There's more to truth than just the facts.

A quick trip to Rome to talk to men in dark suits. The Alitalia flight lives up to its name . Always Late In Taking-off Always Late In Arriving. The seats designed for four year olds, the service dire. 

Time for some pre-lunch sightseeing. In a cab to the Church of San Prassede to see the column on which Christ was supposedly scourged. Brought back from the Holy Land by the Emperor Constantines mother. It looks like an inverted bar stool. Even the guidebook says '' it's veracity cannot be proven ". A man at the back of the church wearing a spaghetti stained cardigan becomes highly animated when I take a picture. I give him €2 and he's suddenly all smiles. The latin way of dealing with rules. Beats the Anglo-Saxon system any day. He offers to show me the fourth century mosaics. We leave as best friends.

Time, just, to get to St.Peters to look at the monument to the  last three Scottish claimants to the British throne. James III, Charles III and Henry IX as the exiles styled themselves. Bonnie Prince Charlie the most famous. We brought with us from the house in Scotland an old wooden chair . The Old Pretender sat on this chair in the garden watching out to sea for the French frigate that was coming to take him to safety after his revolt failed. The chair now sits in a guest bedroom. Quite why we brought it with us to Southern France a mystery of moving and packing.

Bob and Sophie are waiting for me at the Arrivals Terminal. A chance for Bob to lie in front of the automatic sliding doors. Nothing is as satisfying to a young PON boy as the 'swoosh' sound activated by a large furry paw.