After being locked down by Covid, I had almost lost the will to live, let alone go on holiday again outside the UK.

Two years before I had had a lovely time in Italy, visiting Rome, Pisa, Puccini's House, Florence, Sienna, and more. Almost at the end of the trip I stayed a couple of days with my dear musical friends in Perugia, where their then 8-year-old daughter, Martha, was making great strides forward on the violin (mum is a concert pianist and teacher, similarly dad, but on the clarinet.

I had booked to stay in Cesena where they had moved two, and I had a lovely time here, two, adding Bologna, Rossini's Museum, Rimini and some of the Adriatic coast to my list of places visited.

They, too, had had lockdowns, and cancellations, but quite by chance, the weekend I had planned to be in Cesena, was the rearranged date of a special outside concert in the imposing surroundings of Rocca Malatestiana, a medieval fortress than dominates the town.

Martha was going to be performing a violin concerto by Rode, and her dad had adapted the orchestral accompaniment, so that the large clarinet ensemble could take its place on the night.

It was a wonderful, moving evening, and Martha played so well. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house!

When I knew I was visiting them this year, I wrote Martha a little fun piece, with piano accompaniment, that she might have been able to play while I was there. But because of the rescheduled concerto performance, there just wasn't enough time for her to learn and practise the piece with her violin teacher in Bologna. I even added an optional part for clarinet, so dad would not feel left out. Hopefully, one day, I might still hear Waltz for Martha played by its dedicatees! It's a kind of schmalzy Viennese Waltz, in the style of Kreisler and others!