voucher, nor on Target’s link, which specifies a length of time after which they arbitrarily cancel your contract. Nothing. It is the worst form of customer service betrayal, especially as it has meant every time we get into the car (a very nice, but too small Citroen C3) our anxiety levels peak. It’s not fair. And I’m not having it.

Phew.

We did Pisa. We stayed in the oldest hotel in Tuscany, which was right on the Arno. It was huge and fab and dilapidated and exquisite and broken and nothing really worked … but we loved it. I can also report that the tower is still leaning and the gelato is still the best.

so much more than pizza and prosecco

And then Siena, easily my most fave Italian city. We’ve done everything, as well as a (careful) drive through Chianti country, and a couple of more excursions into the quite fabulous Tuscan hills. We’ve met up with the wedding party twice. It’s all multi-faceted event, with drinks and nibbles in the quite wonderfully walled town of Monteriggioni and, last night, a pizza and prosecco gathering at the venue (think Gladiator and you have the scene), which was far more than just pizza … and prosecco; the jazz band were particularly good. We could not feel more privileged.