2010 Italy – Reims
Our final night was in Reims where we stayed in an excellent and very reasonably priced hotel near the Cathedral. We had a quick walk around the cathedral but the most memorable thing about Reims was the autumn scene in a local park. 
Once again we couldn’t find an interesting restaurant and I ended up ordering horse and chips while Federika ordered duck which she said was awful. In the morning we had a quick walk around the very impressive cathedral before making our way to the hypermarket in Calais to buy a large quantity of wine for my parents. I used to go regularly on day trips with Dad to buy wine but as he was now too old for the gruelling journey we hadn’t been for a while. This was the perfect opportunity to stock up his cellar but with twenty cases I had a job explaining to the customs officer that it was for the personal use of my 90-year-old dad.
We arrived at my parent’s house in Lancing, West Sussex late at night and were due to stay for the next three weeks as there was a long list of jobs for me to do for tem. I was woken at 5 a.m. by the sound of someone falling from the top to the bottom of the stairs. I got up quickly, terrified of what I might find as by the sound of it I couldn’t see how anyone could survive such a fall. My mother was kneeling in the hallway breathing with difficulty and in shock. She had somersaulted a few times and landed with such force that she destroyed an electric heater that was standing at the bottom of the stairs. Federika called an ambulance while I put a blanket over her and made sure she didn’t move. The paramedics came very quickly and after a short examination said there was no serious damage. The amazing thing was my dad had slept through the whole thing. He had got up for a pee as he did several times a night and looked down at me, puzzled as to why on earth the hallway was full of paramedics.
I went with my mother in the ambulance to the hospital while Federika stayed with my father which was invaluable as he was very distressed. After an x-ray, the good news was that the pain in my mother’s back was only severe bruising and the only thing broken was her little finger which amazingly, didn’t hurt her at all. The next day I was surprised to be told that all she needed was her finger strapped and I could take her home. What an amazing escape she had although it would be a while before she had fully recovered. I was wondering what had caused her fall and concerned that I might have left something on the landing. It turned out that when my mother went to the toilet during the night she had the habit of using a torch rather than turning the hallway light on (we are a strange family.) On that occasion, being half asleep she became disorientated on the landing and stepped towards the stairs rather than the bathroom. After that night she left the landing light when she went to sleep.
I had planned to sell the van at the local auction but the day after we arrived a stranger knocked on our door and asked if we wanted to sell the van. I sold it to him for only £50 less than I paid for it so I was delighted. Finally, the time came to fly back to our beloved home in Dubrovnik and considering the weather forecast for the UK was arctic conditions and snow, it looked like we were escaping England just at the right time.
Now we come to the end of our Italian adventure 2010 and it is time for me to say “arrivederci” until next time.
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2010 Italy
