North Korean ICBM. Parson's Green Bomb. Sirmione walk

Small part of Roman villa 'Grotto di Catullo'

Friday, 15th September

North Korea launched another ICBM over Japan, flying over 4000 miles and arousing global condemnation.

Travellers on a train at Parson's Green, South London were hurt by a fireball from an IED (improvised explosive device = bomb) that probably failed to explore properly. The threat level in the UK has been raised.

The Office for National Statistics revealed that UK exporting companies hoarded gains from the sterling fall after the Brexit vote, rather than passing them on. It also found that the trading deficit with non-EU countries increased over the past year whilst that with the EU actually decreased.

I woke up refreshed, just beating the alarm at 8. Another lightly clouded day. We took the boat from Desenzano to Sirmione, a 15 minute trip with an unexpected breeze whipping the hair in the faces of those who have some. There was a surprising swell and you had to walk like a drunken sailor to stay upright.

Sirmione was heaving with tourists, who fortunately stayed to the main Vias in this tiny town. We admired the moated castle, ineffectually guarding the town from invaders, then slipped into quieter side streets, to find the coastal walk around the peninsular. We discovered the 15th century church of Santa Maria Maggiore and spent a quiet time there. As our eyes grew accustomed to the dim light, we began to recognise the remains of the old wall paintings of saints which interspersed the later alters and oil paintings. The walk continued past the remains of the abbey of At Salvatore, into a public park of scattered olive trees and then to the beach with a walkway.

We came across the unexpected public thermal spring and bottling plant (?), heralded by the whiff of rotten eggs and reached Jamaica Beach, where a couple of egrets mingled with people paddling in the pools amongst the rock platform. The path curved upwards, away from the beach, leading to the Grotto di Catullo (caves of Catullus), the most important example of a patrician residence in all of Northern Italy, and not caves at all.

The sprawling ruins were immense, dating from the first century AD. Remnants of simple mosaic flooring and an exhibition of recovered fragments of plaster paintings could be seen. By now, we were tired of walking and so set off downhill back to the setting masses. Sirmione is also famous for its ice-cream. We naturally quality tested it ourselves. Jane had a single flavour portion whilst I had three. The portions were so large, mine was probably a 400 g serving and I needed Jane's help to finish.

It was touch and go but we managed to get tickets for the boat back to Desenzano and were the last two passengers to board before the boat left.