 Swimming pool
Floor plans and rooms
Views of Priello
Brent&Alex
The Priello family
Helper of the year (well...month)
Prices
Our goat farm
Reservation form
Reservation policy
Via fax confirmation
Specials
Staying at the farm
Horseback riding
Farmers markets
Our favourite restaurants
Main events in our area
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| MEALS & PRODUCTS FOR SALE |
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Meals at Priello
Home made organic products
Farm style cooking classes
Airplanes&trains
Car rental
Driving directions
Priello driveway (please read)
Map of our area
Map of central Italy
Brent's picture of the month
Previous months' pictures
Priello memorabilia
Brent's tip of the month
Previous months' tips
Press
Some of our guests' comments
Sign our guest book
B&B start up support
Restoration support
Our experience
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| BRENT'S TIP OF THE MONTH |
WOW! New Year already, Happy New Year everyone! Please tell your appropriate president or dictator not to push any buttons. I will use this as a “year in reflection” sort of chain letter that people are sending around at Christmas to tell all the scoop. I love those.
Gee, where to start? Tourism went great. Met some fantastic folks here. We were full from Easter until the end of October and that’s the way we like it. Speaking of full, we are booking fast next summer as well so please get a move on and give a call if you want me to save a week for you. The falling down barn where Connie the cow and the pigs were, is now our second little home. Turned out beautiful with a balcony over looking the valley and mountains beyond … dreamy. We have goats again (one had a baby this morning, and few things match the cute of a baby goat) We have more pigs. They too were cute and fun, but now they are big and unruly, I am afraid. Still lots of sheep and chickens and geese and rabbits and of course the horses.
You can see our new helper by clicking on “helper of the year”. He is the third this year alone. The other two didn’t quite cut the mustard. Vlady the touchy Ukraine left us in January, then we suffered the early twenty antics of our Moroccan friend Abdul. Both got the heave ho. Micky joined us in August and we are molding him and training him in the fine art of the tourism biz, fresh breath, white teeth, clean towels, pretty plates, etc. etc.
We’ve expanded, that’s big news! I now have a beautiful old mill on a small stream in a hidden green valley that we are licensed to rent out as guest accommodation. Very nice and rustic, three mill ponds, 5 fish tanks to raise trout, superb hiking, quiet country living at it’s best. You can see it (along with another 4 properties we help manage) at www.valledimezzo.com
On the travel front it was a good year. I started with a fantastic trip to California to go to Massage school. Talking feathers, group hugs, Tai chi, Native American chants and sweat lodges. Great time. Made it back to Italy just in time to join some good friends (and former guests) for a ski week in the French Alps. I flew to Michigan to my nieces wedding. Spent 11 days rolling around the floor with the toddlers. Alessandro did some business travel to Mexico, and around Europe. We went a week to Greece /Heaven for his 40th birthday, and I ended the year with another ski week in Sestriere, in the Italian Alps. I picked up all the brochures and now I want to buy a house in all those places. I spent the rest of time here telling all the guest I never get to go anywhere …
And now for my favorite part … NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS!!! LOVE these. Bare with me as I always go lofty with the resolutions, shoot for the stars right?
- I am going to keep practicing my yodeling so I can FINALLY sing back up on a Dolly Parton album. Did I ever tell you I met her once? I was 12.
- As part of my one man crusade to save the family farm, I want to do a traveling TV program showcasing sustainable agriculture. Seek out dying customs and recipes, farmers attempting to save endangered breeds of farm animals, search out places that force animals to suffer and live without dignity in hopes that I can bring about change for the better. And all the while we are honoring sustainable and respectable agricultural practices, I want to use that very important segment of every Italian TV show..…the pretty girls who dance. I mean, EVERY friggin’ TV show in Italy has the pretty girls who dance. Always scantily clad. A scene could be like this … ”while we wait for the bread to rise, let’s check last weeks disastrous turkey hatching but first … bring on the pretty girls who dance!!”
- I am undertaking the writing of our book. The story of Priello, how we found it, bla bla. Frances Mayes without the rose colored glasses. This is not your run of the mill moved to Italy and the mayor handed me the key to the city, as I squished grapes twinxt my toes…Our story, although fun and beautiful, has some twists and turns and dirty parts. For example we had an evil neighbor woman who did a turd in the doorway or our hay barn! I bet that never happened to Frances. The real nitty gritty of living on a farm in Italy. I am also looking for a ghostwriter as I have discovered I lack the one thing that a writer needs … the ability to write. If anyone out there wants to come over share some wine, walk the road and have a laugh and write the story, please call.
- I am going to give freely and generously to charity. I think saving farmland, saving rainforest or ending factory farming, something of that nature. Please everyone give ...
- Travel to a country I have never seen. We are thinking Slovakia in March and Turkey in August.
- I will do no less than 25 push-ups and sit-ups every day. I do turn 40 afterall so a body needs to start taking precautions. I can add, it is now the 5th of January and I have yet to do a push-up.
- And finally, “Say it ain’t so!” I will do my darndest to update the webpage with more regularity (I will not however commit to a specific timetable ... no can do.)
If you want to suggest some specific farm-related issues, e-mail Brent
a short message, he will try to address most frequent questions.
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