We've bumped into each other on the blog-o-sphere with our common interest of Bed and Breakfast life and she even featured me last summer in her Expat in Italy-owned Business Series. You can read that interview here.
Do have a wander round her site as she has a charming tale about how she and her husband met and she offers up a variety of useful information on her "Travel Tips Tuesday" series.
If you want to win some Perugian chocolate straight from the source, do have a look at the contest that Cherrye and Tina Ferrari of Tina Tangos along with AffordableCallingCards.net.
having going on. You still have time to enter. Check out all the details here for
Blogging from the Boot: The Best of 2009
Without further ado...
Ahh … the Christmas rush is over, New Year’s Eve celebrations have come and gone and sleepy Calabria has quietly slipped into-and in fact, almost through-the first month of 2010.
As has been the case since we opened our B&B Il Cedro a few years ago, the first few months are often plagued with cold, wintery days and rainy nights. It is dangerous ground for a normally busy B&B.
As opposed to other, more tourist-friendly regions in Italy, January and February tend to be lazy months for us in Catanzaro, so much in fact that some B&Bs (ok, yea that would be us) close for half of January and take a winter break.
We are lucky, though, in regards to the location of our bed and breakfast.
Catanzaro sits smack dab in the middle of Calabria and since we are the capital of the region, our B&B business doesn’t rely solely on the sand and sole.
Many of our regular guests are professors at the university, pharmaceutical representatives and salespeople who travel to the city.
We fill our rooms with Calabrian-Americans, Calabrian-Canadians, Calabrian-Australians who venture to the south of the boot-regardless of the season-to trace their heritage and walk in their grandfathers’ footsteps.
But it is only the summer months-June, July and August-that my Calabria, and in fact, my Catanzaro, see tourists. They come to explore the coasts, swim in the Ionian Sea and trek through the nearby Sila mountains. They want to explore Old Italy, enjoy an afternoon nap and take a passeggiata through a medieval village on a moonlight night.
I often wonder how different my Italian experience-and my job!-would be if we lived in northern Italy, if we lived in a place that welcomed year-round tourism and catered to the needs of foreign visitors.
And some day, I might know.
I have a feeling Calabria is on the brink-just moments away from the big tourism boom that will propel her into international stardom. But until then, I’ll just sit here, in my hidden corner of the Mediterranean, sipping my espresso and gazing at the stars … and waiting to share this piece of Italia with the rest of the world.
Cherrye Moore is a southern Italy travel consultant, My Bella Vita and B&B owner living in Calabria, Italy. She is currently hosting Blogging from the Boots: The Best of 2009 - the first annual expats in Italy Affordable Calling Cards's blogging awards. Submit or nominate your favorite expat-written blog posts today!
3 comments:
I enjoyed this peak into life in the south. Some day I will visit Italy again:D
We hope you do too sometime.
The question is interesting, I too will take part in discussion. I know, that together we can come to a right answer.
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