Last autumn, having sadly overlooked Italy during my first 23 years in Britain, we decided to visit the southern region. It was a lovely holiday, so we followed it up with a trip to the northern territories. What we had not factored in was that this holiday began four days after our Devon holiday, meaning the laundry was barely dry before we had to repack and hit the road once more.

Our flight was so early that, when we got up, my watch had not yet turned on. It ex...