The inner voice persists. Perhaps Judith, on this matter, is not as principled as he supposes. He ignores it. He downloads the spreadsheet from his Palm Treo onto his computer. Most of the calculations are simple: he divides them by two. The costs of the hotels are more complicated. The bill from the Hotel Palazzo Solaia incorporates the €670 per person for the Christmas package which included two nights in a deluxe room, complimentary buffet breakfast, a bottle of prosecco, home-made sweets and biscuits on arrival, a Christmas surprise (what was it? Jomier cannot remember), and the Christmas lunch in the hotel restaurant with the excellent wine. There are also the four extra nights @ €250 (discounted from €285) making the basic cost of the stay at the Hotel Palazzo Solaia €2,340. In fact it had been €3203.18 because of breakfast (not included on the extra nights), some room service, laundry, drinks from the minibar and at the bar, the Herald Tribune, calls by Judith to her children on Christmas Day.

Jomier has promised to pay for the upgrade but what element of the Palazzo Solaia bill constitutes the upgrade? And what expenses would they have incurred if they had they remained at the Albergo Manzoni? If they had stayed at the Albergo for six more nights, Judith’s share of the cost would have been a mere €240 (6 × €80 = €480 divided by two). This makes the four extra nights at the Palazzo Solaia easy to calculate: Jomier pays €760, Judith €240. But what element of the two-night inclusive Christmas package constituted the cost of the room, and what the inclusive breakfasts, Christmas lunch, home-made sweets, Prosecco and so on? Jomier proceeds on the basis that the cost of the room is the same as the ‘special rate’ they paid for the rest of their stay: thus he pays €420 and Judith €80 for the room. This leaves the balance of the special offer (€840) to be divided by two. In retrospect, €420 per person seems a great deal of money to have paid for the welcome pack of prosecco, home-made sweets, etc., buffet breakfasts and a seven-course Christmas dinner; but the wine was excellent and the food superb. Nothing is for nothing. They had a wonderful week in a comfortable hotel in the centre of the most beautiful city in the world.

But this reassurance that the money was well spent does not solve the vexing question of apportionment of expenses on the spreadsheet. Judith could argue, says Jomier’s patient but all the same tiresome inner voice, that if they had remained at the Albergo Manzoni and eaten a simpler Christmas dinner in a local restaurant, it would have been cheaper than the seven-course lunch at the Palazzo Solaia. And they could have found breakfast for less than €40.