Old Friends, New Friends and a Little Bit of Wine

     There is something to be said of friendships. The friends you have at home and with family are the most important but when traveling in a foreign country it sometimes is a must to make new friends. They can be helpful and lasting. Now when we travel to the Le Marche part of Italy we have a handful of friends at our fingertips that we like to reaquaint ourselves with when we return here. Our longtime friends Michael and Liliana often introduce us to new people as was the case a couple of evenings ago when we met a lovely couple from Britain.

Often our conversations begin with the President and how we view him. Then we talk about work experiences until we know more about each other.
     Yesterday we spent a big part of the day with a friend, Andrea, whom we met a year ago when we stayed at his parents' house for a month.

He runs a winery, Lumavite, which he is very proud of, and rightly so. He is a wine perfectionist and works hard at putting out a good product. Last year we took a bottle home to our daughter and her husband and after finishing it she texted me with 'Dad, your friend's wine was scrumptious'.  That is a good testimony to his hard work.
     This time we went back there for what he said would be for happy hour before lunch. He has been working on a new wine, a Rosato, which has taken him three years to get where it is at now and believe me it is a delicious wine.

Lynda and I toured the winery

and the vinyard while he worked with some clients from the Netherlands. We saw the leftovers from the harvest which will be put on the vinyard as fertilizer.

The day was beautiful and the views were incredible- the sea to our right and the mountains on the left.

Then we all sat down and tested his new wine and now we have two new friends.
     After that we went back to his parents house and got a few updates on the family.  His father, Sergio, is suffering from sciatica and was scheduled to go to the hospital later and meet with a doctor. But before that he had to show us the work on his new apartments in an old church he was restoring and he served me some home made grappa made by a friend in the north of Italy.

     Later Lynda and I went to Fermo where we love their piazza.

We had a little lunch and another glass of wine. Tomorrow, the beach again.