If you’d told Caroline Toplis four years
ago that she’d be looking forward to celebrating Valentines’ Day as a newly-wed
this week she wouldn’t have believed you. Sadly widowed after nearly 30 years
in 2010, looking for romance was not something she was even contemplating when
she booked a cooking holiday in October 2010. We caught up with her last week to find out
more about the story behind this year’s unexpected Valentines celebrations.
Flavours
Holidays: So had you ever been on holiday on your
own before, Caroline?
Caroline: Never; sadly in May 2010 I lost my husband of nearly 30 years.
We’d been together since we were very young so I’d never done any solo
travelling in my youth or even had many trips away with girlfriends. Holidays
had always been about us as a family. When I lost my husband, my world was
turned upside down. I anxious to try and make positive changes and move forward
in my life. I hated the feeling that ‘nothing could ever be the same again’ and
that my life was frozen. So in addition to learning to be a bit more practical
around the house I decided to take another positive step and plan a holiday for
myself. I knew I didn’t want to go on holiday on my own on a classic package
tour – the thought of sitting lonely on a sun lounger next to a swimming pool
horrified me. However, going on a dating week was equally unappealing. I just
wanted to get away and not have to impose as a ‘gooseberry’ on my friends who
were all busy making holiday plans at the time.
I’d always enjoyed cookery so I thought
perhaps a week away learning new recipes might be a good way to ease myself
into the concept of going away alone. I did a lot of googling and came up with
a Flavours cooking holiday in Italy. Whilst the company clearly welcomed solo
travellers, it didn’t look like a classic holidays for singles which appealed to
me.
Flavours
Holidays: So how did you feel when you first set
off on holiday?
Caroline:
Excited but pretty terrified really. I needn’t have
worried however. When I arrived at the airport, the villa host put me at ease
immediately. At the villa, Livia introduced me to my fellow travellers. It was
a small group, some were there for cookery like me and the others were learning
Pilates. However soon we all got to know each other.
Caroline: The week of my holidays for singles passed incredibly quickly and at the end of it I actually
realised I’d had a really nice time – something I hadn’t actually been
contemplating with all the anxiety I’d experienced around booking the trip in
the first place. I then booked to go away the following summer to Umbria.
Flavours
Holidays: So did you meet your husband in Umbria?
Caroline: No, we met on my next trip. I’d spent my first New Year’s Eve
without my husband babysitting my grandson. I decided I wanted to do something
for me to ring in New Year 2012. So when I spotted that Livia, my delightful
villa host from Sicily, was leading a special New Year’s Eve tour I decided to
go back for a New Year’s holiday.
Sicily enjoys a wonderfully mild climate,
so it was a really pleasant place to be in December, too. Matt was amongst the tour
group. There were quite a lot of us, around a dozen in total, but we all gelled
really quickly over cookery lessons and sightseeing trips and it was a really
happy New Year.
Flavours
Holidays: So was this a holiday romance?
Caroline:
No, not at all. During the trip we just got on as
part of the group. I didn’t even really consider there could be anything more
at that point, it was just an enjoyable holiday. When we all returned to the
UK, we swapped emails and kept in touch via Facebook. Gradually, Matt and I
struck up an email correspondence over the next few weeks. He then invited me
to be his date at a dinner dance. To be quite honest, that was the first time
I’d considered that there may be the possibility of more than friendship between
us and to my surprise I was excited and ready to find out. So I said yes. At
the time Matt lived in Leicestershire, which was only an hour or so from my
home in Yorkshire so it was easy to keep in touch and get to know each other.
We married nearly 18 months after we first met and were delighted to have a
number of our original travelling companions at the ceremony.
Flavours
Holidays: A love of cookery brought you together,
is cookery an important part of your marriage?
Caroline: Most definitely, yes. We often unwind on a Friday night trying out
new recipes and rediscovering old favourites. Naturally we both enjoy Italian
cuisine. My favourite is fresh crab and prawn ravioli,
whereas Matt loves to cook risotto. We still both have a keen interest in
becoming better cooks and will be departing on our first Flavours cooking holiday
together in May, this time to Puglia.
Flavours
Holidays: So how will you be celebrating your first
Valentine’s Day together as a married?
Caroline: We
plan to let someone else do the cooking and have dinner at a local restaurant,
obviously raising a glass or two of Prosecco.
