The first long stop of the holiday brought us to a campsite in the village of Feriolo on Lake Maggiore. The drive from Switzerland into Italy over the Simplon pass was stunning, sweeping bends and tunnels through mountains.

Our campsite is heaving but very well maintained and could not be better situated for five days of water sports fun.

Being by a lake does take a bit of getting used to after years of holidays by the sea. The first thing to strike me is the different smell. Rather than the familiar waft of salty sea air, there is distinctly muddy feel to the place and rather than the feel of sand under foot you get a definite squelch when walking in the water. Then there are the weeds. I don’t want to talk about those…..

The presence of weeds that grab at you with spikes that want to drag you down to the murky depths has meant that we are using our boat more that I thought we ever would, taking short day trips to other beaches or just using it to get out to deep water so that we can all swim without the fear of suddenly being attacked by the vegetation.

We are all enjoying the ritual of having dinner then walking along the lake side with an ice cream in the evening, I had a magnificent pistachio ice cream on the first night that has yet to be bettered.

Other than swimming and kayaking we made a trip to the top of a mountain from the town of Stresa. The vista at the top was sold as one of the finest in all of Italy as it granted a view of no less than seven lakes. Thanks to the wonderful weather there was a bit of heat haze that meant all you could really see was lake Maggiore but it was fun none the less. The only downside to this trip was that Siobhan hurt her calf on the walk up to the top of the mountain and had to hobble back down. On the walk back Joe and I went to the shops and bought an alligator, a banana, a crocodile, a dirigible airship, an elephant, a fire engine, a giraffe, a harrier jump jet, an igloo, a jaberwokie, a key, a lemur, a muffin,  some Nutella, an orange octopus, purple parrot, a quil, rickshaw, snake with sausages,turtle,an ugly umbrella, a viennese biscuit,  a wicked witch with water, an x-ray xylophone machine, a yacht and a zero point gravity gun!

Not to be out done on the injury front I have stubbed my toe on a rock but it’s not broken and izaak has a life threatening bump on his leg from an insect bite…

Next on to Florence for a bit of culture, but not before having bags of fun on a pedalo with one of those slides on