 |
An Amazing Year
It’s a year since we put pen to paper and wrote our newsletter, so please forgive us if this seems
less ‘news’ and more of an end-of-year round-up. We promise to do better next year and keep things more current! However,
we have our excuses ready. It has been a manic, wonderful, crazy second year for us at La Villa. It all started in January
in South Africa where we went to escape the cold Piemontese winter for a few weeks and to draw breath. Almost as soon as we
walked in the door, the owners of the hotel we were staying at said: ‘Congratulations, you have just been awarded one of the
Top Ten Hidden Gems in Europe on TripAdvisor’. And with that, added to our inclusion in the latest Mr and Mrs Smith hotel guidebook - European Coast and Country, The Michelin Guide, an Italian TV
programme and a forthcoming book on the Top 30 most beautiful hotel bedrooms in Italy, we couldn’t have had a better start
to our year.
During February and March we were kept very busy completing two new rooms for the hotel. Both are in the old servants’
part of the building and have amazing views of the Monferrato hills and the Alps beyond – in fact, one of our guests
described the view as the best they’d ever had from a toilet seat! Our challenge was to complete the rooms in time for
Easter, when the hotel was fully booked. Not a big challenge we thought compared to the previous year, but when we found
out that the only way to fill the cracks in the old plaster, bar re-doing it from new, was literally with our fingertips,
progress slowed to a snail’s pace and my manicurist’s bills went through the roof.
 The Moorish Suite
 The Mansard Room
 Shower for 2
Still, we thought we were just about there and were putting the final coat of paint on the stair railings,
when the advance party for our Easter group arrived a day early. The couple had stayed with us during the Olympic Games the
year before and had decided to make the trek back to La Villa for his ‘significant’ birthday, bringing all of his family
from all over the Sates to join him. We shared wine, gossip, and a paintbrush as we stood in the stairwell putting the final
touches to their week’s itinerary and our staircase. The week was one we will never forget, not least for the memories of
Chris and I being backed up against a wall with our guests literally thumping us. Needless to say, we are now firm
believers in Chiropracty. True, the noise of the cracks in the back and the neck are seriously unnerving, but the
after-effects are amazing!
Realigned, rebalanced and rejuvenated, we went full swing into the season – taking the opening of our new restaurant,
La Vie, in our stride. Living in an area with so many great value, gourmet Piemontese restaurants we thought we would be
crazy to go into the food business. However, having listened to our guests throughout last year, we felt we needed to have
our own restaurant on site, catering just for La Villa guests. So, at the end of April we opened the doors of La Vie.
 Dinner at La Vie
Finding a chef for our first season who wasn’t Piemontese but who could take all the local ingredients and serve fresh,
simple, interesting and flavourful food was just the first challenge. We found Juliet of all places in England. She
arrived, armed with loads of ideas, cook books, experience - and ‘Italian For Beginners’! The first few weeks was a steep
learning curve for all of us, as Juliet got to grips with Italy - and us with the world of cooking.
We were a regular source
of amusement to the local shopkeepers, often standing in front of the butcher pointing at bits of our bodies to get the right
cuts of meat. Back in the kitchen, our multinational team from Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Morocco and Italy would look
at Juliet with puzzled expressions on their faces, trying to figure out what she had just said in her combination of
Italian/French/Spanish and English. Talk about Fusion cooking!
 Juliet and 20 Sea Bass!
All would be well until the pressure of simultaneously
plating up twenty meals would hit home. At such times, hands full of pots, knives, spoons and every other implement you can
think of, finding the right word in the phrase book was the farthest thing from Juliet’s mind and gradually, a whole new
language was invented amongst the team- much of it unrepeatable! But however tough it felt in the kitchen during those first
weeks, the food was excellent and when an Italian from Novara (the home of risotto), told us that no-one but an Italian
could make a risotto like the one she had just eaten, we took that as high praise indeed.
 Our cheeseboard
As the season progressed, we were
amazed at how many times we were asked for recipes and Juliet became more accustomed to coming out of the kitchen to accept
her congratulations. We found it was not uncommon for some guests to only ever eat dinner at the hotel or for new arrivals
to turn up, telling us that they had heard about how good the food was.
Figs in Prosciutto Crudo
With the restaurant just opened, we launched into the first of five weddings held at La Villa this year.
The wedding had a real Irish feel to it (thank you Kerri and Ian, I felt right at home and the accent came straight back!),
as we served a big cooked breakfast with lots of breads and bacon brought by the guests themselves and then jigged the night
away with a few Irish ‘greats’ such as Van Morrison, to help us on our way. There was even a ‘wee drop’ of Guinness taken!
|
With the paperwork and organisation involved in getting married in Italy (not to mention, the emotional stress), we had
previously vowed to hold only two a year. However, such was the demand from guests who had previously stayed with us, and
through word of mouth and recommendation – including the UK’s Sunday Express article describing us as one of the top six
places to get married in Europe - that we ended up kicking out the rule-book. What we found, that besides the weather
(fabulous every time, thank goodness!), the fun, the joy, the tears and the laughter, every wedding was totally different.
