Kindred Souls: Our 'Special Italian Friends'

I am always amazed when life haphazardly navigates you down a road that leads to a new experience, or meeting new people & this ends up changing you, for the best. You step back & think "WHAT IF we hadn't taken this path?!" -- you cannot fathom having missed out on your newfound extraordinary. This has been the case for us with our "Special Italian Friends", as I've affectionately dubbed them in previous posts.

Our Special Italian Friends are our landlady & her son, daughter-in-law & their 2 children (Giovanna, Riccardo, Annalisa, Marta & Guido). They stumbled into our life simply because we are renting the guesthouse of Giovanna's villa. I found this place online & through many (many!) emails & months of correspondence we secured a lease & arrived on August 27, 2019. We'd never actually seen the home, only photos, & I remember being so dang nervous as we drove up the road & said a little "please let it be ok" seconds before we turned into the driveway. Well, it was more than ok-- not only because the accommodations are lovely, but even moreso because this entire family is the epitome of kind, hospitable, warm, welcoming, generous & friendly. I'm sure I could cram 10 more adjectives in here, too, but you get the jist.

From the moment we arrived in the sweltering, humid Florentine summer heat, surely sweating & icky from our 7-hour jaunt south from Switzerland, we were greeted with hugs & kisses, bottles of wine & olive oil, pasta, bread, dolce, enthusiasm & a genuine happiness that we were there. Complete strangers, Americans, standing on their property & you'd have thought we were their long-lost, dear friends. It's been this way from day 1 & every day since.

A couple days after we settled in Annalisa called us & asked if she might take the morning & show us around the greater Florence area, helping us get acquainted with our new surroundings & find nearby essentials (grocery stores, post office, swimming pools, soccer stadio & so on). We gladly accepted & were so awestruck that she drove us here, there & everywhere & eventually, stopped at a cafe so we could enjoy a coffee & some easy conversation together. I, heartbreakingly, thought-- if the shoe were on the other foot & foreigners rented a place of ours, would we have gone to this length? The honest answer is no. We would've had some nice printed piece for them with restaurant & shopping suggestions plus not-to-be-missed sites, perhaps a sheet with important phone numbers, but we would not have reached out in such a personal way.

Fast forward a couple weeks & this family began inviting us to what I assume is their somewhat sacred, Sunday lunches. It's the one day a week everyone has firmly booked in their calendars where they spend 2-3 hours dining alfresco, on Giovanna's beautiful patio. Pasta, meats, vegis, wine, dessert, conversation, laughter, full-belly afternoon naps in the sunshine, we somehow were privileged enough to join for it all.

In late September we asked if they'd watch Caiden for a few hours so we could go out for our anniversary dinner, despite having known them just a few weeks. In October they invited us to their annual olive harvest which was hard work but exhilarating. Not sure we could have immersed in a more Italian, Tuscan experience & it all finished with a big, boisterous, celebratory dinner in Giovanna's home.

We've gone to outdoor festivals & theater performances with them. We invited them to our house for Stephen's 50th birthday dinner -- just us & them & it was a most perfect evening. We had a wonderful Natale/Christmas dinner & gift exchange with them a few weeks back & went ice-skating & to a pizza lunch a few weeks after that.

We genuinely like & care deeply for these people. We connect with them, we hit it off with them near instantly as we see the world very similarly, we have similar ethics & values & have raised our children in the same ways. Interestingly, the kids do have a language barrier-- Caiden speaking his little bits of Italian & Marta/Guido speaking their little bits of English, but they get along famously. Anytime we're together the 3 of them zip off instantly & have a ball together.

I chuckle because Stephen & Riccardo even look alike with their short silver hair & thick-rimmed glasses & share a true love of Ducatis; Annalisa & I are near the same height, build & share the same eye & hair color. We all have had a few "huh..." moments realizing all the big & little similarities.

We talk to them about a time when we will go back home & how they must! come see us & we get so excited to someday show them San Francisco, the ocean & coast, Tahoe, maybe Yosemite, maybe Disneyland. I know that one of the hardest things about leaving, someday, will be saying goodbye to these wonderful people & most special friends.

This experience, this situation -- it inspires me. I am in the hospitality industry & I think about how we greet folks visiting Truckee/Tahoe, whether they're from the Bay Area, Australia, Austin or China. Do we make them feel like it's our absolute pleasure to welcome them to our town -- to our lodging? Do we make them have to toss a coin as to which is better-- our accommodations or us, our service, our friendliness, our 'genuine hospitality', as is my company's motto? My answer would be sometimes yes, sometimes no.

I hope & anticipate our Italian Adventure will change me, in many ways. For one, I want/need it to "soften" some of the sharp edges I've developed over the years (I'll save that for another blog). I want to have a deeper connection with, & prioritization of, my family. I want to speak kinder words & think kinder thoughts & reset my inner mechanics to a tune of less stress & running & treadmill-like working Mom insanity. I also want to be the person who takes lessons from our Special Italian Friends & moves about my life with re-imagined, re-inspired warmth, openness & welcoming, remembering always the way they made us feel & passing that on to the someones of whatever personal & professional pathways lie ahead.