Keeley Hawes | Filming The Durrells in Corfu!

0:00You're listening to Travel Secrets with Tanya Rose, the podcast that shares wisdom for fellow travelers.

0:10Welcome to Travel Secrets with me, Tanya Rose, the podcast that shares wisdom for fellow travelers. Each week, I ask my guests to reveal their six travel secrets and the holidays and adventures that surround them. I would just like to say thank you to Mason Rose, the sales and communication agency that represents some of the finest hotels around the world for partnering with Travel Secrets, the podcast. Today, my guest is the wonderful British actress Keely Hawes, famed for so many amazing, amazing performances from Ashes to Ashes, Spooks, Line of Duty, Very Good Mom as a Home Secretary in The Bodyguard, where I think every single week everyone in my office was like, she's still alive.

0:53She's still alive. She's coming back. She's coming back. We were very upset you didn't actually. The Durrells, which was just amazing. and most recently in Miss Austen, which is the most charming, lovely, lovely. And I don't know, is it a true story? Yes. Yes, it's based on a true story. Is it? It's a lovely story. Jill Hornby, brilliant author. It's based on a book that she wrote called Miss Austen. And it is about the Austen sisters and Cassandra, who's Jane's sister. and Cassandra went about, we do know that it's based in truth. She went about collecting Jane's personal correspondence after Jane's death.

1:39And I think she destroyed about 70 % of it. There's still about 30 % remaining, but anything that was too personal, she got rid of. And we think that it was about keeping Jane's legacy, about her work rather than her personal well it's actually so relevant today isn't it of how much people share and you know are you known as an actress or are you known as your personal life and it's it's a really it's extraordinary the foresight that you know she couldn't possibly have known that that we'd be doing podcasts and we'd be talking about our thoughts or our travel or our feelings or our you know or social media um and uh and yeah we we do we we live in a world where everybody, you know, the assumption is that we all want to share everything all the time.

2:32And it's not the case. No, we don't. But today we're going to share travel secrets. Today we're going to share our secrets. Yes, yes. Which is lovely. I love to hear other people's travel secrets. And write them down and say, oh, I want to go there. So before we get into the travel secrets, can you just tell us a bit about yourself and how travel has impacted the person that you've become? Gosh, travel has become a massive part of my life. I grew up in a working class family in very central London, late 70s and 80s at a time when people, certainly from where I came from, didn't go on holiday, didn't go abroad once or twice a year.

3:16It wasn't a thing. And then there was that explosion in the 80s of people going to Spain. You know, people started to, yeah, the cheap flights and the package holidays and the whole 1830s. I mean, I wasn't old enough for that, but it became a thing that, you know, people would travel. And still, you know, our family, we didn't travel a lot. we went to Cornwall I remember very clearly a holiday in Cornwall when I was about seven and then we had a holiday to Corfu so Corfu having read My Family and Other Animals was suddenly brought to life in a way that I mean I can't even you know I can hardly describe it going from the pages of that book to Corfu, having not really travelled anywhere else, certainly not out of the country.

