Working Hard and Falling in Love with Italy..

I was in St. John staying at the beautiful AVALON and getting ready to run “8 Tuff Miles” (that's another post entirely) when the phone rang at the villa. My brother in law answered as I was giving him the "don't pick up" signal (This was not a normal work trip and I was not too interested in spending my time on the phone) but as things go, the phone was handed to me and it was my boss…. Now for most people I know the boss is the last person they want to talk to on vacation - for me (and don’t call me teacher’s pet) I love hearing from all of my bosses –I know weird. 

He asked me how things were going with my work on St. John, we had a little more small talk and then he said it “Would you like to travel to Italy to inspect our villas?” GASSSSP... OK play it cool Lauren... “Yes I think that would be great” – we agreed to talk more details when I returned from St. John.

I was stunned, weak in the knees and emotionally overwhelmed. In school, I was sure that the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian Seas were mythical bodies of water that had dragons swimming in them– but alas, a few months later I was on a very long flight that actually landed in Italy!  

My travel partner for this Familiarization Trip or "FAM" trip if your down with our lingo - was my buddy, Zach.  I like to call FAM trips Family trips because well - it sounds nicer and you truly do bond with co-workers on these things. More than you want really.. like family :). So after ten completely packed days and nights together I guess we can call Zach my family now.

I am not going to go into all the details of this particular FAM schedule because I am truly scared that if Zach ever re-read the itinerary - he would hang his head in exhaustion and have to take time off to recover from remembering his fatigue. 

What I will cover is where we stayed what we loved (everything) and of course-  Zach's inability to fight through jet lag.  

We had a flight overnight from Atlanta to Paris and then another into Florence where we landed some 15 hours later swollen from plane food at 9am in Italy - aka- time to get to work! We were instructed to bring one carry on each as we were being picked up by 2 ladies in an economy car - and not just to be driven somewhere to unwind but for the FOUR of us and our FOUR carry on size suitcases to spend the next 10 days together winding through Tuscany and down to the Amalfi Coast viewing over 35 villas and staying in 3.
If you do not "do" villas for a living you say "Wow - your job is not work at all! You just travel around the world and vacation" - I am not saying my job is not awesome but until you spend 3-14 days in any beautiful destination and inspect villa after villa after villa watching the other tourists lounging, tanning and having cocktails- you do not get to say that this is easy work. Don't get me wrong - we always make time for fun and we love villas so - yes this job is awesome.. but easy? No- no- no just ask Zach what can happen to a 28 year old healthy man with a terminal case of jet lag when climbing 300 plus steps to 10 different villas on day 7 of villa boot camp - it can get ugly. 

OK- Back to what you most likely care about if you are reading this - Is anyone reading this?.. Mom? 

The three fabulous villas that opened up their doors, kitchens and beds to us while in Italy:


First - Villa Prima :) 9 bedrooms to welcome the four of us! We were very tired at this point and I do believe Zach got lost several times in this villa..

Ahhhhhh Aiola! This fantastic country villa located in Southeastern Tuscany near Umbria offers are completely different Tuscan experience. Elegant yet comfortable- Aiola sits on a 1,700 acre estate and is the perfect option for privacy while still not being too far removed. In only 15 minutes you can drive to San Casciano dei Bagni - a small medieval village with a huge character and home to the thermal hot springs. I have to admit - the way the name - San Casciano dei Bagni rolled off my tongue-like a true Italian had something to do with my initial warmth towards the village.. however after visiting- I was in love and wanted to stay at the lovely Aiola forever. 

We are not in Tuscany anymore, Zach! We must be somewhere over the vineyards, way up high (300 stairs high- on a cliff )! Our arrival “home” to the sleek and sexy Villa Giulia was conformation that the rolling hills of Tuscany were far far behind us.

Giulia is modern yet elegant with white walls and high end designer furnishings - which is why we decided to open the classy bubbly and celebrate the beginning of the Italy - Part 2!   

So you can see they are all beautiful and each offer something completely different than the other - the third villa for instance is located on the Amalfi Coast.. so very different from Tuscany where every time I walked into a Villa - I felt like it was supposed to be called a Villa (per the history books). The coast is so different - it was- without a doubt two separate trips. If you are thinking about tackling the country in a few days, I would be more than happy to talk you out of it.