I arrived at Gran Canaria airport late on Saturday afternoon on a flight from London. It was March 2nd and I had left behind a British winter that seemed to never run out of rain so the heat of this Spanish island was a welcome respite. Somewhere in the arrivals hall was Cristina, my model and traveling companion for the next week, who had also just arrived from Rome.

We had been chatting about this trip for the past two months but had never met before. We shared selfies via WhatsApp so as to be easier to identify in the busy airport. Cristina was born in the Ukraine, but has lived in Italy for the past nine years and to my untrained ear sounded more Italian.