Flights are booked! I had planned to leave the trip open-ended but most of the itinerary is in place and the final leg will be spent mostly with my good travel buddy, Dot, who I first met in Kenya all those years ago. 
So decided to take advantage of very reasonably priced BA flight home. We have spent several days of intensive planning between Oxford Botanic Gardens, cocktails and Jamie’s… Originally we had planned just to spend some time together in Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera but Dot has decided she would also like to see Rome so we will meet up there first. My Busabout route takes me to Rome where I had planned to spend a couple of nights. These places are the most expensive for accommodation but we have managed to find some reasonably priced hostels.
Venice is proving problematic. Busabout offer 2 accommodation otpions, one on the mainland, which would involve a shuttle each day on to the island. The other very expensive guesthouse can only accommodate me for two of the three nights I plan to stay there to paint. So I checked out “lastminute.com”. They have a suitable guest house quite close by and near to the Bridge of Sighs so I booked the last room. These places seem to get booked up so quickly in the cities around Europe. Arrgghh, just realised the pickup point for Busabout is on the mainland 8am! No worries… have been chatting to Alex at the guesthouse I have booked. These Italians are so laid back! I will help you he says in broken English. Several emails later, I am reassured there will be transport in time to catch the 8am bus. An image of Venice I think…. just to get me in the mood.