FUN AT LA FATTORIA DEL GELSO

Wow! We've spent several days with our friends Bill and Suzy, at their villa, La Fattoria del Gelso. The villa is just outside of Cannara, surrounded by farmland and views of Assisi...not too shabby! Over the next few weeks I hope to share most, if not all, of our amazing experiences...we tasted wine....and more wine, and olive oil and went truffle hunting and ate some amazing food.

I'll start this series with a story about something funny that happened as we were leaving the villa this morning. Bill and Suzy had gotten up early to take another guest to the train station in Foligno. The train left the station around 7:15, so we expected them to be back before eight o'clock....but eight o'clock came, then 8:15, then 8:30, and still no Bill and Suzy. We all just assumed that they'd gone straight to Wendy's office for a series of meetings she'd scheduled for them, but we were disappointed that we wouldn't be able to say goodbye.

Bill and Suzy had suggested that we just hang around the villa and wait until the meetings were over, but this being Italy, there was really no guarantee when the meetings might be over. We weren't sure if the technician was going to come this afternoon to service the caldaio, so we knew we'd have to leave sometime in the morning. Just as we were hemming and hawing about whether or not we should go, who should walk in the door but - Bill and Suzy! Needless to say we were all a bit surprised, and when they told us where they'd been (and why), we all practically fell on the floor laughing.

The train from Foligno to Rome had been running late, and when it did finally arrive Bill helped Dick onto the train, carrying one of his suitcases until they found his reserved seat. Bill had checked the train schedule and knew that the stop in Foligno was scheduled for three minutes. What he didn't know was that apparently in an effort to make up for lost time the train wouldn't wait the full three minutes. Just as Bill was putting Dick's suitcase in the overbid bin, he noticed the train was moving!! I'm not sure if he even got to wave arrividerci to Suzy, but he was headed to Rome with Dick!

Luckily the next stop was Spoleto, not too far away, but unfortunately he just missed the train that was pulling out of the station headed back to Foligno. Amazingly there was another train due in about 30 minutes, so he knew he wouldn't have long to wait. Since both Bill and Suzy had their cell phones with them, they'd been in contact and no one was in a panic. Of course they did have to call and cancel that first appointment with Wendy! And since Bill had the only key to the rental car, Suzy just waited at the station until Bill returned a little over an hour later. What a way to start the day!

For us, it was just further proof that when you're with Bill and Suzy you just never know what's going to happen, but you can be sure that in the end everyone will be laughing and having a great time! I can't wait to write about Bill and Suzy, about the villa itself, and about all the amazing things we did!