A
belated Happy New Year to you. It seems like a long time since
Christmas; it's hard to believe it's only a few weeks ago! Still, we
can see the first signs of spring appearing here in Italy, and we're
looking foward to getting the garden and grounds into shape for the
summer.
We thought a picture of a swimming pool might make you
think of sunny days, and we also thought you might want to know how the
state of sterling might affect a holiday in Italy (see below).
As
always, there's a brief section on food - something that everybody
seems to be interested in when they visit Italy - and a very short
description of how we made our own organic Santo Stefano olive oil.
We
are delighted to report that our new website is now launched, and it
has significantly more information and images than the previous one -
much as we liked it.
From the Home Page, there are options for
Family and Group Holidays, Weddings and Parties, Special Interest
Holidays, and Corporate Hospitality. There is one section just devoted
to La Chiesa di Santo Stefano itself, so that you can see more
information about accommodation, facilities and services, but you can
also find out about the history of the property. This section is also
the new home for food and recipes (see below).
Through a special
'downloads' section (selected from the bottom menu on each screen) you
can now download information about the property to print out. The
information will be developed further over the coming months, but we
hope it proves useful.
Click here to see the new website. |
Lots
of people have been asking us what the impact of the falling £ will be
on their holiday at Santo Stefano, and the answer - in all honesty - is
that the impact will genuinely not be significant. We have always
charged in £, and our prices are only marginally higher than last year
- and were set before the dramatic fall of sterling. Flights are also
charged in sterling, if you book on a UK site.
The poor exchange rate will have an impact on car hire, although if you go to the Vroom Vroom Vroom website
you should be able to get a really good deal. The only other expense is
food - and whilst it will cost a little more than previous years, it's
not really that different from eating at home.
So amidst all the doom and gloom, perhaps there's a ray of Italian sunshine!
Click here for our 2009 prices. |
November
was the month for olive picking at Santo Stefano. We don't have many
trees - about twenty in total - but three of them are very old and gave
us an amazing crop of olives this year. It's a time consuming process,
but when the sun is shining it's a very pleasant way to spend a few
days.
First the olives are picked, and big nets are spread below
the trees to catch them. Then they are loaded into the car, and taken
to a friend's house - who has a special machine which helps you to take
all the leaves out. If you leave them in, apparently it makes the oil
bitter.
Then it's off to the pressing plant. These are usually
very small family run operations, and they are only in use for a couple
of months a year. There are boxes and boxes of olives, but each person
has their own 'slot' and the olives don't ever get mixed. The Italians
are very precious about their olives!
The olives are tipped into
a big hopper, and then into the grinding machine, where the huge stone
grinder mashes them into a pulp. Next, the pulp is spread on big mesh
discs, and your own stack of discs is wheeled across the room and into
an enormous press. The oil is gradually squeezed out, and comes out
black! It then goes through a process to separate the lovely green oil
from the black water, and it runs out in a slow but steady stream -
pure and perfect.
This year, we will have enough oil to make
sure all our guests get to taste our 100% organic extra virgin olive
oil. And it's honestly nothing like the bottles you buy in the
supermarket.
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The
2009 programme for the Macerata Opera festival has now been announced.
For those of you who know nothing about the opera at Macerata, it takes
place in the magnificent open air Sferisterio in the heart of the city,
and is said to be the second most important festival in Italy.
For
guests staying at Santo Stefano, we can organise tickets for you, and
transport to and from the opera if required. We can also arrange for a
pre or post opera dinner - either at Santo Stefano, or in one of the
lovely restaurants in Macerata.
Click here to find out dates and programme information |
If
you have received a newsletter from us before and you're interested in
food, you probably know by now that we have started to include on the
website some of the recipes that guests have enjoyed. We started with
some of the healthier options that were created for the Personal
Fulfilment course, but now we've started to add to these, with lovely
risottos and savoury tarts. The link has now moved to here and we hope you enjoy them.
We
have also discovered that one of our favourite restaurants has
expanded, and now has a separate 'gastronomia' which sells their
wonderful home made pasta to take away and serve at home. From pasta
stuffed with walnuts to ten different types of lasagne, we will
certainly be featuring their dishes on our guest catering menu.
And
finally, you may know that we offer a complementary welcome meal to
guests on their day of arrival. The menu options can be found from the link on the Guest Services page of the site.
Click here to go to the Food and Recipes page. |
We
are planning a few more changes for 2009 - including an outdoor table
tennis table and a few other activities for people who don't want to
spend their days swimming, eating, reading, lying by the pool,
sunbathing, relaxing in a hammock, sipping a glass of chilled wine ...
We hope to see you some time soon at La Chiesa di Santo Stefano.
Best wishes for 2009
John and Sheila
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