4:16So that was when you were younger, before you even made the Durrells. Oh, I was 11. Oh, wow. So I read the book and we went on this family holiday to Corfu. And I remember it, I mean, it's sort of visceral. I remember it so clearly. and then of course later on I played Mrs. Darrell and back we went to Corfu and so I I feel so fondly of it I already had a fondness for it and I had been back since I was 11 but but then I was so lucky to spend four years. I was going to say did you actually spend four summers there? You spent four summers on Corfu during the summer holidays mostly it was within the summer holidays uh you know thereabouts so the children were able to come over it was a perfect job so we would do six weeks um on location at that beautiful house beautiful venetian i mean extraordinary which you can now uh now it's an airbnb is it the durrell's house is on the thinking traveler and you can rent it out how fabulous it was totally I mean we couldn't use any of the interiors when we were there but slowly slowly but surely they have renovated it I was gonna say it was a bit shabby it was a bit shabby and but the terrible thing was that as the family were I think you know sort of earning a little bit of money from renting it to to us they were starting to do things to the house so we would return in the spring and something was which was not what we wanted at all uh yes so by by the end of it some of those cracks were painted back on the house and uh but i'm very pleased that it has actually been brought back to and did your children you said come with you so the children would come out because it was the holidays and then they would recreate the interiors at we we shot at Twickenham Studios or Ealing Studios and so all the interiors were shot in the winter in the UK and very cleverly we were tanned up and some nice warm lights blasted through us but literally some of those scenes were we would shoot on an actor with you know the sea behind them and the view behind them over my shoulder of me just standing in the doorway of the actual house in Corfu and then there was three months later we'd be shooting past that actor so clever it's so clever I mean it looks like the simplest show in the world it looks very straightforward but actually logistically and technically um it's it was quite a feat did you find Corfu very different when you went back filming to when you were 11 because it had you know time had passed has it become much more touristy or is it still as charming because I I haven't been to Corfu for about 30 years, but I remember having the best holiday when we went there.

7:27Yes. I think like anywhere, there are parts of it that have become more touristy. You know, it's inevitable. But it's not a big party island. You know, people don't go. It's not a big sort of, you know, hens and stag do. I think a lot of families go there. I think a lot of families go there. and um Corfu town a lot of cruise ships come into Corfu town I mean the town Corfu town uh is a UNESCO world heritage site it's absolutely beautiful and an out of season Corfu I would say you know it goes on until the good weather lasts until October yes exactly so if you if you catch it out of season it's perfect it's perfect well let's go into your travel secrets because this is obviously yes a very good travel tip that you're saying go out of season to because there aren't the cruise ships and the weather is still lovely but what is the number one destination that you think everybody should go to once in their lifetime i think it's a very tricky question it's a great question um oh and I've sort of landed on Iceland oh really yes I'm sort of obsessed with with Iceland I've been I've been three times I haven't been loads but I I went first with with Matthew and I had seen this episode of beyond the lobby on Iceland and there's a hotel which used to be a power station.

9:04And it sounds awful. It sounds like that shouldn't work at all. And it's this brutalist building in the south, in the middle of nowhere. So we first went and we stayed at the Aion Hotel. It's Aion Hotel in the south of Iceland. And it had been the power station, the power station for Iceland. And then they built another one, which you can actually see from what is now this hotel, which also doesn't sound, it doesn't sound like a beautiful location. But actually within the landscape, it is so extraordinary. And there's a pipe. I mean, you must have been to Iceland a lot, but there's a pipe that runs over the land down to Reykjavik that takes the water.

9:58the thermally heated water from inside the earth and down straight into people's showers and they have to cool it down before it comes out of the shower because it's so hot because it's so hot the geothermal water is so hot i've never been to isolation oh have you no oh oh sorry that was an assumption that i shouldn't i mean but i now want to go and every tap just says please drink the tap water there's no bottled water because there doesn't need to be because the water that comes out of the taps is so pure it's never seen the inside of a plastic bottle so you are showering in this water and drinking this water that is straight from from the earth uh and i i just i mean i fell in love with the the people the landscapes uh the way of life that the the humor it's quite a dark humor which i which i really enjoy brits get that we really get it Yes.

