Last breakfast in Lisbon before legging it to the airport.

Yesterday we spent the morning on the No. 1 red tram, winding up and down impossibly narrow streets in the humble Alfama district. At times we were so close to the shops we went past, I could have reached out of the window and taken a leg of lamb.

One of the trade-offs of leaving the East Coast of Australia, with its big, booming, spraying surf, was European travel. I made a bucket list very early on and I am almost done, with a handful of destinations left to see. It has been a wonderful adventure. I have dragged all the family along, as much as they were willing. The children, as fledglings, were duped into thinking that these vacations were “great fun”, but despite the occasional ice cream to bribe them, it was a lot of walking, looking, experiencing, sleeping…walking, looking, experiencing, sleeping and it went on. They saw a lot and now they love it too.

Our wedding in April, 1989, was a blur and stressful, as so few of my tribe were there. I had the honeymoon to look forward to after being the centre of attention. Ah, perhaps that is why I was so uncomfortable with Geoffrey’s musical soirees. He was the centre of attention. Something I loathe. Unless I am in actress mode, when I become someone else and entertain with funny stories.

Our honeymoon was in Tuscany, Italy. My favourite film up to that time was “A Room with a View” (1985), based on a favourite novel by E.M. Forster. Vintage performances from Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Helena Bonham Carter and Daniel Day Lewis. They have stayed in the spotlight for all these years. National treasures. 

I adored those period films before and after my exile: adaptations of – Forster (Maurice, Howard’s End, Where Angels Fear to Tread, A Passage to India); Henry James (Age of Innocence, The Portrait of a Lady); Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband), Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility) and Kazuo Ishiguro (Remains of the Day). And all with our Brit favs: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman, Hugh Laurie, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Colin Firth, Kate Winslet and some of the Hollywood lot donned posh voices and joined in – Reese Witherspoon and Cate Blanchett spring to mind. 

But A Room with a View is my Number One. One evening, snuggled up to Geoffrey after he’d popped the question some days before, I told him how I adored that film, made by the amazing Merchant Ivory Productions. It is romance on steroids.

The Arno (river) flowing under the ancient Ponte Vecchio bridge in Florence: where Lucy (who is a Sloane essentially, played by Bonham Carter) faints after seeing an intense argument between two Italian men, which escalates to a stabbing and death. As she swoons, she is caught by George (who is working class). The backdrop is Florence: with all that history and naked statues everywhere. Overseen like a godfather by the monumental, terracotta, domed roof of the Duomo (cathedral).

Fast forward to a Tuscan hill side: where George manfully embraces Lucy, against her will initially, but she of course relents, as he kisses her passionately amongst the blue violets and poplars, whilst the other English guests from the pensione picnic elsewhere. Lucy pretends to be offended, but she really loves it.

Fast forward and now everyone is back in the English country side, Surrey, which is Home Counties, near to London and therefore not quite the right sort of country for some snobbish people. Lucy is engaged to a prudish, frigid, self-important Cecil (played by Daniel Day Lewis). George continues to kiss her from time to time and she eventually chucks Cecil and she and George get married. They end up honeymooning back in Florence. In the last scene they are sitting, framed by a window and George kisses his now wife, Lucy. Love is classless. Can I say more?

Geoffrey got it right for our honeymoon! Hint taken. We stayed at La Cisterna in San Gimignano. I had no idea at the time that the film “Where Angels Dare to Tread”, starring Helen Mirren, was predominantly filmed there. But the hill top view from our shuttered window of the olive groves and finger like poplars pointing to the sky, was just as good as the view that Lucy – Bonham Carter – had on her honeymoon in Florence. 

Nevertheless, this was my very first stint in Europe and I felt like a novice. I felt unsophisticated compared to the beauty around me. More of that tomorrow.

Today is travelling and collecting Domino from The Whippet Hotel and heading to Hampshire.