The British are coming! The British are coming!

Back in April Nigel, Steve, and I started the solve of the Mega Mansion.  I promised I wouldn't touch it again until they came back.  At IPP we were all chatting one night and decided they would come over in October to finish it off.  This of course put a silly song in my head...My favorite line of which is "And the shot heard 'round the world was the start of the Revolution."  followed closely by "Even though we lost, it was quite a thrill,The rebel Colonel Prescott proved he was wise; Outnumbered and low on ammunition As the British stormed his position He said, "Hold your fire till you see the whites of their eyes!"  (I must have watched too much saturday morning tv as a kid.  No wonder we don't own one now.)  Well, this weekend was the start of a new type of revolution.  

George and I met Steve at the airport and we headed off to Assisi for the day.  We had a bit of sightseeing and a great pizza for lunch.  

Once we finished, we headed over to Leroy Merlin to pick up some odds and ends and a outdoor furniture set for the tower.  Sadly, it didn't fit in the car so, after we headed back to the airport so Steve could pick up his car we returned and stuck it in the back.  

He and George headed home while I went on and did some more shopping.  We had guests coming and I didn't want to run out of food.  

We spent a good few days opening puzzles and laughing.  Steve got a tour of the updated Puzzle Palace,

and on Friday night he went to the airport to pick up the guys from the UK.  He had 4 of them in the car for the drive back.  I'm sure it was a laugh a minute on the return home.  In the mean time Jan Zoon and his wife arrived for the weekend.  We had a nice lasagna, and I made another for the guys to have when they got back from the airport.  

I dutifully took them to the Palace to pick their rooms, and I think Allard was the only sane one.  He chose the half empty Lego room.  I'm sure he was the only one to get any sleep over the weekend.  Ali was in the Rubik's room and Peter chose  the IPP room. Louis was in the Apartment for the weekend and Steve was in the 2nd floor wood room.  The upper floor was filled with Jan and Hans.  

After feeding the lads, I left them to it and went to bed.  The next morning We had a bit of puzzling fun.  Mostly trying to reassemble a bit of The Notre Dame puzzle that had come undone.  Jan's wife and I headed off for Perugia to purchase a cd player so we could read the disk they had given us of the puzzle.  When we returned with it, George put it in the machine and was able to read some of it, but not all.  Steve couldn't read any of it and so he sent it off to his machine in the UK to read.  Sounds like Chinese whispers doesn't it?  Eventually they got it together and upstairs they went to assemble the puzzle.  

Around 2 Hans Van der Pol and his wife arrived and we all took a tour of the WPC.  Sadly, the tour takes around 3 to 4 hours and I didn't want to do it twice in one weekend.  Sorry for the wait guys.  While George finished the tour, I put lunch on the table.  As usual, it was just meats and cheeses.  A simple lunch.  

I decided to give poor George a break. Hence the paper plates.  Lucky man he is.

Once that was finished, the guys went upstairs and assembled the Notre Dame puzzle! It is perfect in that room.  

We opted for Gallo for dinner Saturday night and fun was had by all.  Sadly, Jan and his wife left early as they weren't feeling well.  

On Sunday, the mega mansion was finished and reassembled!  That is one heck of a puzzle.  Thank you Tracy!

The highlight of the weekend was watching Peter run up and down the stairs every 5 minutes to turn the light back on.  

He was enamored by the hall of tiny treasures and spent a great deal of time there.  The rest of the guys got to play with whatever they wished.  At times we sat around talking and at other times we just puzzled.  

Sunday lunch we ordered in torte de testa from Stephano's bar because I was just too lazy to cook them myself.  

There were plenty left over, and the guys took them for a dinner before their flight back home.  Steve took Allard, Ali, and Peter to the airport while the Zoon's and the Miller's headed to the opera.  It was wonderful as always.  When we returned, we had a light dinner of leftovers and spent more time chatting and puzzling.

Louis and Steve remained until Tuesday.  At some point, they finished unboxing the IPP room.  Lord knows what I was doing?  Not cooking.  I overheard them say I was feeding them too much.  Ok!  You didn't grow up with my grandmother.  Mangiare!  Mangiare! I felt as though I didn't feed you enough. But point taken. 

