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We had loved Rome. It is a beautiful city that we will definitely return to in the future. It had, however, rained …….a lot! Wherever our next destination was going to be, we wanted it to be sunny!

Sunny, in January, in Europe? It could only be one of the Canary Islands.

Gran Canaria is our favourite of all the Canary Islands. We have visited here many times before, usually in February or November and have always had great weather.

The promise of sunshine and miles of golden sandy beaches were just too much of a temptation so, not surprisingly, we were more than happy to choose this as our next destination.

This meant that once again we needed to get our COVID PCR tests. The conditions of the test to enter Spain when we travelled were:-

• PCR test must be taken within 72 hours of travelling
• The result must be negative
• The result must be printed in Spanish, English, French or German

We decided to stick with our tried and tested ‘Test – Flights – Accommodation’ order of preparation. The test is always the first and most important to do as without a negative result any money spent on flights and accommodation will have been wasted.

Once we get our negative test result, we then book the flights and finally, accommodation.

The Test, First attempt

We went ahead and booked our tests for Friday morning. With flights available from Rome to Gran Canaria on Sunday evening and the results of the tests promised within 36 hours, even with the ten-hour wait between flights the timing for us was still Ok.

We arrived at the clinic in good time. The nurse spoke very little English but welcomed us into a small office. She told us to sign all the necessary paperwork. We paid our €60 each and sat down to wait for our turn.

I suddenly remembered we needed to check that the results would be printed in English. I went to double-check with the nurse who told me that they wouldn’t! She said all results are only provided in Italian. This was a big problem!

It didn’t make sense. Almost everyone having these tests were travellers leaving the country. English seemed always to be a condition of acceptance so they must be aware of this? Which country other than Italy would ask for the results to be in Italian?

We had just coughed up €120 and were now sitting waiting for our names to be called to take a test that was going to give us a result that was not valid for our travel!

With the aid of google translate, we explained our predicament to the nurse. She understood but had no solution to offer us. Thankfully though, she was happy to refund our cash. We now needed, fairly sharpish, to think of a plan B

The Test – Second attempt

It was now too late for us to rearrange another test in time to travel to Gran Canaria on Sunday. Also, our lack of Italian meant phoning around other clinics to rearrange the test was proving to be really difficult.

We needed help so contacted our host. She was great and started to contact other clinics on our behalf. Her first few attempts failed. It seemed that clinics only providing the results in Italian was not as rare as we thought.

Eventually, her persistence paid off. She managed to find us a suitable clinic. They were happy to provide the results in English and also were able to offer them within 36 hours. Those extra 12 hours really helped with the logistics for the rest of the journey.

We arranged to visit the clinic the following Monday morning. The downside was that these tests were €95 each! An extra €35 each to translate ‘Negative’ or ‘Positive’ into ‘Negativo’ or ‘Positivo’. I had a feeling we had been robbed!

We had the first booking of the day so arrived promptly at 7.30 am. This was the most thorough test we have had so far. We had a throat swab plus a nose swab in both nostrils! Maybe they were trying to justify the extra €70? Maybe the nurse had a sadistic streak? we’ll never know. What I do know is it didn’t half make my eyes water!

The flight(s) to Gran Canaria

Now we could check for flights. There was plenty available. Some at a great time. Some at a great price. Unfortunately, none at a great time and a great price. Not surprisingly, this created a Dean/Angeloudis heated discussion. I wanted a great price and Karyo wanting a great time. Much to my surprise, I won the argument! Even Karyo agreed that a €100 per person split flight was the best option. The only other option was a €400 per person direct flight so a no brainer really.

We booked both flights with Iberia airways. The first flight was Rome to Madrid on Wednesday evening. We then had a long ten-hour overnight wait in Madrid airport before the second leg of the journey which was the next morning, Madrid – Gran Canaria.

Hopefully, it would all go to plan. The time condition of the COVID test meant that there was no allowance for any of the flights to be delayed or even worse, cancelled. It was going to be a long journey!

What could go wrong?

Our travel plans so far were already quite risky. We were still waiting for the results of our PCR COVID tests. We also had two flights booked, either of which could be delayed or cancelled. On top of this we also knew that because of high COVID infections in the UK, all flights to the Canaries from the UK were cancelled. We were uncertain whether, because of this, my UK passport would be an issue when we eventually arrived in Gran Canaria. We had not been in the UK for five months. The customs officers, however, would not know that. Karyo uses his Greek I.D. to travel so this would not be a problem for him.

All these risk elements made us reluctant to book our accommodation in advance. Should our arrival to Gran Canaria not go to plan we would have the hassle having to cancel the accommodation or even worse, risk losing the money we had paid for it. Having said that, we also did not want to arrive with no accommodation booked.

Our solution was to decide on our accommodation, then contact the host, explain our situation, and ask if they would be happy for us not to confirm the booking until we had actually landed.

So that is what we did!, we checked the Airbnb listings and found a really nice bungalow. We messaged the host on Tuesday evening and explained that we really wanted to stay but outlined our risk concerns about possible arrival issues we may face. She kindly agreed to hold the dates for us and was happy for us fully confirm on arrival.

So many things could have gone wrong but amazingly for us, they didn’t. What had seemed like our most complicated travel arrangements ever actually went like clockwork. With such a whirlwind itinerary everything still managed to go exactly to plan!

Travel itinerary from Rome to Gran Canaria!

• PCR COVID tests taken Monday 7.30 am
• Flights booked Monday 2 p.m
• Negative test results received Wednesday 2 pm
• Flight Rome – Madrid Wednesday 7.30 p.m ( On time!)
• Flight Madrid – Gran Canaria Thursday 8 am (On time!)
• Arrive Gran Canaria 9.30 am Thursday ( No passport issues!)
• Book accommodation Thursday 10 am
• Arrive at accommodation Thursday 12 noon

At last, we arrived, exhausted, in our new home for the next month.. or maybe longer. We are looking forward to a month of doing not much at all !