31 maggio
It is the last day of May and In just 9 days Raffaele and I will be running this b and b. It is a little scary to think about, but exciting as well. We have lots of plans and I suppose the most important thing is to learn how we want to do the breakfast thing. Also, whether we will have meals at intervals for the guests or antipasti in the afternoon with a glass of wine or something of that nature. The weather here today was perfect and we headed up to the Swedish Home Depot or Walmart or a mix thereof called IKEA. Making a few nice changes to the place like adding dressers, upgrading the toiletries (don't worry, i know what that sounds like; i still like girls; non ti preoccupare), adding comfortable chairs in the rooms and then upgrading the website are priorities at 1st. Then choosing what types of grapevines to plant after consulting with an agronomist and enologist will be important this year. Dai, sono tante cose di fare!!! There are too many things to do!!! Enclosed are some pix of Ascoli Piceno for which this province is named. To read the history, the city used to have more towers than San Gimignano i imagine! One is a pic of the main square intown and the other an ancient amphitheater from Roman times. Enjoy. dwight

what the marche looks like

29 maggio
I spent the day driving around the little towns in the vicinity of the agriturismo Raffaele and I are purchasing in order to find the best wineries and restaurants to visit, the cutest little towns in which to sightsee, etc. Starting with Offida which is the closest town, i visited Aquaviva Piceno, Monsampolo del Tronto and finally continued my study of the big town here, Ascoli Piceno. Don't worry, when you visit there is more to see and do than I first thought. The area is full of vineyards, fields with all sorts of crops and it seems every available acre of arable land is used for something. Ascoli is famous for olives as well, but not so much olive oil as the olives here are too tasty to crush for oil and the specialty is pitted olives refilled with meats etc, breaded and fried! Amazing if done well. The pix you see are from around Aquaviva Picena.

28 maggio, 2007
Here is a picture i took from the Palatino which is the hill above the Colliseum in Rome and shows St. Peter's basilica in the background. I started my trip in KC driving a very full little BMW to Newark, NJ where i left the main highway and took a wrong turn. I highly recommend you do not follow in my footsteps. I was definitely doing a Chevy Chase imitation in Vacation when i got out of the car and walked into a service station to ask directions and everyone asked me if i needed a watch!!! Hope you remember that scene, otherwise you will have to rent the film. I finally found the dropoff place for my car which was filled with many cars some in pieces and Boris, i mean Alex, from Russia and his assistant Natasha, i mean Ena took my car filled with stuff to ship by boat to Italy and gave me a receipt. I hope it makes it!
I spent the night in Manhatten and went to an internet cafe on Saturday where I found out my plane tickets I reserved hadn't been reserved. 4 hours on my drug dealer phone which costs 25 cents a minute resulted in a flight out sat night instead of sunday, so i hightailed it to the Newark airport in a cab for 65 dollars and flew to Rome. All's well that ends well, they say and i did make it to Rome and spent 3 nights and 4 days reexploring a city which most Italians love more than any other. When you go or come and visit me, eat at Celestina which is in a nice, elegant quiet district.
I am now in Ascoli Piceno and hope to be an owner of an agriturismo or b and b within 10 days or so. My Italian associate who makes sure all properties have been properly vetted by notaries and lawyers and I will be exploring the countryside to find the best things to do, places to visit, foods to eat and wines to drink for our guests. I am looking forward to all my friends visiting!

My New Life at Nascondiglio di Bacco

Ciao tutti! hello everyone. here is a photo of the soon to be purchases agriturismo or bed and breakfast as we call them. Please check out the present site at vinoffida.com but expect a better one soon. Dwight