‘It’s too easy to get caught up in a moment’
Maureen Coleman, 49, lives in Belfast. It’s not that I think there’s anything wrong with a holiday romance – I’ve had a few of them myself. It’s just I don’t think they can – or should – ever become anything more than what they are – a fling. I used to love going on holidays with friends and meeting a handsome local man to share a few kisses with. In the past I’ve met and dated a Norwegian welder, an Austrian soldier and an Italian ski instructor. Some romances lasted a few hours, some a few days, and they were exciting at the time. But I’d never dreamt any of them would ever become more – until I met Mario*.
Intense encounter
It was June 2015 and I was on holiday in southern Italy with my aunt. Aged 46, I’d been single for a while and wasn’t looking for anything serious. Mario was good-looking, funny and smart, affectionate, and very persistent. We spent most of the holiday together, and when it was time to leave we were both distraught. As I got ready to go he suggested he could move to Ireland to work for the winter, and I could return to Sorrento with him the following summer. It was so romantic I said yes straight away. Back home, I started to worry what I’d got myself into. It all seemed too much, too fast. Every time we spoke on the phone we argued, things being lost in translation. Quickly we both realised that – in the real world – our personalities clashed too much. We didn’t get on at all. Eventually, after seven months of finding excuses not to be together, we agreed it was never going to work. Looking back I can see I fell for the dream, not the man. It’s too easy to get caught up in the romance of blue skies and azure seas, when you don’t know each other at all. My experience has taught me one thing, though – that holiday romances, for me at least, are best left where they belong — on holiday.
‘In the real world we clashed and didn’t get on’