Reflections on My 40 Years in Umbria

The hospitality business is often a difficult one: striving to please, understand, relate to, communicate with, anticipate expectations, be attentive to but not intrusive! In many ways it is an art - a complex art of welcoming stranger and helping them feel at home, at ease, special and part of the inn - encouraging them to move about and use the inn as theirs.

Naturally, due to personality and cultural differences, this is more easily achieved with some guests. Recently, we had the joy of a lovely couple, young, dynamic, well-educated, interesting and interested, sensitive to their surroundings and to others...and fascinating conversationalists.

So young and already an engineer and a dentist - only a few weeks shy of finishing a specialization in Pediatric Dentistry.

Jason and Shiny were a real treat whom we enjoyed immensely. We cooked and ate together, tasted wines and olive oil, openly and easily conversed on a stimulating array of topics.

Shiny wears two huge diamonds: her beautiful, expressive and intelligent eyes! They both wear gorgeous smiles and an exquisite warmth of expression. They were kind enough to send along some of their photos after they returned to California, a much appreciated gesture. With their permission, I post them here to share with my blog readers. They exude such joy of life...and were such a joy as guests!