For Sale: Foffa Single Speed Custom-built bicycle

We'd just finished the Raid Dolomites, a 1200 km ride from Thonon-les-Bains to Trieste and were checking into our final hotel iin Trieste.

Much was being said about the terrible smell on the 2nd floor and, after getting my room key from reception for a room on the same floor, I headed up there. As soon as you walked along the corridor the smell was over powering and I walked swiftly to my room, opened the door and closed it rapidly behind me. Then I realised I'd left my bag in the lobby so, after sticking my head out of the window and filling my lungs with fresh(er) air, I dashed back down the corridor and took the stairs to reception.

As I retrieved my bag, two paramedics headed into the lift with a stretcher.

Some of my fellow travellers asked me about the smell and I confirmed it was bad. A couple of minutes later, I headed back upstairs and noticed the manager in a very animated conversation with one of the maids, opposite the room where the smell was emanating from. He was pleading with her but she clearly needed more persuasion to undertake the terrible task he wanted her to do.

As I walked past them heading to my room, the door of the room opened and, even today, some ten years later, the image I saw remains vivid in my mind. Inside the paramedics were bringing out an old lady in her nightie, covered in human excrement and the bed and walls of the room also had a fine covering of it. The stench was unbelieveable and I gagged as I burst into a run to get to my room and away from it. After a quick shower, I left the room and headed out for lunch, the door to room 212 ominously shut and the smell still lingering.

Later we found out from one of the staff that the old lady had been booked into the hotel by her family whilst they went away on holiday. Whether she'd had some kind of breakdown or had decided to stage her own dirty protest was unclear.

I imagine the maid still has nightmares about the job she had to undertake.