DON'T TELL ME I CAN'T…...Holiday Without My Husband

Janet Mullender longed to see Venice but wanted to go solo

Sipping a cappuccino on the banks of the Grand Canal in Venice, I watched as a loved-up couple sailed past me. Perched in a gondola, serenaded by an Italian tenor, they were glowing with happiness. Perhaps I should have been jealous – after all, I was in the most romantic city in the world, while my husband was hundreds of miles away back home in Essex. But, actually, I was having the time of my life.

I’d always dreamt of going to Venice. I pored over photographs of its beautiful buildings, imagining myself wandering its rambling palaces. But when I met and married John in the 1970s, it was clear that I wouldn’t be exploring Venice with him.

Although he’s quite happy behind the wheel, John gets travel sick, so when we started going on holiday together, we stayed in the UK. Even after our kids, Rosie and Chris, were born, our holidays remained UK based. We were more used to the sights of Inverness than of Italy – in fact, over the past 45 years, we’ve only been abroad together twice, both times to Paris on the Eurostar.