Indoor swimming pool

Corner of the swimming pool with bar of sunlight

Italy may have cold winters, but ‘sunny’ would definitely be the default weather.

Positioned behind the patio door (a garage door when we bought the house) the indoor pool gets a generous helping of sunshine on many winter days.

The sun might warm the water by half a degree, certainly no more, but the psychological effect is far more significant.

While I’d never contemplate swimming at 18, 19 or 20 degrees Celsius without a wetsuit after dark or on dark days, bright aquamarine water lures me in without one and so far it doesn’t seem to have done me any harm.

It’s also a lot less hassle.

The pool is just too cool (literally)

The pool steps are finally finished – a builders’ finish if ever there was one. They consist of raw blocks with no surfacing or decoration of any sort, so we now have the challenge of working out how to make them presentable.

Inside steps

Clive went in for a bathe this morning. The photo is of the inside steps, borrowed from the outside pool, which were there to receive him.

The trouble is he found it very cold, primarily due to his lymphedema. The temperature of the water was between 26 and 27 degrees Celsius and I’ve since changed the thermostat so that it’s between 28 and 29 degrees, but he doesn’t think it will make a lot of difference.

I daren’t increase it much more because of the pool liner and also condensation problems in the room so I’m at rather a loss as to what to do.

Any ideas, anyone?