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.