Turin airport might be fine in the summer when you step off the plane into the sunshine and saunter through passport control in time to grab your luggage.

Not so in the winter, when the airport is heaving with enthusiastic but crabby package-holiday skiers, keen to get their bags and skis as fast as possible.

The airport has only one, enormously long, winding conveyor belt in the arrivals' lounge, on to which all the luggage from all incoming flights is thrown. It also moves slower than most novice skiers. We waited two hours for our bags and skis - and forget about trying to get a trolley. There's only about one to every 20 people or so.

Perhaps the Italians think the rest of us Europeans have muscles big enough to carry our luggage on our backs - or maybe it's just their way of reminding us that you're supposed to get fit before you go on holiday.