Armchair travel

Regular readers will know I have a thing about holiday brochures. I have a fine collection, much thumbed, and the holiday companies add to it on a regular basis, which is fine by me.

Lately all my travelling has had to be the arm chair kind, for various reasons, but I'm hoping that might change later this year. When the thesis is finally done, and I may have stopped paying for Christmas, I might be able to actually go somewhere.

I have a list. All research, of course. And I am having a great deal of fun auditioning  the brochures on what they have to offer. Top of the list are the French and Italian Rivieras, because I have a second Riviera Rouges drafted and two more in the planning, and it's one of my all time favourite holiday destinations. I have three different escorted tours in the running, all going to slightly different places, all gorgeous.

Then there's Amsterdam and Antwerp, for another rom/com, and then Italy - the Amalfi Coast, but also Montecassino, which was a battle site in the Second World War which I want to use in a romantic suspense. Last year I managed a trip to York, which almost completed the locations for another romantic suspense that is partially written. I really need a trip to the Isle of Man to finish that one.

And I want to make a trip to Scotland, for family reasons, which I'll tell you about one day. I expect it will make it into a book too. And I've never been to Cornwall. And I want to go back to Greece and see some of the islands I haven't managed to get to yet, and the historical sites. I've done Crete and Knossos, but I've always wanted to see the theatre at Epidaurus, and Delphi, and Olympus. And I'm sure I could set a book in the Italian Lakes, another favourite place, and re-visit Florence. I love visiting gardens too, and I've found there's a tour based in Rome ...

It's a long list, and getting longer. Now all I need is for a Premium Bond to come up, big time.