How to buy five bathrooms in one morning

We're driving down to Rome today for a few days holiday. We need it and the children deserve it after being incredibly good about sitting in the car watching DVDs for hours on end while we talk to builders etc.

But first we have to buy five bathrooms worth of stuff so I drop Chris off at Stefano's shop at 8:30 while I go down to Comunanza to see Gianluigi to sort out his and the various contractors' bills. Unfortunately I can't actually pay them yet because the money hasn't arrived but we do agree everything and I drop off copies of the invoices for Luca to pay when the money goes through.

I'd previously used Barclays to move money but this time have gone with HiFX (basically because Barclays tried to give me tourist rates for a big transaction and then, their dealers don't even start work till 9AM), who other people have told me are good. Their rates seem OK (or as OK a they can be given that the pound has tanked against the euro and we're barely getting 1.25) and there are no charges for actually making the transfer etc - and also it's supposed to be instantaneous. In reality, it doesn't quite work like that. Having done the deal on the phone, I then had to fill in the details of where the money was to go via their website and apparently (I found out several days later when they phoned me) they couldn't make the transfer because the International Bank Account Number (the IBAN) had some digits missing. I have not found out why they didn't pick this up either when I tried to enter an incorrect number (if it was, in fact my error) or when they originally tried to make the transfer. If it comes to that, they already had the account number (which is the last part of the IBAN so they could have worked it out with half a brain). Anyway it's a bit embarrassing and I think Mariano is a little pissed off, having worked since January and not yet had a penny. (Luca says not to worry - Mariano has got loads of money).

So back to Stefano's where Chris is looking at a luxury shower unit with steam and chromotherapy (no, I didn't know either - some mumbo jumbo about coloured lights improving your mood apparently.) A few days ago we were wanting to cut costs left, right and centre as we started panicking about the total amount we were going to have to spend but now we've relaxed a bit and, having seen Stefano's prices, are becoming a bit more expansive. You can give people the feeling they are getting something really special for not much extra. So we will have 5 en suites for the 5 bedrooms: one with steam shower, two with hydromassage baths (like a Jacuzzi) and two with thermostatic showers. And the total cost of all the fittings comes to about €8,000. At that price, it's worth thinking about getting some back to the UK if we take a van down some time.

Then it's off to Rome and on holiday.