Newsletter - December 06

Villa Mimma: overview of the year
Well... as the end of the year 2006 approaches, I feel quite satisfied with what we have achieved this year!

We opened the B&B in January and started off with a great success during the winter Olympics. A heavy snow fall threatened to complicate matters, but in the end it gave way to the sunshine which accompanied most of February. All our guests had a great time at the Games and enjoyed their stay with us. Most of their testimonials are still live on http://www.villamimma.com/testimonials.html

In March we had the porch converted and restored to a beautiful area which can now host events, meetings and parties, although Villa Mimma will remain mainly a relaxing and peaceful place for holidays.

May was a lovely month with the "Riso&Rose" festival. The weather was definitely on our side again and the exibition had a great success. The photos are so nice that they are still on our website if you haven't seen them yet.

From May we started to have a stream of guests from all over the world, from families with young and old kids to couples and groups of friends.

A great success was also our "tagliatelle" making session with Ottavia, who masters the art of doing this pasta all by hand! I remember trays and trays of tagliatelle that she had made for my Nan (and for us of course!) when occasions saw the whole family gathering at Villa Mimma. Our first guinea-pigs were Andrew and his friends from New Zeland. The evening ended up with a lovely meal all together, a tour of Villa Mimma's cellar and a piano concert by my dad in the painted drawing room! James and Helen from the UK and Esther and Richard from the Republic of Panama had a go at it as well. Unfortunately my dad wasn't there so they missed the piano concert bit, but they thoroughly enjoyed the evening too.

Helen and James had a go at grape harvesting too. We arranged for them to join one of the local producers for a morning, but they could have done the whole day... It all depends on how fit you are because grape harvesting can be quite tiring. This year the harvesting season started late so we could not arrange this experience for our guests at the beginning of September. It's a nice thing to do but it's always a last minute one too!

September was quite busy in terms of events. One thing a bit out of the ordinary was that the Parish Priest of Treville, Don Franco, celebrated his 60 years of Mass and the village organised a trip to Cannobio, at the top of Lake Maggiore, with a boat trip across the entire length of the lake. Lunch and a special celebration for Don Franco were organised in the renouned Sanctuary of the Most Holy Pieta'. Our guests, Julie and Graham from the UK, and Jean and Ginette from Canada, joined the trip too and happily mixed up with the locals! This time the weather unfortunately was quite wet, but the fun was not spoiled!

Now that Christmas is approaching we are looking forward to decorate one of the trees in the courtyard to be our Christmas tree and to be able to open Villa Mimma for people who wish to see Andrea's Nativity scenes.