Our two very favorite Adventures to Tuscany Team Members!

Angela, with her homemade Arrancini

 You've heard us refer to them in past posts, and today we'd like to formally introduce you to our Chefs Angela & Giuseppe! You're gonna love these two!  While we have a lot of different team members that work with us in Tuscany, from our Consultants, Tour Guides, Wine Specialists, Cleaning Staff, Waitresses & Musicians as well as all our affiliate partners and close friends at Castello di Albola...  our Chefs Angela & Giuseppe have worked for us the very longest, and of course, because they're at The Villa everyday, we see them & interact with them a whole lot more than most of our other team members!  Angela speaks pretty good English... and Giuseppe... well, he speaks really good Italian! (but he's super friendly, enjoys people,  and will try hard to converse with you on "Google Translate" on his phone!)    

They're a married couple who live right nearby, and both of them work for the Castello di Albola Wine Estate which is just a mile up the road from the Villa...  We hire them independently to get the Villa and the grounds ready for our arrival, to go out to all the various markets daily and shop for all the fresh foods & household provisions... They help us to decide on the daily menus, to go out shopping & buy the foods, to cook, to clean and generally take care of the Villa, the landscaping & the outdoor areas around the Estate, and of course the swimming pool... They help us facilitate all of our various Dinners, Happy Hours and evening Parties!  And when we have any type of problem, they are our go-to people! 

They've worked for us for many years... they're very trustworthy... we know their kids... We've all become close friends and we love them! Their son Simoné (See-mo-nay) graduated from University Of Siena with a degree in Accounting, and has recently finished his Masters Degree in International Finance. And their daughter Alessia (Ah-lee-see-ah) is 20 now, and Alessia  is away at University studying Scientific Criminology.  Their children are wonderful, and they're so proud of them! Hopefully they'll be around & you'll get to meet them! You'll also likely get to meet their little dog, Mia... You'll love her, she's a cutie!

We were honored to be invited ,and went over for Alessia's 18th Birthday Party a couple years ago (in Italy, a young girl's 18th birthday is a big deal, a sort of "coming of age" party). All of her friends were there, and they were all dressed up... Alessia actually wearing a gown, something akin to a Prom dress...  In Italy, children tend to be a fair bit more "Family Centric"... We've always speculated it's just a cultural thing having to do with kids still being at home for that 13th year of school... (yes they go to school for 13 years!)

You'll see Angela & Giuseppe everyday... Angela actually uses her vacation time from the Wine Estate, to come and work for us full time during our Tours. And if you're up really early in the morning, you'll see Giuseppe outside cleaning up & taking care of the pool and landscape... He's usually up and around by 5am... puts in an hour for us at The Villa in the morning, and then he typically goes off to work at the Winery & in the Vineyards...   Giuseppe comes back in the late afternoon to help Angela with Dinner preparations. 

THIS is Giuseppe! Always Smiling!

Terese & I usually handle setting up and preparing the breakfast buffets in the morning,  as we have Angela and Giuseppe come in later and stay through late in the evenings...   we have Angela come in around 9am to clean up the Breakfast Buffet as we leave to go out touring for the day...  And then we'll have Giuseppe come back in the late afternoons to help Angela in preparing for our Happy Hours Parties...  and they both stay later into the evenings to prepare and serve at our Dinner parties... We also have Angela, throughout the week while we are out touring, work on cleaning up around The Villa, and lightly tidying up your rooms & bathrooms... but just a reminder; The Villa is not a hotel, and as with most all private rental accommodations, the linens in your room (bed, bath & pool) will be the same all week*... 

When we need to hire extra help beyond the two of them, for things like the cleaning & sanitizing before your arrival and after your departure, and for various dinners and parties, we count on them, to find & hire friends and coworkers from the wine estate to work for us... Sometimes if Simoné or Alessia are home from school, we hire them to help out as well.

Our guests always ask us; should we tip them? And our answer is always the same; We whole-heartedly encourage you, only if you want to, to give them a tip at the end of the week if they've been good to you, or have done something special for you... but again, only if YOU want to do it... They'll certainly appreciate it... They're a really hard working couple, and they work for us to earn extra money to help put their kids through college. But know that we don't require it and they don't expect it,...   and we still believe in the philosophy that tipping is a really personal thing... it's to recognize great service, and you should only tip them if your heart is in it... not something you should feel obligated to do...  If you decide that you want to leave them a little something, we'll be happy to give you a nice card & an envelope to leave them a note with it. (but you must ask us for it, we don't want anyone to feel obligated).   

PS: after you've spent the week at The Villa, you might want to consider becoming friends with them on FaceBook... They've become Facebook friends with 100's of our tour guests over the years and we think they really enjoy having friends from all over the United States...  And actually, I think our Tour Guests get a kick out of having Facebook friends in Italy!

*(if you can't live with the same sheets/towels all week, we can order a room linen change for you for an additional fee - we would need advance notice on this, as we need to order  a week in advance from a commercial laundry... ps: it's, in our opinion, a little pricey but it's our only option).

two of the world's most beautiful people, making beautiful music together...