It has taken me almost 10 days to accept that our holiday is over and that grey skies are likely to prevail until the day we start back to school. It just seems so darn unfair that a trip you have planned for for months is over so quickly and has been transformed into a mountain of memories to delve into during the rest of summer and a folder of photos which will wait to be printed or scrapped. However, today it is sunny (for now) and I feel inspired to share some of our holiday with you. It will be easier for all of us if I do this in stints, so this will be phase 1 of the photofest!

We stayed in a beautiful little town called Sant'Agata, about 20 minutes from Sorrento, up in the hills where a gentle breeze made the mediterranean temperatures just perfect. Our apartment was beautiful but the pool area was just amazing. On our first day there I felt like I was in some 1930s Agatha Christie novel (possibly Evil Under the Sun but without any of the evil and treachery!) There were only 7 apartments and the pool was rarely very busy which was great for the boys as they learnt to swim and for us as we remembered how to unwind!

Sorrento was absolutely everything I imagined it would be, and then some. Piazzas with cafes and restaurants, old cobbled streets festooned with bougainvillea winding their way to the sea, fishing boats and seafood, sunsets to die for and friendly Italians who never seemed to tire of Conor's white blond curls!

And Vesuvius, always present but slightly hazy during our visit.

I remember thinking when we took these pictures that it would be impossible to forget how hot the sun felt on our skin and how desperate we were for a drink, but alas I just can't recreate the feeling (not without turning the heat up full and leaning against the radiator in the kitchen!) We shall simply have to print these photos and start an Italy Fund jar to save for next year!

Look out for photofest part 2, in which you will get to see a hundred photos of the ancient ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, because that is all there seemed to be on my memory card when I uploaded it! For now, I am heading out into the sun to see if there is any warmth in it at all at this latitude!