tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738460271030800005.post-83772510932629513082008-06-19T03:31:00.000-07:002008-06-19T03:46:08.583-07:00<span style="font-family:arial;">Some tour reports from staff make very entertaining reading and provide insights to those unplanned and unplannable episodes which sometimes occur on tour. This was from our Latium tour in May:<br /><br /><em>There was an interesting incident. Among the food provided for the picnic was a lovely home-made cake (baked by the sister of one of our contacts). Guests fell upon it like locusts, and it disappeared rapidly, leaving only a few crumbs. One guest asked if I had tried it, and I replied that I had not, it had all disappeared so quickly, and I made flippant remarks about gannets. This electrified the locals. My comments were translated, mobile phones pulled out, sisters telephoned, cake mercy-dashes made in cars (all the time I was hopping up and down saying “No, no! Honestly, it doesn’t matter, I was just joking etc.”) Anyway, in a remarkably short time a car screeched up, and another cake was produced. I was handed a huge cake doorstep (which was, actually, very nice indeed). Guests, of course, found all of this hilarious, and naturally those of them who had missed out first time descended on the new cake. And this is where the interesting bit comes in. One of the guests had Italian grandparents, but knew nothing about their background but their name, which was an unusual one. They had tried to find out what part of Italy the family came from, but had been able to find no-one with that name anywhere. When she tried the new cake, she immediately recognized it as one her grandmother used to make. She mentioned this to the local people, told them the name, and they told her that there are lots of people with that name in Ceprano and the surrounding towns. She was quite pleased.</em></span>Andante Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02354085379511036312noreply@blogger.com