I am home

So here we are home again, that was quite trip and I'll tell you about it over the next few posts but I am feeling absolutely exhausted today even though I've slept well both whilst we were away and since we've been back

I said in my last post that I broke a tooth, this happened on the second day of our holiday (yes I was chewing on a toffee) but I wasn't too worried as the tooth that broke was pinned, I assumed that I'd had a root filling so there wouldn't be any problem and it came from the back of my mouth so I didn't have a gappy smile. I mentioned what had happened to Irene when we got to the house in Tuscany and she recommended not visiting an Italian dentist. It wasn't till we got to Lazio that I woke in the night with toothache that got worse and worse until I was taking painkillers beyond the recommended dose, running out of stock and feeling awful. My face started to swell until it was hard to speak or eat and I felt thoroughly miserable. I spoke to Franco, a friend in Rome, to ask if I could buy anti biotics over the counter and immediately he took control, arranging with Mario our neighbour in the village to get me some medication from the local doctor. This arrived within a couple of hours, three large tablets the size of horse pills, one per day. They actually took about 36 hours to kick in, during which time I phoned my own dentist in Scotland who was really helpful, assured me that I should be OK until I got home, made me an appointment for my return and said the pain would soon go, which it did. My Italian lessons never covered this eventuality but I soon picked up the various medical terms and improved my vocabulary considerably. I'd recommend learning 'I'm in sodding agony but I don't want you carving me up' in the language of your destination just in case you ever have to visit a dentist abroad.

The trip was really worthwhile, we loved travelling round Europe and enjoyed having the freedom to do as we pleased, the pensioners version of Inter Railing I suppose. It must have been good, we are already considering doing it again, but not for a while.

Let me leave you with some pictures of our Italian garden whilst I go off to contemplate the chaos that has developed in the one here in Scotland, back soon.