In our business, we meet people from all over the world. Small World stories can be expected from time to time. You know, “Hey! That person is my neighbor”, or “We went to the same school”, or “we have friends in common”. It just happens. But every once in a while, one of these things comes up that truly boggles the mind.

How on earth do I begin setting the stage for this one, anyway?

A few weeks ago, we had a reunion in New Orleans with some past guests that had been on one of our tours in Italy. One day, we put together a crawfish boil, and we put a bunch of other past guests together that lived in the area. In all, we were about 20 people, that represented 5 separate tours of ours in Soriano. Everyone bonded, and it was amazing. That was that.

The following day, I happen to notice a person that had “Liked” our Facebook page. It wasn’t a name I recognized, which is absolutely normal. But it also showed that the person had two friends in common with me. Also not strange. It was WHO we had in common that made me scratch my head.

Her name was Anne. Our common friends were “Kirby” and “Cissy”.

How I know Cissy:

In 2011, someone named “Connie” came on one of our tours in Soriano. We became friends, and later in 2011, Paola and I visited New Orleans, and went to visit Connie. We had a big dinner at a gas station turned restaurant in the middle of nowhere in Convent, LA called “Hymel’s”. While at that dinner, we also met “Cissy”, “Dennis”, “Scott”, “Rhett” and “Glynn”. The restaurant belongs to someone named “Joanne”

Dennis and Cissy are close family friends of Connie. booked a trip with us in Soriano, and came in May 2012.

Scott, who is Connie’s cousin, also booked with Glynn, Rhett and Vince. They came on a Soriano tour in September 2012.

How I know Kirby:

Kirby is my niece. What more can I say? Born and raised in Los Angeles. I can’t even imagine if she has ever even been to Louisiana, let alone this tiny little middle of the nowhere place! I’ll say now that Kirby is married to “David”, who I know is originally from Texas. Still, how on earth can Kirby and Cissy have a common friend on Facebook?

So I had to send “Anne” a message and ask how this connection existed. She wrote back, telling me that David is her son. She continued that she had grown up down the street from Cissy in Texas. When she saw photos of Cissy at the reunion, she wondered if it may have been the same place David and Kirby had been the same year.

In fact, David and Kirby came on one of our tours in Soriano, TWO MONTHS after Dennis and Cissy. It also turns out that I met Anne at David and Kirby’s wedding.

I explained to her that I knew Cissy from the year before when we had been visiting other past guests in Convent, Louisiana.

She replied, asking me who those guests were, and mentioned that she was friend’s with Joanne, telling me what a great restaurant it was.

I explained that the restaurant from the year before was Joanne’s place… and that the reunion we had done the night before was at her house. I also explained that the past guest in question was Connie.

So it turns out that she knows all of Connie’s family, as well.

Time goes by, and we have another reunion just yesterday, but this time it is in Florida. Scott, Glynn, Rhett and Henry are at THAT reunion. So we got to talking, and I told the whole story. Scott contacts his mother, and it turns out that Scott’s mother ALSO grew up on the same street as Anne and Cissy!

So of course, I contacted Anne and let her know. It also happens that we have yet another reunion happening next month, only this time it is in Texas. So I invited Anne. After all, we have got to get together and laugh about all of this, right?

She responds not only that she will be there, but David and Kirby will be in Texas visiting that day as well!

OK, long, complicated, and all… but I just had to share this small world story!

Last week Paola wanted to teach Alyssa, our 18 year old daughter, how to make Ceci Soup. She was saying it was so easy that she could do it blindfolded. As we laughed at her, she insisted that she could, so I ended up betting her $100 that she couldn’t. What started out as a stupid little bet turned into an evening of intense laughter and family fun.

We found a sock, blindfolded Paola and she went to task as I filmed her. While it all went quite well, she failed to consider a few potential pitfalls. For one, at our house here in Florida, we have a flat electric stove. Finding the buttons was an exercise of trial and error. Additionally, she had some trouble finding rosemary, and finally learned that Paprika and Marjoram smell more or less the same.
In the end, with almost no help at all, Paola pulls it off. More importantly, we had a week’s worth of laughter in an evening… and some great Ceci soup!

Those of you that know us from our cooking classes and tours in Italy will get a chance to see Paola do her thing at our winter home in the States.

I only hope you have as much fun watching this as we did making it. We’re even talking about make this a regular thing, turning it into a video cooking class.

In the past year, the value of the dollar has fallen 10% against the Euro.  That means if the price of something in Europe has not changed, it costs you 10% more if you earn your money in US Dollars.  In other words, a hotel rate of E.200 per night a year ago translated into $242, and today it translates into $282.  OK, that’s bad.  But if you are considering a vacation in Italy, there is a way to be almost completely unaffected by this with CultureDiscovery.com.

Culture Discovery is an American company that operates tours in Italy.  We own our own homes, we guide our own tours, and most of our operational costs are in Dollars, not Euros.  Since some of our costs are in Dollars, and some are in Euros, we are largely unaffected by the exchange rate!  This is very important for you, because we can keep you from being affected by the weakening dollar.

Most hotels and tour operators in Italy are completely bound by the Euro.  If they offer you a price in dollars, it is based on the exchange rate, so if the Dollar weakens by 10% against the Euro, they are forced to raise their prices in Dollars by at least 10%.  At the end, you pay in Euros no matter what.  Fortunately, Culture Discovery does not have this problem, and we can protect you against it.

Think about it this way:  If you are from Colorado and are thinking of taking a vacation to California, you would never consider that you might hold off on the vacation if the Dollar is weakening against the Euro, would you?  That is because your dollar is still worth a dollar, whether you are in California or Colorado.  But if you go to Italy, your Dollar is carrying less and less value as the exchange rate weakens it, so the trip is getting more and more expensive even if there is no inflation.  That is not the case if you take a CultureDiscovery.com tour.

Our tours are all-inclusive.  We pay for all of the lodging, all of the excursions, all of your meals and all of the transportation.  All you pay is airfare , and that is not rising with the currency exchange.  You pay it all in Dollars, and the price of your tour will not fluctuate with the exchange rate.  So you can take that trip to Italy without worrying about the falling dollar.

Your only expenses once in Italy on a tour with us will be small personal incidentals and gifts.  Of course, those will be affected by the exchange, so we decided to make you an offer.  Since everyone else is raising their prices, and our costs are more or less unchanged, we have decided to LOWER our tour prices by nearly 10% for a limited time.  In other words, if you were to spend $2,500 in gifts and personal items in Italy, it would be as if you were doing it with the exchange rate from 2005!  All other costs are covered by us in the price of the tour.

See our Cooking tours and Organized Tours for more info.  Or visit us at http://www.culturediscovery.com