This is my first story so any constructive feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks to beachbum1958 for the help and advice.
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A death in the family is always a sad event, but after the grieving is done the inheritance often affords you opportunities that you couldn't normally afford. My mother in law's death was a shock but 6 months on my wife Rachel had finally decided that she would spend her inheritance on a holiday home in Tuscany. 3 months of research followed and we both agreed that trying to understand the legal requirements and finding a suitable property was almost impossible without being able to speak the language and see the properties for yourself and so we gave up.
A couple of months passed and Rachel returned from a night out with the girls slightly worse for wear but excited about owning a house in Italy again. She had applied to go on the Channel 4 show 'A Place In The Sun' in the hope they could solve all of our problems and find us our Tuscan dream home. I can't say I was happy about it but if it meant we finally had a holiday home it was worth the pain. So we sat back and waited to see if we were selected for the programme.
It was Easter the following year before we heard anything, I think we had both thought it wasn't going to happen, but an email from the production team out of the blue confirmed we had been selected and we were expected to fly out to Italy early June. Rachel was ecstatic and immediately started planning what to wear on camera and writing a list of likes and dislikes.
The travel arrangements required us to fly from Birmingham Airport at 7.00am on a Monday morning which meant getting up at 4.00am to get to the airport on time. The day started badly with our alarm not going off, luckily I woke up at 4.45am for a drink and instant panic took over. We dressed quickly without showering, threw the cases in the car and headed out as fast as we could, arriving just before check in closed.
After being rushed through security, we charged down to the gate and were the last on to the plane with everyone staring. Things got worse as we took our seats when the pilot announced that we had missed our take off slot and would have to wait 20minutes for the next one. It felt like everyone looked directly as us, shook their heads and tutted in unison.
The flight itself was pretty good and with a bit of wind assistance we arrived only 10 minutes late so everyone seemed a little more relaxed as we filed off the plane. We collected our luggage and as we exited security there was a member of the production team waiting for us and we were ushered into a waiting car and off to the hotel which was about a 40 minute drive away.
After checking in we met the team and I got the first bit of bad news, we were told that our presenter Johnny would arrive the next morning and we would commence filming straight after breakfast. The programme was presented by a number of beautiful women and one man, just my luck that we get the male presenter. Rachel however had a big smile on her face as we were told.
We had the rest of the day and the evening to ourselves so we quickly changed into cooler clothing and headed off into town to explore. The town was beautiful with plenty of restaurants and cafes as well as some amazing architecture. We wandered for several hours taking photos and exploring the tiny streets and alleyways. Then we stopped for a meal, eating outside watching the sun go down and talking about what the next two days would be like. Three wonderful courses and two bottles of wine later we headed back to the hotel, both unable to keep our hands off each other
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When we arrived back at the hotel we decided to have a quick nightcap at the poolside bar. I headed off for the drinks and Rachel looked for a nice secluded table where we could be alone. As I arrived at the bar, I heard a blood curdling scream and saw people rushing over to the seating area the other side of the pool. People were shouting for help and the barman rushed over to find out what was happening, very quickly he returned and immediately called an ambulance. Once off of the phone he explained that a woman had seriously hurt her ankle and I knew immediately who it was.
As I arrived at the scene, Rachel was led flat on the floor whimpering with two members of staff knelt consider 'kneeling' beside her trying to calm her down. As soon as she saw me she burst into floods of tears, completely inconsolable. within minutes, an ambulance arrived and we headed of to hospital.
We arrived back at the hotel about 4am the next morning with Rachel in a wheel chair and her leg in a supporting boot. We headed straight up to our room and I made her as comfortable as possible. I then managed a couple of hours sleep before showering and heading to the pre filming meeting wondering how I was going to explain what had happened and what we could do with Rachel who had torn ligaments in her right foot.