On the search for Perfection, and Becoming a Giraffe

So, how is the hunt for the perfect Pensione faring? Well, it has made some progress with some help from my Swedish cousin Pelle and his wife Nanni who have been spending a week here, (arriving in Florence, top left) helping me to try and locate the stage setting for this next adventure- which ( who knows?) might last for the rest of my life, or, on the other hand, might never get properly started … after all, my track record as a hotelier has been uneven: many years ago I set off to Tobago where I bought half a mountain, only to have to sell it, with great difficulty and financial loss, some months later when I was unable to get permission to build and to start my little hotel.

 Then, a few years later I went to Mali and this time I managed to do what I wanted. Pelle and Nanni came to visit me at Hotel Djenne Djenno. 

This time around they are once again very supportive and they have been the most perfect and patient companions in my quest during last week. We started with something rather wonderful- it is part of the late eighteenth  century Palazzo in which I now live. A large flat here is for sale, and this large flat has a large garden… which is unheard of in Siena within the city walls. This is the flat which has frescos painted by Napoleon’s interior decorator, and, to use estate agent speak ‘enjoys the benefit of a private chapel’ with cherubs in the ceiling.                                 

       

                                                                                                      

 I became quite potty about this place and had to be brought down to earth gently by Pelle and Nanny who pointed out that however marvellous the place undoubtedly is, it would only ever have five rooms. These would have to be furnished in perfect Empire style and be let for a fortune. ‘Ah, yes, but there are a couple of suites at the Siena Grand Hotel which cost well  over E 1000 a night,’  I assured them optimistically. 'It is not impossible!' ‘Yes’, they agreed, ‘but do you really want to deal with people who are paying E 1000 per night for a room? Are you prepared to deliver the sort of service they would be likely to require?’ was their sensible comment.  With some regret I realized that they did have a point.

So, onto the next place, which we have called ‘the Office’. That is because for the last twenty years it has been an office for the Siena town council, which has been doing something non-descript there and are now selling it. It is a shell, but what a shell! Enormously high ceilings- it is very large and it is literally two steps from the Piazza del Campo- you can see the Torre del Mangia from most of the windows. It needs a lot of work- bathrooms put in everywhere- mezzanines built etc, but an architect has looked at it and will produce a quote. The only problem is that he said it would take about a year and a half to get it up and running! It apparently takes ages to get permissions to do interior structural alterations on these buildings. And the Office is from the 12^th century!

  

Last Saturday we went into the Crete Senese, a stunning part of Tuscany to the south, to see a farm close to Asciano  with Antonella, the estate agent who found me the flat I live in, in the Napoleonic Palace. We went to see a farm close to Asciano. What a beautiful place! BUT, having seen another couple of lovely possibilities outside the city walls, I felt quite strongly that NO! I want to be in Siena! Right inside the city and that probably isn't negotiable after all...                                                     

                                     

Back in Siena one of those important meetings finally took  place- by that I mean one of the  meetings with those contacts that Andrew managed to muster up for me here in Siena, through his Italian friend in London. I had not wanted to do anything about these contacts just yet, still stubbornly refusing to speak anything but my bad Italian; I felt that it would put me at a disadvantage, and that I did not want to put these potentially important contacts  off. But the other day I took courage. I wrote an email (in Italian!) to Laura, the top contact, who was gracious enough to respond and the other night night I met her for an Aperitivo with  her son, Niccolo,  who has the lovely ‘Barriera di San Lorenzo’, an elegant  b& b where I had actually stayed in July, when I was here and tried out a different place every night, to see what the competition would be like.

                                          

One might be forgiven for fearing that Niccolo would be less than enthusiastic about yet another person wanting to open up a b&b here, where there is more than enough already. But both Niccolo and his mother Laura were warm and welcoming and I felt they were genuinely glad to meet up with me. Laura is quite a star in Siena: one of the only women who have been ‘Priore’, or manager,  for a Contrada, she ran Giraffa for six years. When we walked down the Banchi di Sopra ( the main Street  of Siena) together every other person on the street greeted her.

‘I will make you a Giraffa!’ said Laura.

I always wanted to be a Giraffe…