[Brian Allgar]

Gail, there is a missing blank in the original posting which makes it look as if 'July' is part of the address. The address should be

comp@newstatesman.co.uk

[Chris O'Carroll]

Thanks for spotting (Gail) and correcting (Brian) my silly typo. (Or was it just an innocent typo? Was it really a sly attempt to nobble the competition? Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?) I hope that anybody who's had trouble sending a submission will try again now that the problem has been fixed.

[Gail White]

Many thanks, Brian!

[Gail White]

And here's my entry. It's all true, too, except the bit about the Trevi fountain.

Hey friends: You were all wrong about driving in Italy. It's a piece of cake if you have GPS. True, Ms. Garmin tried to send me down a staircase in Siena, and I crossed the Apennines on a series of hairpin curves that beat the most sickening roller coaster ride of my life. I also had to back 300 feet down a one-way street that ended in a cliff in Ancona. But the most fun was in Rome, where I mastered the art of driving on one-lane alleys with cars parked on both sides. Roman drivers are a bunch of wacky cut-ups, but they had to respect me after my dramatic moonlight crash into the Trevi fountain. Fortunately I had collision insurance - don't leave home without it.