First Anniversary of Diagnosis and holiday advice.

I find the short trips easier, normally 4 days, my brain seems to except that it’s not too long and I will be going home.
I don’t particularly like driving in Italy, they take no prisoners! My wife is normally lookout and makes sure I’m on the correct side.  With shorter trips I normally use the metro stations or buses. Be careful with car hire, they try to sell you the super insurance cover that is more than the hire cost, they try to scare you with the penalties for even a scratch of chipped wheel rim. Photograph the whole car before except it.

That all sounds really cool and is making me feel better about going (the usual post-booking anxiety that we've done the wrong thing). How did you find driving over there? As my husband was quite young when he stayed, he's very wary of trying to hire a car, so we were unsure to stray too far from cities, though he says the trains are really good. 

We ended up cutting down to 4 days too, we weren't sure what to do with a week on holiday. Your suggestions sound good though, maybe after trying this shorter trip, we might be able to brave longer and see more next time!

Before covid we went to Italy quite a lot, when the children were younger we would rent a villa up in the Tuscan Mountains, the children were happy with a swimming pool and we were happy cooking our own meals, normally local dishes. Still near enough to go into Pisa.
Since the children are now adults we started going on shorter city breaks, the last one was just before covid to Milan. We would book an Airbnb, normally a whole flat as I don’t like sharing. There is a beautiful canal through Milan with restaurants all along it, I was struggling with food, the waiter could see I was struggling and asked how he could help. I had my first bruschetta, he returned with it made from only the outsides of the tomatoes. It often only takes of understanding of autism by others.

I found Florence nicer than Rome, I made a mistake with the hotel in Florence and booked one with the same name 15km from the city centre, it worked out perfect, two train stops from the city, a peaceful Piazza and just locals. Would definitely recommend it.

The most beautiful area is Cinque terre, 5 villages perched along the coast, a train links Pisa airport to the area and then a small scenic train weaves in and out the cliffs to all 5 villages. Portofino is just further on and definitely worth a visit. Normally we just booked cheap flights and either a hire car or train from this end.

I haven’t been to Turin, I’m thinking that might be possible in September when it’s quieter and cooler, I want to visit the filming locations from The Italian Job.

I was on Met line, I’m still working away but travel back and forth, I hope to stop this by the end of the year.

We were just trying to organise that, last minute as always as we were plagued with indecision. (We had booked time off but hadn't actually booked where to go in a week and a half!)

My husband lived in Italy for six months before I knew him (a uni placement with others), and for the longest time we thought a beach holiday there would suit the kids, but we just couldn't accept the idea of it in the end, and the more I researched the worse it seemed. I can't get my head round it really, beautiful beaches but they are just covered in sun loungers so you can't do anything else? And elbow to elbow with people sends shivers down my spine.

So we have finally opted to just get a nice hotel in Florence, as he knows it well enough to calm my anxiety worries, we can get some nice food, do some sight seeing then hide back in the hotel room again to get respite from too many people. 

We went to Paris a few years ago, which was a revisit with the kids. And since we've been to Florence before (we got engaged there), it seems wet only go to places we managed to go when we were younger! (And the gap between seems to be about 19 years).

We don't normally go abroad, only as far as Ireland to see the in-laws. We've done lots of driving holidays around the country, the Scottish islands are really lovely and great for bird-watching and marine life. The Highland are amazing to drive through, especially if you get Glen Coe in good light/weather conditions. We've driven the west coast of Ireland a bit, as they had a family birthday down in Killarney and we keep talking about exploring further there. We've done the Lake District too for a long weekend. If my husband wasn't so hoping to go to Italy, visiting somewhere in this country or Ireland would have been my preference! I do want to see Skye, and the outer Hebrides, though I'd also love to revisit Mull, Iona and Arran. I also want to see the wash and go bird watching there.

Funnily enough Japan is on my wish list too, I studied Japanese in uni and would really like to go. Probably more to the mountains and seeing the quiet beauty there rather than the city life.

The only other place we've been was the Maldives for our honeymoon. That was all inclusive beach holiday, but we spent a good deal of the time in the sea, just snorkeling and looking at the beautiful fish or going for walks. 

A cold holiday to somewhere like Norway would be amazing too! Especially if you got to see some wildlife you don't normally see!

I imagine living in Cornwall is very nice and peaceful. I live in London.

Thanks for your reply, one of the big changes to my life was moving to Cornwall about a year ago. It’s a different way of life, it’s 250 miles from my old life. I’ve yet to visit Tintagel, the legend does look interesting.

I also just posted about holidays and then saw your post. I think Wales or Scotland sound nice. Personally I really want to go to Tintagel in Cornwall as I'm interested in the Arthurian legends associated with that area.