Monday 27th May

Monday 27th May

This is Memorial Day in USA and, I think a Bank Holiday in U.K. After getting up, we dressed so that we could pick up Stefania after she dropped her car off at the garage where she has it fixed in the nearby village. One of the warning lights went off the other day and the car is almost certainly due for a service so today, with nothing but office work to do, is a good day for her to be without a car. We are here to ferry her anywhere, if needed.

It is another rather dreary day, with showers at times and very overcast skies. The weather map on television shows that most of the Italian peninsular is covered by rain, thunderstorms and general cloudiness. Not sure when this gloom will clear, hopefully soon. The mountains and hills to the west of us are obscured by the mist and rain. 

Bruno has gone into Pescara to organize the party for Stefania’s 75th birthday which is on Wednesday, this week, May 29th. I think it will be at a restaurant in Pescara. We still want to take them both to this Michelin starred place called La Bandeira which is in this Cugnoli area.  We are hoping that we can do this on Thursday this week. We also have plans to cook a meal in this house and serve it to them but finding a day to do it and planning a suitable menu is tricky. Bruno is a picky eater so we have to try to find food which is suitable for him.

Bruno has a strange life. He doesn’t really like the country life, I think and much prefers to be in Pescara where there is more action and his friends are. He likes to read a lot and takes most of the newspapers and reads them every day. Of course, he is in his eighties now and looks great so he is entitled to live his life how he likes and he seems contented. Stefania seems, on the other hand to like being busy and organizing things. I guess that age is slowing her down a little and, not surprisingly, with the pace she maintains she gets tired, especially at the weekends with the parties which do require a lot of work and attention to detail. 

One of the bugbears of this business are the ‘review sites’ such as TripAdvisor. A poor review, even over a trivial matter or even a review meant for another establishment and posted to this one, can cause untold harm. There is even the possibility of malicious posts from competitors. All this requires attention as, if there is a poor review, the establishment has limited time to refute it and not doing so allows it to stand. For Stefania with limited time and limited computer skills, it is a chore and she really needs some secretarial or office help with the bureaucratic side of the business which often occupies quite a bit of her time in the evenings after the day’s work is done. It is a great pity that none of her grand-daughters, at this stage of their lives, show any real interest in the business. They may change as time goes on and they see what a good life this can offer. But, they may have been imbued with city life and not want to be isolated in the country until, maybe they are married and settled down with children when the charms of city life have faded. As they are now all in late teens, this may be some years yet. The whole complex has a wonderful ambience with the views of the mountains and hill villages, the animals, the pool the farm, the olive trees, the fireflies on summer nights, the gardens with vegetables and flowers, the fruit trees and general feeling of anti-stress. It would be a shame to have it fall into the wrong hands or to fundamentally change. Of course, there could be amenities added such as some sort of spa treatments or other activities but these require quite a bit of management and outlay. There is plenty to do in the surrounding area and within easy reach. The whole area of the Maiella National Park is a hikers dream as is Campo Imperatore. The small villages and towns in the area are all charming and seemingly deserted but all have buildings and churches worth exploring. Some have churches and cathedrals far in excess of what might be expected of a town or village of their size.

We spent most of the day at LFMD and despite our protests we were served lunch at 1 p.m.!!! As Stefania did not have here car here and Bruno was in Pescara we were her life line if she needed to run any errands so we stayed close. Gradually, as the morning wore on, the weather seemed to brighten.

During the afternoon, Stefania worked on a mountain of bureaucratic stuff which she has to report to the inspectors when they make random calls on her. She has to report all her purchases and even the description of the food that she serves. It is a big chore for her but as we sat outside with me working on the blog and MAC on her phone she managed to make some progress with the tasks.

We had a ‘light’ dinner at 7.30 p.m. and chatted for a while before going off to bed.