I was welcomed with huge smiles when they saw me parking the rental car.
Then, a big hug and kisses on both cheeks from Maria and then the same from her daughter Bianca were awaiting when I got out.
It had been 5 years since I'd seen them. Like me, Maria was in her early 50's now. Her dark curly hair had more grey and she had a few wrinkles, but was still a very attractive woman.
When I last saw her in person, Bianca was a pretty girl, who had now become a beautiful young woman. I'd seen that transformation through a thousand selfies and other photos posted to her social media accounts in those 5 years.
She looked stunning with a short sundress showing off her slender, tanned body and the setting Mediterranean sun reflected off her long dark hair. I always wondered about the lack of pictures of boyfriends. I imagined that young Italian men would be hitting on her daily.
Where's Paulo? I asked as I got my bags from the car.
"He must work at the hospital on Saturday now, so he stay in Milano. A big...how you say... inspecting....of the new part of the hospital" Maria replied.
That's a relief I thought. I'm not going miss spending time with her unfriendly husband who resembles a weasel and chain smokes and coughs constantly.
I picked their car easily as Bianca's expensive looking racing bike was still strapped to the roof rack of Maria's Mercedes.
"We just arrive here" said Maria nodding at the bike. I helped lift it off the roof rack so the car could fit in the garage.
We made small talk about my trip to Europe as we got everything we needed upstairs into their family holiday apartment.
I was starting to feel tired after checking out of my hotel, 2 meetings in different parts of London, a dash to pick up my bags and get to London City airport just in time to check in for the flight to Nice.
Then, after a two hour flight I picked up a rental car and drove along the coast and into Italy, to the small town where I first met Maria and fell in love with her younger sister nearly 30 years ago.
Next week I'm the north of England, so I'm flying back to Manchester.
It could have been easier to fly to Milan and drive down with them, but the flight times didn't work out.
And, I had no desire to spend all that time in the car with Maria's husband eyeing me suspiciously for being friends with his wife and daughter.
I hadn't been to the apartment for 30 years, but it didn't look a lot different than I remembered. Three bedrooms, one for each of us, a dated kitchen, one bathroom, but beautiful marble floors and a great balcony with views over the coast, the sea and old town.
A nonna (grandmother) from downstairs who Maria got to clean it had done a great job as everything was immaculate. She'd also bought grapes and left a plate of her home-made biscotti on the table for us too.
"Are you hungry?" Maria asked, as I was taking in the view from the balcony whilst drinking a beer she'd just handed me. Then before waiting for a reply she said "what do you want to eat?"
"Pizza?" I replied, "good pizza"
"Ahhhh! We have the very best here!" said Bianca as she looked for a menu card in the kitchen.
It was takeaway-only, so after Bianca called them, then after unpacking, we all walked around the corner to pick it up.
The place was old-fashioned and family-run, which explained the lack of online ordering. But it was a great looking and smelling place with a big wood-fired oven and lots of locals also picking up food.
After the great pizza and most of a bottle of an excellent Barolo that Maria had opened, Bianca announced she was going out to catch up with a friend who lived nearby and was only in town tonight.
Maria argued with her about leaving us just after I had just arrived, at least that's what I took from their conversation in Italian.
Bianca just said, "I'll be late, so see you in the morning", then a cheeky "be good" as she left.
Maria joined me on the balcony as I was taking in the sights as it got dark.
She gave a deep sigh as the pressure of everything showed.
The argument with Bianca was just a small part.
Bianca had previously told me that her parents are only together for the sake of her brother, who has serious health problems and spends a lot of time in hospital.
Maria has a busy job as a senior surgeon at a hospital too and on top of all that, her younger sister, Antonia, my ex-girlfriend, has serious mental health issues and spends her life chain smoking inside her tiny apartment.
It is such a shame that Antonia has ended up this way. She was the beauty while Maria was the brains.
It wasn't that Maria wasn't attractive, just not to the supermodel level of her sister.
Antonia wasn't stupid either, she'd studied at university to be an accountant, but can't even work now because of her debilitating issues.
I'd always got on well with Maria. I moved to the UK from New Zealand for a couple of years when I was in my early 20's. In those pre-internet days, I would go across London in my lunch break to find, photocopy then post pages from English-language medical textbooks that she'd requested for her studies, as she couldn't access them in Italy.
Her English was better than her sister's, she didn't have a boyfriend and she could drive too, unlike Antonia, so the three of us often went out together.
We'd lost touch for many years after I returned to New Zealand, but Bianca found me online about 7 years ago and reconnected us.
Maria stood on the balcony in front of me, made an exaggerated shiver and said she was cold.
It was June and while not yet the height of summer, it didn't feel too cold to me. There was a mild breeze coming off the sea though.
I pulled my arms around her from behind and leant back into me. She then pulled my arms tighter around herself. She seemed very relaxed and told me that I was doing well at keeping her warm.
After a few minutes she turned to hug me. We just held each other closely for minutes with her head buried in my chest. Then she reached up to kiss me.
I hadn't wanted to make the first move given she was technically married, but I felt great affection for, and attraction to, my good friend of many years.
We kissed for a couple of minutes as her hands reached under my shirt to explore my back.
Maria looked around to see if the neighbours were watching us and sensing that they could easily do so, took my hand to lead me inside to her bedroom.
We started to undress each other. I'd just taken the last of my clothes off when I realised that after beer, wine and water I needed to go to the toilet.
I told her to wait a moment and signalling I was going out.
I stepped out of the door, naked, and down the hall to the toilet.
After, I walked back out of the toilet and was shocked to see Bianca right in front of me.
Busted!
See held up her phone charger she'd come back for.
