signs and portents for Italy trip
 

This is so cool.

In preparation for my Italy trip (in 61 days but who's counting?) I signed up for an Italian converstion class at the local university adult ed.

The teacher is a nice Florentine woman and the class was a lot of fun.

Last day of class we were talking about my planned trip and she asked me where I was staying in Florence. I told her Il Guelfo Bianco and she looked at me in some amazement.

Bear in mind that Il Guelfo Bianco is a small hotel--about 40 rooms--and Florence has a zillion hotels.

Turns out that the general manager of the hotel is my Italian teacher's sister.

How about that for an auspicious sign?

My own sister, with whom I will be travelling, is a great believer in signs and portents. This made her very happy, too.

That's amazing. What a small world it really is.

When I booked a little hotel in Florence last Spring, I e-mailed my daughter, who was studying in Florence that semester, to ask her to check out the Relais Cavalcanti hotel. It turned out to be in the very same building where she would spend time in the internet pub on the ground level. She didn't even know there was a hotel on the upper floors. So she was excited that the Relais Cavalcanti was in her favorite part of town, and that it looked really nice when she visited it. We subsequently enjoyed our stay there.

Another similar instance was last Spring when I was planning a birthday dinner party at a restaurant in New York. I was working via e-mail, being in Colorado myself, with a young woman who was being very helpful in New York. As it turned out, she had gone to CU-Boulder, where we have all attended, and she knew some friends of ours here. I was at a college graduation party here in Denver, mentioned the name of the restaurant, and the young woman I was talking to actually knew the woman at the restaurant! It turned out to be a fantastic dinner party, and the young woman did an excellent job (at Sushi Samba 7).

Small world stories. Gotta love 'em.

Here's another small world story:

My sister and brother-in-law were on a Mediterranean cruise. At dinner, they were seated at a table with several couples, and one of the couples was from my sister's home city -- a very big city. Everyone around the table was introducing themselves and when my sister's turn came, the other woman said, omigod, I can't believe this! Then she reached into her purse and took out my sister's business card which someone had given her several days before the cruise started!

I love stories like this...

that IS excellent!!!