Let me use one lovely old wooden lake pier as an illustration. I visited Lake Garda last month and that pier was the focus of a waterfront view that held all three generations of my family spellbound. Nothing could draw any of us away, no unfinished bestseller, no uncompleted Nintendo level, not even two scoops of pistachio from the gelateria downstairs.

From the terrace of our £152-a-night, three-bedroom apartment we would watch captivated as life on the lake unfolded: elderly ladies doing breaststroke at dawn; young couples smooching at dusk; teens baking in the sunshine, their skin shiny with Piz Buin; children back-flipping off the pier edge into the bottle-green water.