Boat Seats Shocks
Grow your business and in life: Go with the flow and your heart
When people learn that I have a kitchen tour company Italy school, who is puzzled: "How did you get?"
As you'll see three short stories in Italian cooking tour, I followed my heart, I went with the flow and a series of happy coincidences "occurred. You can apply these ideas to grow your life and your business.
A tale: Piedmont Barolo wine country
In 1993 I was traveling in the Barolo wine country in northwest Italy. In an office of tourism I found a pamphlet for local wine country walks. I love hiking I phoned the tour leader, Elio.
Next year I get to fax Elio information on his hiking weekend in June. Three weeks later, only few details came via fax. The tour cost very little, so I did.
As we walk, I said Elio I was researching a book on Italian cooking school holidays. He said: "I have an itinerary of cuisine here."
I looked at him, "You have four cooking lessons in four restaurants. Some of them I read about in Wine Spectator. I want to go!"
He said: "To find six people." He had never run a cooking school tour, do not speak English and did not know that customers would be.
The Barolo wine country felt like a path with a heart with its gentle hills falling at all angles, covered with vineyards, fields, forests, covered with cities Hill, crowned with a few castles. So beautiful, so poetic!
I walked in tours in Tuscany with a tour company that pays in English attention to good food, so I knew that our type of customer, but I would never run or sold tours.
I sent press describing how you cook Hazelnut and chocolate cake bathed in wine Moscato zabaglione sauce with the chef of a restaurant in the former summer residence of King Carlos Alberto. The Globe & Mail newspaper in Toronto published the press release, which attracted a group of entrepreneurs for our first tour cooking school in 1995.
Now Elio and offer food and wine tours in the region of Piedmont, Tuscany and the Riviera.
Two story: Bologna and its landscape, Italy's gastronomic paradise
In 1998 a man animated Bologna, Marcello called me. He had heard of my guide to 110 cooking school vacations in Italy and said: "Next time you're Bologna, come see us on our tours cooking school. "I filed your contact information.
Six months later, Tony, an executive chef on a golf course in New York, phoned me. Its crew of 16 chefs wanted a cooking professionally in Bologna. No one had contacted could offer a program Bologna. I said, "I have a contact in Bologna."
I emailed with Marcello and his wife, Raffaella, create a professional culinary school route for cooks. When Tony said his group liked the script, I went to Bologna to see the tour operator culinary school and visiting people and places on the itinerary.
In Italy, I called Marcello, "I'll reserve a room at the same hotel that I stayed longer in Bologna."
"No, we'll handle it, "he said.
They seemed easy, the types of professionals so I trust them. We agreed to meet at train station Bologna. There's a man in jeans and a sweater, appeared on his bike. "My wife will arrive in minutes with the car. Come to our place to take a coffee. "
It was 3:00 so I had plenty of time to get my hotel room. In its place we talk for a few hours, I thought, "Where I go sleep tonight? I'll have to rely a little more. "
Finally they said, "Would you like to stay for dinner and spend the night, we do a little next door. "They went to earth, warm, fun people with years of experience in the travel industry and I liked them. I was delighted to accept.
That first time I stayed in his house, I helped do the dishes. A real shock. No other guest had never done so. Since then, they treated me as a family. I stayed at my friends in Bologna "often at home in these 10 years.
After that went to cooking school tour for the 16 chefs in 1999 I suggested that to improve its existing gourmet tour for tourists to do it like touring chefs.
I had discovered the gastronomic paradise Italy, where I was fascinated at how they are treasures such as Parmesan cheese, balsamic vinegar and prosciutto. I met a cast of local chefs, food producers and local populations with joy about his work and life. A region with a big heart for food lovers!
Since then, Marcello, Raffaella and I sold our tour cooking school in Bologna to their fields and have expanded to Umbria and Le Marche.
Three story: Sicily, Etna and the Island Stromboli
In 1995, in Sicily took day trips to exotic and Mount Etna lava fields on the island of Stromboli, a lovely place, with an active volcano in a black and green mountains, white houses, black volcanic sand beaches.
In 2005, I finally got back to Stromboli in a fast Boat from Naples and stayed three days. Then I discovered the fast boat back was finished for the season.
Guide to Rome involved three hours on the ferry and six on the train. I slapped mentally for the poor planning. An inner voice told me: "Maybe there's a reason."
On the ferry I sat at a window with two empty seats beside me. Stromboli On the hillside, I saw a rock formation shaped like a big heart. Stromboli was perhaps a way of heart to me.
My practical side quipped, "What nonsense! The only conversation we had was good with the hotel manager!"
Next door, I stood up to stretch his legs. When I returned for my place, I saw an average looking Italian man in shorts, shirt and hiking boots, a seat at my window seat.
An inner voice said, "No is a coincidence. Say something to him! "
"Stromboli is very beautiful, is not it?" I smiled. He was a guide leading groups hiking up the volcano. I told him about our Italian cooking school tours.
He offered me a ride to the door of the train station on the way home to the area of Mount Etna. He was a good man, so I accepted. Then he moved to the right seat beside me.
He told me that his family had a tour company to go hiking on Mount Etna and Stromboli. Exclaimed: "I always dreamed of running a culinary tour and hiking around the volcanoes Etna and the Stromboli. Does your family considers touring food? "We exchanged letters. At the station we shook hands.
Back home, E-mail him. His family has been our partner tour Sicily cooking for two years.
What I learned? Follow your heart, go with the flow and you will find the right people and make some of the best things in life and business takes place.
About the Author
Since 1995 Margaret Cowan has owned a tour company, Mama Margaret Italian Cooking Holidays.
For a free report on finding the right Italy cooking tour for you, see http://www.italycookingschools.com
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