10:53And it's sort of in this odd place that is between London and New York. So there are lots of Americans and lots of Brits, which has got a nice combination. And lots of Icelandic people who are wonderful. Have you ever filmed there? I haven't filmed there. I'm desperate to film there. Yes. And you have to be quite well organized. and having a tour guide is something that I would say is essential actually if you're only going for three or four days you can basically pack everything in all the touristy things which which don't actually feel like touristy things because you're not queuing up to do them you you can get to you know we swam between we snorkeled between the tectonic plates which is something you can do uh and actually you know there are only six of you there it's not like some tourist destinations where you go and what else do you do in things you in iceland so you do the swimming um you can do the swimming um what else did we do the geysers yes you have to do the geysers but if you have a tour guide they will take you to uh they will take you in these huge jeeps with these sort of you know seven foot wheels and they'll they'll take you off road which is the most exciting thing and so you're bouncing through um you know rivers and going up mountains into places you can find places where it feels like there isn't another soul on the planet that's a tip for later on but a guide is is always is always good um and of course there's the blue lagoon which is a sort of must do really and very close to the airport and you smell it before you see it the sulfur uh but you do get used to that and actually it's quite it's quite nice it's just a natural smell and it's very different it's very different it's just different did you go in the summer when it was light or we did yes yes yes mostly i've been in it in the summer months but the blue lagoon um it you you can go for a day or you can go and stay in the hotel and the hotel is extraordinary and we found out about the hotel because they shot one day of succession oh to there yes jeremy strong's character goes there for rehab so they went literally for a day to shoot at the blue lagoon and he had a couple of scenes there and he went back to the cast and said oh my god a lot of what we've done is based on where a lot of our travels are based on recommendations recommendations from succession uh so good yes yes yes that's that's what we like Where did they go in succession?

13:34So that's where they went. Was this worth going to, Matthew? Please. Yes, I think generally they're all worth going to. And actually a friend of mine worked on that show, Emily Fitzroy. Yes, well, Emily. That's actually, we'll get on to that. Okay, we'll get on to that. We're jumping the gun. Everyone needs Emily Fitzroy. Yes, everyone needs Emily Fitzroy in their life. In their contacts. Let's go on to your most unexpected travel experience. Actually, it's still in Iceland. I most recently went with my son, Miles, and he is very into nature and he's a big bird watcher. And we wanted to go and see some whales.

14:14So we timed it to try and do all of those things. And we went off for a trip together. And something that I've been trying to do with my children as they've got a little bit older is to spend a little bit of time with them. somewhere that they would like to to go uh one-on-one um and so miles said oh you know i'd love to go to iceland so off we went but it was quite recently it was last year um and the eruption started so our trip was quite well timed and everything was fine we did a bit of traveling had a lovely time saw the whales ticked off lots of bucket list things and had one last night at the blue lagoon and started to feel the the tremors and it's not unusual for people in iceland you know they're very relaxed about it this is quite a frequent you know it's it's but it is quite something if you haven't and miles hadn't felt haven't felt it before i was actually in corfu when we had an earthquake one morning which is also unexpected yes uh and and not not a huge one but enough that we we all felt it and it was quite unusual but by the end of our trip in iceland people were starting to be evacuated from the hotel and we made our way to the airport early but vases were were falling off the the water it was extraordinary to be somewhere during that time where there is a body of water because the water starts to move like you're in a pool with a wave machine.

