Addio ai nostri nuovi amici – Farewell to our new friends

Over the past 6 months we have been very lucky to have met such lovely, warm and generous friends who have all been wonderful to us. It has been worth the trip just to meet you all.

Firstly Debra. Your kindness and generosity in helping us get our permisso di soggiorno organised as well as all those trips to Lucca to the Questura is greatly appreciated. I honestly don’t think we would have managed without you. Thankyou.

We have absolutely loved spending time with you here, up at Vergemoli and on our many outings together. We were lucky enough to meet Jim when he was here in March and are already looking forward to seeing you again soon. My tears flowed all the way to Lucca after our farewell this morning …. but I know we will say in touch.

Our wonderful friend Cherry has fed and watered us on many occasions up at their gorgeous house (I never did get used to walking up that hill). Thank you for your friendship – we have really enjoyed spending time with you and Aldo and of course Ethan when he was here. We will never forget the wonderful meals we shared and that gluttonous evening when we went out for dinner.

Carla & Agostino are at Il Monaco every morning for coffee and a pastry (Sunday is the exception – Agostino has two). It has been so lovely to meet you both and we are grateful for your kindness. Jim enjoyed a walking day with Agostino and we have had several lovely meals up a Vico Pancellorum together. We will meet again soon.

Maria & Raphael have spent many years living in Australia and we have loved hearing all your travel stories and sharing your great knowledge of Italy. We had a wonderful lunch at your house and we have very much enjoyed sharing a morning coffee with you both. See you on our next trip.

Wendy and her little puppy Margo are always out and about walking. It was wonderful meeting you Wendy and thank you for the lovely dinner on the tower – such a great location. Good luck with the move back to the UK and know everything will fall in to place over the coming months.

Libby & Bernie have a house in Lucca and often come out to Ponte a Serraglio for a coffee in the morning to catch up with everyone. Great to meet you both – thanks for dinner and your farewell party. We look forward to catching up with you both in the new year in Sydney.

Rosi & Adriano spend the summer here and Rosi has a horse riding business in Lucca. They are regularly at morning coffee and we have really enjoyed our time with them.

It was so great to meet you Paul & Karen when you were here on holidays. We really enjoyed your company and sharing a bottle or two with you both. We are coming to Sydney in Feb/Mar – stock up guys!

Gary & Pauline were here for a couple of weeks and we loved our time together. Dinner up at Circolo on a lovely summer’s night – what more could you want!

The Perth Girls, Judi, Jan, Geri & June, who were here for a week. Lovely to meet you all and hopefully we will catch up on our return to WA.

Paul is another morning coffee friend and he was around for a couple of months over summer and is coming back soon with his wife. We look forward to seeing you in Perth soon and will tell you all the news from the village then.

Chris and his dog Luna are also regular coffee goers. Once he has his morning coffee Chris heads off to Castelnuovo to continue work on his restoration project.

And finally Moe (Maureen) from Glasgow. Moe is an artist and is here for about 6 weeks. Great to have spent some time with you over the past couple of weeks and thank you for the painting – we love it.

And here they are – our new friends from Ponte a Serraglio.

Debra at the entrance to their house up at Vergemoli

With Debra up at Casa Debbio

Gary & Pauline with us having dinner at Circolo dei Forestieri

Karen, myself, Debra & Cherry up at Cherry’s for lunch

Aldo

Wendy at an art festival evening

Cherry with Adriano at one of the art festival evenings

Agostino & Carla outside their studio

Dinner on Wendy’s tower

Margo

Cherry and Jim up at San Cassiano

Paul, Cherry, Jim, Audrey, Romy & Karen having a BBQ up at Cherry & Ethan’s

Karen with lovely blue accessory after a swim

Paul on clean-up duty

Cherry & myself enjoying lunch in Chianti

Agostino explaining the intricacies of his sundial to Jim

Rafael & Maria outside their house

Myself, Rosi & Cherry at coffee

Adriano, Ethan & Jim at coffee

Jim & Agostino after their walking day

Cherry & Jim at the river

Sandra (Debra’s sister), Jim & Debra in Pitigliano

Cherry’s farewell dinner

Jim, Carla, Agostino, Debra and myself at morning coffee

Aldo

A day out with the Perth Girls – Judi, Geri, Jim Sandra, Debra, Jan & June

Us with Moe

Debra kindly invited us to dinner last night and cooked us this amazing meal. Wendy shared a bottle of 1966 Pomerol Bordeaux which she had been saving and it was surprisingly still good even though the cork had started to deteriorate. Thanks Deb.

Wendy, Moe & Debra