Time Flies When You're Having ____ (fill in the blank!)

Hi there!

Well, "fun" is the accepted alternate in the title, but we've been working hard! In order to have the time to work the Tenuta's B&B and thereby make your stay the best we can, we have decided to close the beer shop, "Meeting Point", and the gallery, "Galleria Yvette Tucci" (both in Marsciano). The business load is not high enough to justify the expense of additional help, so they're history. It's too bad, and particularly those of you who visited the Galleria will agree that the closing is a loss.

However, the small loss there should be outweighed by the gain at the Tenuta! The on-line, real-time reservation system is working well, and there are TWO special rates, starting tomorrow, 1 October:

1. The first is a 14% reduction on the price of a week's stay, valid until 15 December -- not bad, eh?


2. The second is the same thing, but with a fixed U.S. Dollar rate, regardless of the exchange rate! This will protect those of you who are based in US Dollars, and are afraid of the present swings in the $/€ exchange rate.

Not bad!

But there's more!

For those of you who like to gamble, we now have a "last-minute" rate, which is 10% off the standard rate -- provided there is space available! The "last-minute" rate is only applicable for reservations made within two days of your arrival, and it is only available by telephone! You will see that the cutoff time for Internet reservations is two days before arrival, so this fills the gap!

Take a look at the specials at http://TenutaCollicello.com/rooms1.htm. While you're there, take a look at the rest of the website. It's changing at least weekly!

Ciao for now...

Craig

Short notes...

Hi there!

As titled, this will just be some short notes about the Tenuta.

Grape picking time!

Our neighbours (they own and work the farm that you pass through when coming to the Tenuta) are harvesting their grapes this week, starting last weekend. The first grapes they picked were Merlot - blue/black grapes that are used to produce predominantly dry red wines. The Merlot vines are new, and this is only the second harvest from these vines. The white grapes (don't remember the type) are being harvested this week. There are many more vines, and the vines are more mature, so the quantity of grapes is much greater. Both types are "DOC" qualified for the area "Colle Perugini".

Our neighbors generally use some of their grapes to produce their own wine (which is usually very nice, although it varies in style from year to year). The rest of the grapes are sold to the local wine-growers cooperative in Marsciano. The wines produced there are sorted by type, but also by location of the grapes -- my guess is that there are about 15 different local wines, and about 6 or 7 different types and styles of wine, including a sparkling wine called "Perugino". We use Perugino as a mixer in our house cocktail, along with Xango(R) juice (for more about Xango(R) juice, click on the advertisement in the sidebar column). If you would like to help with the grape harvest next year (it's a family outing), plan on sometime during the first two weeks of September - although we can't guarantee that it will be then, of course!

The New Website : New Room Rate Savings!

The new website is functional and the on-line reservations system as well! To celebrate this, we have initiated an Autumn Special rate for weekly stays. There are actually to rates, one fixed in Euros and one in USDollars. For you bargain hunters, either one has at least 14,28% savings (7 nights for the price of 6), and if you play the foreign exchange game, maybe more. :-)

Try out both! Try out the website, and try out a week with us here in Italy!

That wasn't so short, was it! But I guess that's all, so

Ciao for now...

Craig

Latest revision of our Website is on-line

Hi there!

You haven't heard anything from us for a while. There's a good reason! We've finally gotten to the point that our new website is on line! You can see the latest version (internally, it's number 9.5) of our website at www.TenutaCollicello.com. It has been simplified, more pictures have been added, and it now sports an on-line, real-time reservation system with billing capabilities. That means that you can determine what units are available now for any time up to September 30, 2008, reserve what you want, and pay for them on-line using PayPal.

For us, this is a significant step forward. We lost an important reservation for November just a few days ago because we were not able to respond quickly enough. That hurt, but it won't happen again!

Our system is being furnished (for a price, naturally) by an outfit called Oceanic Consultancy, and their system is called "Globekey". If you are interested in their product, drop us an email and we will put you in contact with them.

The original idea was to install the new website (version 10) in four languages. We have had significant problems with the translations, and decided that we should concentrate on getting one (the English one, obviously) on line, then add the others as we can get them done. We bought a translation software to make the translations, and it turned out such ridiculous translated texts that we decided to go the way we did. Our money for the translation system was a total loss. We have enough languages within our organisation and families that we should be able to get the job done by real people. I hope we can do it!

Please take a look at the new design! The web address is above, or use http://Tenuta.info as a shortcut.

Ciao for now...

Craig