15:58So we were watching this and all the little rocks are starting to fall down into the lagoon. And at the same time, it's hugely, at the same time as being terrifying, it's hugely exciting. And sort of quite life, again, it's visceral. you really feel there's so much about Iceland that makes you feel really alive you know from the water coming straight out of the earth into your glass to being shaken around and they're all taking it in their shrug oh another one but this one was quite a big one and over the next couple of weeks after we got home thank goodness he got out when you did yes yes yes so the timing was lucky for us but people were then evacuated and your son probably remembers that forever forever i mean i'll know it's impossible to to describe uh you know and of course there's the the northern lights and there's an alarm system so you can go to bed quite happily because you don't see them every night and you get a call the hotel calls you if they have appeared so you get an alarm 3 a.m saying it's a recorded alarm saying go to the roof the northern lights have appeared so everybody goes running up in their pajamas you know in their their dressing gown and you all stand on the roof of the hotel and and they are extraordinary aren't they the aurora borealis yes yes so we we saw the north that is very unexpected so it was all very unexpected what is your most overrated or underrated and this is hard because people don't like to say something that's overrated but you can say underrated as well no yeah I think my most underrated experience is well there are two things that I thought of one and probably lots of people have have said this as well but it's a good old-fashioned British holiday and we found it was it was after lockdown we we booked somewhere I think still couldn't really travel anywhere but we wanted to to get out of the house and we went to um Herefordshire and just as a as a family and we had it it was a week where the weather was you know we were blessed with good weather and it was just absolutely heaven and we jumped in the car and just a car journey can be quite memorable you know the kids were that bit older so it wasn't a nightmare we had the dogs everyone was in i'll keep we're all quite tall enough we all got in and um and we just had and then matthew's mum came along and joined she was able to come and join us because you know she could just she could drive there um and we just had i you know i think the uk generally can be quite underrated i saw a brilliant um documentary about scotland about the the it's a bit like the wild atlantic way but the scottish one version the route uh and i was really inspired to go and and do that yeah you know as well and i'd love to do the the the atlantic uh route as well in in ireland um and we also went to pet level quite recently which is just it's 10 minutes a 10 minute drive from Rye and they actually filmed a bit of Miss Austin there the beach scenes are at this beautiful location called Pet Level they have got beautiful beaches down there absolutely beautiful and again if you get a few days of good weather I think it is underrated and we aren't always blessed with the weather and I totally understand and I'm the first person to start looking at flights you know when when the weather's been bad for so long but you know when when we do get a bit of sunshine and and the sun does come out i mean there's nowhere nowhere nowhere but i also think another thing that i that i thought of was a guide is underrated and it's not something that that matthew and i have ever really done until we went recently to florence we didn't have very long in Florence we'd never done it and it was actually a tip from Emily who said let me introduce you to this lady Anna and she'll show you as much as she possibly can in a morning in Florence and it was another world um completely fascinating uh she was so knowledgeable and you know you just get straight to the heart of everything you you're not wandering around with a guidebook trying to you know we we came out of it with our brain feeling like our brains had had expanded did she take you to that secret corridor that she took us to the secret corridor we went and and just the history and the knowledge and so we did that again actually we got a guide uh i was lucky enough to work for five months last year in athens um can't stay away from greece so matthew came over and again we didn't have very long and um we we had a guide for a morning um and I think it's really worth um throwing a bit of your budget at a guide for a few hours and you you get so much out of it what were you filming in Athens so I um I was filming a show that's called The Assassin and uh it's written by jack and harry williams who i did the missing with um which was amazing quite a long time ago now uh and they've more recently uh written the tourist with jamie so tonally i would say it's more like the tourist than the missing it is about an assassin who i play uh so i i had quite a fun year i played uh uh cassandra austin you know and a an assassin kind of in the same space of a year and I'm about to play a nun so I've gone from an assassin to a nun so um very different it's very different yeah yeah it's it's it's it's a great job never a dull moment there's never a dull moment let's go on to food and drink food and drink is so important as part of travel yes we all love food we all love drink what's your favorite drink what's your favorite restaurant what do you like eating where do you like eating let's just talk about that I mean, I think the food in London has gone through the roof.

22:26We weren't always known for our culinary delights, were we? But I think it's some of the best in the world. There is a restaurant, and it was a recommendation again from Emily, and it's called the Sustanza Restaurant. and Matthew and I had gone on this Italian trip, partly because I was very jealous of his Italian trip with the succession guys. And I couldn't go and visit because it was during COVID. It was after, it was just sort of post-COVID, but still you weren't allowed to travel. So they were going all over, you know, they were having this fantastic time and he was saying, oh my God, you'd love it, you'd love it here.

23:09And I wasn't able to go. And I'm never really keen on set visits. You know, it's a bit of a busman's holiday. But when it came to Italy, I was like, hmm, OK, I would like to have gone. So he said, well, we'll go back. And so we did go back. And we started at Lake Como. And then we went to, we had a couple of days in Milan. And then we went to Florence. And we went to this restaurant called Sostanza. and you have to book, but you are sat with whoever else is sitting at the tables. So it's a lovely communal kind of experience. And we were sat next to a young couple who had just got engaged. And so we were sort of sharing, they're like, you know, sitting, chatting.

