“I’m in Sorrento. Don’t want to go home to a dead cat,” Ariane read out loud from her Twitter Feed, sitting up in her bed, silhouetted against the aquamarine sky and the unmistakable mound of Mount Vesuvius. “Top Gear is being filmed in Sorrento,” she continued, having established from a single Tweet that the crew were in the same town to produce their 2014 summer special.

Cue excited chatter about how much she loved the programme and fast cars in general. Within five minutes, 10 hours of sunburn-induced moping were magically forgotten and she was dressed, off to join the Sorrentine passegiata, our mum and I trailing behind her as we have done all her life.