the drive to his villa was of little interest to tom at first , they were part of a steady stream of motorway traffic heading west and the views from the car were unremarkable : distant mountains , blue and hazy , glimpsed between gaps in unending rows of billboards advertising everything from holiday homes to electric drills , sprawling housing estates clinging to the sides of the hills , their swimming pools glinting blue and silver in the sun , theme parks , leisure centres , diy hyper-markets , conference centres , shopping malls .