A break can be a chance to recharge the batteries and refresh the mind, to take stock of daily life and see things from a different perspective.

I’ve been away in Italy and being abroad offered up an alternative view of the latest events. Italian TV, it transpired, is every bit as partial as the UK when it comes to their Olympic coverage.

So while British athletes were winning medal after medal in the pool, the rowing lake and the Seine, we were instead fed a contrasting diet of sports that the Italians were good at.

That turned out to be a lot of fencing and martial arts. The only saving grace was the strength of Italy’s female gymnasts, which at least meant we got to watch a bit of Simone Biles.

Even in Italy, it was difficult to escape the horrific events in Southport and the murder of three children at a dance workshop.

That has been followed by a week of rioting, initially sparked by false claims about the identity of the person responsible, which were then amplified on social media by the usual far right suspects.

The consequence has been a rash of lawlessness and looting across the country: ransacking a branch of Lush, for example, is not usually considered a form of protest.

For part of our holiday, we were staying in Bologna, which the guidebook happily told us boasted the oldest university in the world and was where both tortellini and Ragu originated.

What the guidebook skipped over were the events of 2 August 1980, when a bomb planted by a far-right organisation exploded at Bologna Station, killing 85 and wounding another 200. Last Friday, to mark the anniversary of the atrocity, a huge march took place in the city.

I didn’t see the march myself, but I did spend quite a large part of the week at Bologna Station, waiting for a series of delayed trains and sheltering from the heat in exactly the same spot as those who were killed 44 years ago. It’s hard not to read about those events without a shiver rippling down your spine.

Equally chilling were reports on Monday that far-right activists in the UK were now sharing an ‘arson manual’, together with details on how to make homemade petrol bombs.

It’s a challenging scenario for the authorities to deal with – there’s no obvious organised groupings or leaders to go after – but reading about the background to the Bologna bombing, it’s easy to see how these situations can escalate.

Which is why those using the Southport killings for their own ends need to be brought to book, together with those hiding behind a computer screen, encouraging their actions.