‘La Dolce Vita’

‘La Dolce Vita’

4 September 2018

Only 5 days to go until I finally get to board a plane and disappear to one of my favourite countries – Bella Italia. Rich and I are off for a week to explore Lake Garda and the surrounding cities. I’m still trying to convince him that it’s worth an hour’s drive to Verona so I can go and see Juliet’s balcony, and put a love letter in the wall – I’ve not been hugely successful in winning him over so far, but watch this space…!

We first visited Italy 4 years ago, and I totally fell in love with it. The draw for me was the history and culture– going to Rome to see the Vatican City, the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain. I’d read so much about it all, and watched so many documentaries about this amazing ancient city, I was so excited. Then I experienced the food, and I fell head of heels for the Italian way of life. Pizza is my absolute favourite of all the foods this life has to offer – call it sad, call it boring, I call it the best thing Italy ever created. Rich and I got engaged the second time we visited Italy – what did we celebrate with? Pizza. So as far as I’m concerned, I’m ticking every box – Sunshine? Lots of it. Prosecco? Cheaper than lemonade. Culture? You’re swimming in it. Pizza? It’s never more than a mile away. Get me on that plane.

As we’re at the ‘less than week to go’ mark, we have to look at packing. We have the same discussions every time we go away – do we own enough shorts/dresses/t-shirts/shoes/socks to go away for a week!? Somehow, even though we’ve made it through an entire summer without these extra clothes, there is always some doubt that we could last another week. It usually means an emergency trip into town – catching the end of summer sales to replenish our supplies of summer clothes that’ll be shortly disappearing back into the wardrobe for the winter…

Rich usually sorts himself out with his clothes packing – but I’m always in charge of toiletries – particularly the dental kind. I think it’s engrained in most dental professionals to change their toothbrush regularly – I swap ours routinely every 3 months, and I always take a brand-new toothbrush on holiday. I don’t know why, it just feels like part of the holiday experience. New toothbrush, new tube of toothpaste, new packet of floss – all totally unnecessary when there are perfectly good open versions in the bathroom. I just never fully trust the toothpaste not to spring open and make my clothes minty fresh. I never take my electric toothbrush with me, mostly because I’m a bit of a nightmare for losing things, and it’s an expensive item to leave behind – but I also because I dread the thought of it going off in my case and raising eyebrows as to the contents of my luggage.

I also pack every form of over the counter medication under the sun – I’m covered for poorly heads and tums, scrapes, bruises, bites, blisters – I even pack an emergency dental kit. It sounds a bit over the top, as neither Rich nor I have particularly heavily restored teeth – a couple of fillings between us, but nothing exciting – but I always feel like I need to take one ‘just in case’. We had an incident verging on 15 years ago involving my poor Mum, a broken tooth at Disneyworld, and an emergency dentist – an experience which has stuck in my mind, and taught me to always carry my own back up kit. (Sorry your first mention in this blog was related to dentistry Mum, not your favourite topic I know…) The kit contains material to recement crowns or fillings that have come adrift, and is quite a handy addition to a normal first aid kit – we sell them here at The Briars, but they are available in most supermarkets and pharmacies.

You’ll have a reprieve from my ramblings next week – our Hygienist Jo will have had the most tiring weekend of her life, and she is really excited to tell you all about it!

I will catch you all when I’m back from my hols! 😊

Arrivederci,

Amy x