Jan and his lovely lady left Monday around noon.  I packed them a nice lunch for a picnic along the way.  It was lovely to have them down to help put the puzzle together.  It was a weekend we will never forget.  That evening I made a Berrocal dinner for the guys.  Simple food, great service.  

Tuesday morning we found a geocache in Panicale!  Who knew?  

Louis solved the puzzle door!

And after that, just more puzzling and more chat until Steve and Louis left for the airport on Tuesday afternoon.  It was a real treat to have them all here.  We look forward to the next visit.  

One last thing that really stuck in my mind.  Allard said something along the lines of "he was prepaired to be impressed, but his mind was blown".  And just think.  only 1/3 of the work is done.  We still have the great wall to build, 3 more rooms to shelve, and a lot of puzzles to unbox.  Just wait until next time sir!

!Breaking news!

 Literally!  We broke through!  

The castle, the dead cat room, and the Palace are now all connected!

Let the final unpacking begin!

Christian Eggermont, Hendrik Haak, Andreas Röver, and a whole bunch of Italians visit

We were lucky enough this past month to have Christian Eggermont come for a few days visit.  We've known  each other for a while and he and his girlfriend decided to come for a short visit to the WPC. 

They had a bit of trouble on the way down and arrived rather late at night.  Not to worry.  I had dinner all ready for them and when finished, we had them settle into the (ex) lego room.  

Of course I had to have them try the puzzle door. 

This was a short vacation for them.  I am not sure if they played with many puzzles during their stay, but They did enjoy Sacra Bosco and a trip into Orvieto.  

We had a Berrocal dinner as is the norm with a small number of visitors.  

Mosolino was the restaurant this time around and we enjoyed it as always.  We are doing a 'rotation' of the 4 in town when visitors arrive.  This keeps it fair. :) 

Our next visitors were Hendrik Haak and Andreas Röver.  They arrived for a week and spent a great deal of time puzzling and chatting.  George and Andreas worked on a new puzzle that will be (hopefully) coming to an IPP soon.  

We took them to Sacra Bosco for a visit and in the afternoon we had a great pizza in Orvieto.  

On the 6th the Grape Festival started in Panicale.  We had a nice simple dinner at home then went into town to see what this was all about.  George and I have lived here through 2 in the past and didn't see a thing last time.  George and Andreas opted out, but Hendrik and I tasted the wines on offer.  I'm glad I did it once, not again though.  It's not good for my aging body.  But we had a good reason to go.  

I passed my theory test (Folio Rosso) on the first go and was thrilled.  Time to celebrate.  For those that don't know, this is not really a test of driving knowledge, but rather a language and memorization test.  The language used is antiquated and not in everyday use.  There are over 7000 questions to memorize and the driving school really doesn't teach anything other than "if you see this word on the test it is always true" sort of thing.  I have been studying for almost a year and managed what over 50% of Italians don't.  I passed.  This has been a real cause for concern, and I have had literally no free time in the past month to write or do anything really.  Now I can have my life back!

The next morning I took them to the train station where they returned to Rome for the flight home.  As usual, there were strikes here so their flights were delayed.  Thankfully the train still ran.  Both eventually made it back safely. 

Around Noon, our next group of visitors arrived.  This time it was a group of Italian puzzlers.  They spent only one night, but it was jam packed with loads of puzzling, magic, chat, and of course good wine and food.  

We took them for a walk around town and dinner in Mosolino as they had room to accommodate us all. 

Sadly this visit was all too short as we had tickets to the Opera at 5 and while I told them to puzzle as long as they wanted, some of them had to work in the morning so they left around the same time we did. 

The Opera was Puccini bits, and was amazing. The last act had me in tears.  It was just so beautiful.  

During this month we also celebrated our Antonio's birthday,

and finally got the tags on the Tesla.  

George and I visited a Sculpture park near the lake

and we've had a few picnics.  

It's been a busy month and I haven't even told you of the work in the hotel.  Next post or so I suppose.  We have a short break before the next batch of guests start to arrive on Wednesday.  Just enough time to clean the house and do a bit of grocery shopping.