23:57Were they English? Chatting to them. They were American. And we had butter chicken and artichoke. They're famous for their buttered chicken and artichoke and strawberry semifredo. And very simple, but absolutely out of this world. And I'm not a big foodie. I love food and I appreciate good food. But this was my sort of, it wasn't fussy. Simple and delicious. Simple and delicious, exactly that, and really stayed with us. We often sort of reminisce and talk about that chicken. Yes. Where else did you go on your Italian trip? So we started in Lake Como, and we were, I mean, incredibly, we feel incredibly lucky everywhere that we're able to travel to.

25:01But we stayed at a hotel called Pasolacqua. which is one of my clients and it is one of the most beautiful places the setting the interiors the pool the staff the food just that location it is mind-blowingly beautiful everything about it we we there's a spa it's a small spa and they have something called the um the heat experience and you have to you you can book that and it's not very long it's sort of half an hour each booking uh you know and there's a sauna and a steam but it's again one of the most beautiful locations I've ever seen you know and they have a boat and so you go out on a trip onto onto the lake and just absolutely stunning.

25:59It takes your breath away. It really does. The owner has got such exquisite taste. And you feel like you're staying with, it doesn't feel like a hotel. That's the trick. And I think if you can make that work, you immediately feel relaxed. You don't have to spend any time of your holiday getting into the period of relaxation. You immediately feel relaxed and like you're staying in a friend's a very rich a very wealthy friend's house but in a very relaxed way in fact I was staying at Paso Lacqua when you and Matthew were there and it was the night that it was the last episode of Succession and it was going who was going to get the gig basically and I was watching it and I knew you were staying there I was so desperate to say so who gets it and then I thought no I can't possibly and I watched it and he's the man I luckily didn't see him at breakfast the next morning.

26:56Otherwise, I would have had to say something. But Passelacqua got voted the best hotel in the world last year. It doesn't surprise me. It is up there, I would say, with, you know, in the top three hotels that I've, we've ever been to and had the pleasure of just absolutely. And the weather wasn't even brilliant the week that we were there, which made it sort of even better because it just meant we could stay in that beautiful room and really appreciate it, you know, and looking out of the window at that view. And there's also, I mean, the food, you don't really have to leave the hotel. But if you do, there's a little pathway and you walk up.

27:40It goes up just at the back, literally at the back of the hotel. and there's a little pizza restaurant where the locals go so if you want to have a have a night out you grab your umbrella if it's raining which it was when we were there and you you go up the up the hill past a little church it's a tiny little square and there's a restaurant and full of local people with one of the best pizzas I didn't know about that ever so I'm going in May yeah may i shall be wandering up that hill looking for the pizzeria and go to the pizzeria so you said it's one of your top three what are the other two uh we last year we went to a hotel called hotel esencia how in mexico in mexico yes and again it used to be the resident it used to be owned by an italian duchess and is now owned by kevin wendell who is a producer in hollywood who I think he bought a chateau in France and started having people to stay and friends would say, you're really good at this.

28:46And so he then decided that actually he really enjoyed that and then expanded and bought and created Hotel Essentia. And again, it does that trick of making you feel at a friend's house and you feel immediately at home. And there's a little cove. There's something you can do and they encourage you to do when you're there. There's a little natural cove, which is a 10-minute walk from the hotel, but still within the grounds. And someone takes you and you go and you get into the water and you can either get in a little canoe or you can snorkel. And it's a natural cove and the manatee swim with you.

