End

Our finally day dawned bright, sunny and hot. We opted to spend the day by the pool,

 

 which disappointed those who had tagged along with us the day before, some of who then also opted to take the swimming and reading route. With a 6 a.m. start we took an early bed time having packed our suitcases ready for our return home.

TUI has let us down the whole week, and did not redeem themselves on our last day. Insisting on a pick up before breakfast they had not told us we could order a packed bag of food to eat on the coach. We looked on as others sucked on the straws of their cartons of orange juice while dropping crumbs from their cakes plus a load of other goodies hidden in their large paper bags on the coach floor. 

The hotel didn't seem to know we were booking out so had to quickly make up our bill. At least they bought us out coffee before we left.

We thought we were making good time. With no rep to distract our driver we sped through the pick ups, but then one lot of misfortunates were missing and then we hit a huge traffic jam. Finally after over 2 hours (honest it's a 1 hour run without the pickups) we arrived at Verona Airport. The queue for baggage check in was horrendous, the kiosks were in the part of the terminal being built, and none of the baggage conveyor belts were working. We waited and waited. I sat on the floor, another joined me. We waited some more. The only saving grace, sort of, was that our plane was 40mins late departing Gatwick do we weren't going to miss it. I asked a TUI rep if we would have time to get anything to eat as with no breakfast I was somewhat short on slow release carbs and it was getting on for 12 o'clock. He did apologise that we hadn't k own about breakfast which wasn't much help but we did manage to buy two croissants and a coffee.

Boarding was late. Then we sat on the tarmac some more because we needed the scissor lift for two disabled passengers. Verona airport only own one apparently, and it was being used for another flight. It eventually turned up nearly 35mins after we should have taken off after the captain had moaned rather loadly and sternly to the Italian ground staff. With the two dear old ladies comfortably installed in their seats, the doors were shut. Yet now we had lost our take off slot. We waited some more. Finally we took off nearly an hour after we should have done.

The agony didnt end there though. Directed to land at the South instead of the North terminal we had to be coached round to the other side and wait for our luggage to follow on. Having collected our cases we traipsed outside to find the shuttle coach to our car. Martin spotted it and waved to the driver, who promptly shut the doors in our faces and drove off. Another bit of waiting, 20 mins before another shuttle coach ferried us back to the South terminal to drop off a few new victims .. I mean holiday makers. 

Finally we collected our car and collapsed exhausted into our much missed bungalow nearly 12 hours after getting up!