There were some truly funny moments – such as when the Dutch pastor asked Darran to be Charlotte’s wedded wife (and the whole
congregation shouted out ‘husband’), and when everyone at Louisa and Andy’s wedding played bingo outside the night before
their wedding and it was so dark no-one realised they all had the same set of numbers.
Darran and Charlotte
 Tim and Ellie
 Noel and Nikki
That’s not to say there weren’t a few
dramas along the way. Having the pastor tell us the week before one of the weddings that she was unable to perform the
ceremony caused Chris and I too many sleepless nights until we found a replacement. And when we tried to finalise
arrangements for our one and only church wedding, it took the Italian Consul in Sydney, the Bishop of Sydney and the Australian Embassy in Rome to convince the local
officials that our Australian couple really could be legally married in Italy!
However, our real groundhog day came after
Tim and Ellie’s wedding. The wedding day itself was magical and went off without a hitch, which was no mean feat in itself
as this was the largest wedding we had undertaken by far (150 people). As the sun rose the morning after, all seemed well.
In the front of house, everything was running smoothly – breakfast was going well despite a few sore heads around and
preparations for the lunchtime buffet were well underway.
 150 guests from the air!
Back of house however had begun to resemble a first aid camp.
It started when one of the breakfast team chopped off the top of her finger along with the pineapple. Having patched her
up and cleaned the walls down, next in line was one of the wedding guests. She had gone for an early morning stroll and
fallen down a bank of vines. Covered from head to toe in bruises and scratches, it took a lot of lavender and Savlon to get
her back on her feet, and before we felt ready to return to normal. Too soon however, as another of our team took a severe
panic attack – then, with me holding her hand and watching her blow into a paper bag, the ice-cream trolley rolled out and
the bride’s father broke into ‘O Sole Mio’ - this was definitely one of the surrealist moments of the year! It was only as
the party wound down, the paramedics trooped
out, and the blue lights of the ambulance faded away that we had time to raise a glass to the happy couple.
It wasn’t only weddings that proved popular this year at La Villa; demand for cookery courses was also very
high. We were delighted to welcome back Joanne Weir. And having installed a 3,000 litre reserve water tank earlier in the
year, we were determined that this year’s apprentices would have enough water to see them through any eventuality!
Joanne herself is a fantastic teacher as well as chef, so Chris and I learned and ate grandly during their week’s stay.
We also welcomed a new cooking course group, Savoury Adventures. They enjoyed their time so much they have already booked
another two week long courses for next year, one in May and the other in September. More details are included on their web site at SavoryAdventures.com.
Even our own chef, Juliet, found herself running a pasta making course at one stage, discovering in the process her
second great talent. The course worked so well and we have had so many requests that we suggested she run a short 4 day
cooking course here next year in April, when she is back to sit down with me to write a short book of her recipes.
 Juliet's Class
As the days shortened, our truffle hunter Mario and his dog, Rocky, were also much in demand. This year’s truffle season
has not been good (in contrast to wine’s, which has been superb), and poor Rocky has been sniffing his heart out for only
the smallest of specimens. Climate change is making its presence felt even here and the season, which once reliably began
in mid September, is now much more forthcoming in late October and November. Which was just as well for us, as when the
newly formed Luxury TV Channel company turned up in mid November to shoot ‘The Great Truffle Hunt’, (look out for it on the
CNBC channel from late January), Rocky at least had something to hunt for! For two days, the hotel was filled with the
earthy smell of truffle as UK celebrity chef, Tom Tuke-Hastings, and Mario cooked up a storm. I even managed to get in on
the filming act, serving the wine for brunch and talking a little bit about the hotel, whilst Chris got a preview of the
not-yet-released Alfa Romeo convertible sitting in the car park. And as the film crew drove away, we hurried back to the
kitchen to finish up the left-overs!
 Nice spot for brunch!
 Tom and Mario
With the end of 2007 coming perilously close, we cannot believe how many of our guests have kept us in their
thoughts. It is only our second full year of running a hotel, and we have been overwhelmed by the reaction. For the
beautiful, framed photographs and photograph books of the hotel, oil painting, bottles of wine, packets of powdered
buttermilk, T-bags, chocolates, books, e-mails, letters, post cards etc etc that have been sent, we would like to say a
very heartfelt Thank You. We have loved being a part of so many important celebrations and events. When we chose this way
of life, little did we realise how many friends we would make and how much, what we did, would impact others. On this note,
we would like to wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year, and look forward to seeing many of you again in 2008.
Finally, we would like to dedicate our 2007 Newsletter to Patrick who was due to be married here next year, but
unfortunately died suddenly a few months ago. For a man who lived life to the full and followed his own path, we will be
honoured to bury his ashes here at La Villa.
Chris, Nicola, Kelly & Gemma
| |