29:32so it is this extraordinary otherworldly experience i'll i'll give it to you as one of the the photographs and they come swimming up to you and again we were at that time with the we were the only people there swimming with them so that was that wasn't another unexpected moment because you're not guaranteed to see them because they're wild animals yeah but they come up they're very very gentle and they have a little investigation of you and then they and then they swim off and you come out gasping with joy and it's miraculous so uh there's there's also that there and what's your third um what is my third oh clifton's quite oh yeah i mean i i feel very very fondly of of clifton clifton and it's been through many iterations over the years and have you ever film there actually people are always filming there yes they're doing lots there i mean it's a bit like um downton abbey what's it called high clear that it reminds me of what you were talking about with the durrells where you said as they got more money from the thing it got better and i think high clear was the same it's such an amazing palace or whatever yes and as downton got more and more famous yeah the room don't make it too glamorous please um so i think i mean i i feel very fondly of it we we went there a bit when the children were little uh you know there's so much history of that pool and the pool is so christine you know there's the stories that come with it and again out of season when the national trust members are not walking around I thought that sounded terribly snobby, didn't it?

31:20I mean, I am a national traveler. But, you know, on a quiet day when the weather's not at its peak, you know, those grounds are extraordinary. What is your most poignant travel memory? Being in Corfu with my family and then having the experience that I've had later on in my life and revisiting in the way that I've been lucky enough to do. But being there and, you know, flying for the first time, sitting next to my father, who wasn't a huge traveler. I mean I'm not sure he had even flown at the point when we made that trip and I remember sitting next to him and being on the flight so that's quite Oh that's so lovely He was a cabbie wasn't he?

32:17He was yes Fantastic He was and I have a very clear memory of sitting on an airplane and thinking my god wow Wow, you know, you lose that. You know, we all lose that. We travel, we take it for granted. Everybody's on flights all the time. And I think, you know, it's good to remember just how special, how special it is, you know, that we can. We are so lucky and we do take it for granted. And actually, we were always even grumpy about it. You know, there's too many people at the airport and there's too many this. and actually when you step back and think we're going from this country to another place and we're so lucky.

33:01Yes, we are. That just reminded me, I did a show called The Midwich Cuckoos with lots of children. There were two sets of children, different ages playing the same parts and I did a scene with a little boy and his character name was Joe and he was a wonderful actor and we had to hold hands and we were getting ready to go for the take and we held hands and we got ready for action And he looked up at me and he said, God, isn't this great? And I thought, actually, yes, it is. It's great. Wow, this is so great. And I thought, you know, we all lose that. I mean, you know, I'm reminded quite often of my job when I'm sitting in Athens or, you know, having lovely time with people.

33:49I'm not unaware of how lucky I am. but it's that thing you know we do need to remind ourselves we're incredibly lucky and looking at it through the eyes of that little girl you know sort of seeing it for what it was for the first time the delight, the taking off you think my god the thrill of travel is just unlike anything else and you filmed a lot in Greece and obviously you did the Durrells and you've done that. Have you travelled a lot through work or have you done most stuff here? I have done most of my stuff, but weirdly and not by design. When the children were growing up, Matthew travelled much more than I did.

34:39My work was mainly based here. And then as they got a bit older, I did start to travel. but not a huge amount, which has been great. And you have never lived in LA or New York? No, no. I'm a fan of LA. I mean, I know it's not for everybody and I'm not sure I would like to live there. It's certainly a particular way of life, isn't it? But there's a lovely positivity that comes from the people there. And, you know, sunshine 365 days of the year. There's a lot to be said for that. I mean, I haven't been since the fires, so I'm going to go back. And obviously, I'm sure it will be a marked difference.

35:33But people who I know have been said, unless you go to the Palisades and things area, life is continuing. yeah that's exactly what I was with some people from LA last last week I actually went to Austin to the film festival in Texas last week oh did you and that's a place I'd never been lots of people coming in and out and Matthew had done a film called Holland with with the lovely Nicole Kidman and so they they were they had a screening of that there and I was on my way to New York to do some press for Miss Austin so I sort of jumped on on board and it's fantastic really unexpected people love Austin but yeah I really have you I haven't lots of people talk to me about it and they say the music scene is fantastic it's just such a great yeah yeah just culturally really exciting great energy and to be there with the film festival you know obviously that made a difference but um but a really exciting place have you been to the Venice Film Festival I haven't no because we have a hotel opening next year right next to the Cipriani okay um called Les Arelles and it's a it's going to be like Pasalacqua it's an old palazzo and the garden is bigger than the Cipriani's garden and if you are going for the film festival or not yeah you must go and stay because I think it's absolutely your type of hotel yes lovely I mean it's lovely to go place to go to places for work but it's nice much nicer to go and also it's lovely it's always very telling when you go for work and then you go back because you've enjoyed it so much absolutely and finally I asked you to bring a photo or some photos yes that sum up travel can you just tell us about the photos and tell us what they mean to you there's a photograph um from there's a passel aqua uh there's a photo photo of oh the other the other place in florence and i don't know actually if this is one of yours um the uh villa san michaeli oh it's a beautiful hotel on the yes i've got a photograph of both of us with the view behind terrible selfie uh with the view behind us which is again i mean magical Did you stay at the Villa San Michele?

38:00Yes. Yes. We've stayed there a couple of times. It was a repeat trip. It's a Belmond, which was Orient Express. That's right. That's right. Yes. Yes. Yes. Really lovely. So before I let you go, what's next for you? My next project is a six-part TV show for Channel 4 called Falling, which has been written by Jack Thorne, which I'm very excited about. and it is it's a love story so it's as far away from adolescence as you can as you possibly get and it's a love story between a nun and a Catholic priest how wonderful yes so I'm very excited about that and that's in Wales have you filmed that I was going to say where did that get filmed yes yes yes so we start shooting in April where in Wales are you filming in Wales I don't actually know this is the great thing about my job they just say we're going there then you you know hopefully the weather will be nice I know I know I do have to get in the sea uh western superman but I'm actually not opposed to a cold dip these days have you ever done one of these wellness things where you do that cold water swimming I am I'm not cold water swimming and I'm a little bit loath to share this because it's uh we we loved it so much but have you been to I also feel guilty not sharing it at the Adler Lodge in the South Tyrell no well it's it's as close to a wellness uh holiday that that you want to do that I would want to do um and it is sort of it's on the border it's in the South Tyrell so it's borders Germany and Austria and so but it has all the best bits of all of them um and and these outdoor saunas and uh steam rooms and this whole experience that you can go on and then you go walking uh in the in the most beautiful countryside tiny little train that goes along and so you can jump on that into the nearest town which again is just picture perfect uh beautiful just a couple of couple of restaurants but the the food is sort of italian and but it feels quite Germanic in its way that they look after you and you go and get sawned and scrubbed.

40:26I actually do like that Teutonic-ness I must say I go to a fasting clinic every January and there's one in Marbella and there's one in Lake Constance and I go to the German one because I need that discipline. Yes. I think if I went to Marbella I'd want to go and have a cappuccino on the beach and a pizza. It's very hard isn't it yeah because you you get pulled into the so But actually, this has the best of all worlds. And I would highly recommend it. And the air is just... So although that's a wonderful travel secret for us, it's something you don't really want to share. But thank you. Thank you so much for sharing it with us.

40:59I can't wait to see you as a nun. Thank you. I'm looking forward to seeing you as an assassin. I'm looking forward to seeing you as an assassin. I don't know. I'll carry that off, but it should be fun. It's such a beautiful story. and again it's you know like Miss Austen it's it's a story about love and what it is to be human I think you know so love in all its in its many forms well I hope to send you to many wonderful places around the world we may bump into each other at Plasalacqua again I will definitely come and say hello this time and it's been a joy and delight to meet you and go around the world with you thank you so much thank you so much for having me thank you so much for listening to this episode of travel secrets i'm loving making this podcast and want it to reach as many people as possible to build this community of fellow travelers so please do subscribe on your favorite podcast app and share with a friend i'll be back next week and remember this podcast might not change your life but it might just change your plans

42:12Thank you.