Carlotta's latest news updates

Well! We're getting ready to finish up our third year of business at Casa Chilenne and it has really been a busy one so far. We've made lots of new friends and welcomed back many old ones as well.
We've been honored to be a part of so many happy occasions, weddings, anniversaries. We were thrilled when our friend Peggy from San Jose decided to come back to visit us and complete her 50th orbit around the sun here at Casa Chilenne. Jeanette was able to personally welcome her into the ranks of her newly established 50 Orbit Cadet Club (tee shirt to follow).

Our first Casa Chilenne bride and groom Yoon Hee and Feng Ze came back for a surprise visit to celebrate their almost 3rd anniversary after hosting their wedding guests here in 2008- Our most recent wedding celebration for a couple who returned with a new family member in tow...best wishes to Anna, Tyson and our new little friend Christian.

We have been blessed with experiences and memories which we'll cherish, our Christmas luncheon of homemade tortellini made together with guests from Australia on their honeymoon, Thanksgiving with my cousin who is studying abroad in Switzerland, together with our friends from Cortona and guests from Australia, one who has a wallabee and kangaroo rescue! These are just a few-life has been good to us.

More recent good news, our friend Francesca Pallini has just returned from a concert engagement with other cast members of "Ti Lascio un Canzione IV" in Montreal Canada! We are very proud of her!

The Archidado Crossbow competition has come and gone, our flag throwers, drum and bugle corps braved rain and hail as they paraded down Via Nazionale, and the winners of Peccioverarda (that's our neighborhood!) were thoroughly drenched as they made their victory promenade along Rugapiana.

And the most recent bit of information of all...today our friend and computer whiz Martino performed a feat of magic...Casa Chilenne is now a WiFi zone! He couldn't be stopped by 4 floors of stone building. We've noticed in just 1 year's time the number of IPhones and IPads used by our guests has just increased exponentially, it was time for us to step-up and make it happen...so, here we are.
You can travel to far flung corners of the earth and still stay close to the ones you love and I guess that's one of the biggest gifts that technology can give us.

We're looking forward to launching into our 4th year of welcoming folks to Cortona. Our mission as always to provide the comforts and amenities of a fine hotel in a homey friendly atmosphere. It's been most encouraging to receive so many kind thank you notes, comments and reviews which lead us to believe we're on the right track so we'll keep plugging on. One of our most recent satisfactions was being included in an article published in "Ville e Casali" June 2011 issue which features Cortona.

Our recent goal is to start using our resources wisely for this and future generations. We have installed a reverse osmosis water purification unit so that we basically create our own great tasting mineral water, fizzy or naturale . We're saving space, we're saving fuel in transport and at the same time we're providing fresh, great tasting, high-quality drinking water. We hope you'll agree when you taste it.
We've always had motion sensor activated lights in our halls and we'll be encouraging our guests to be involved by remembering to turn out lights in their rooms when they're not needed (we need to use our monetary resources wisely as well).

Thank you for three wonderful years, we look forward to being your home in the heart of Cortona for many years to come...

Love is in the Air! Weddings in Cortona-

September blew by us in blurry flurry and the word was weddings! The big wedding here in Cortona was Jovanotti's (remember the Italian rapper? see previous capers posting) September 6th wedding. We hosted our first destination wedding guests last week! Excitement of all the celebrations just vibrated through the house. The groom was a Chinese-Italian, born and raised in Milan and the bride a lovely Korean woman born and raised in London. They had met in university and were joined by their family and friends from literally all over the world! Our house was abuzz with energy and planning.
There's something incredibly romantic about Cortona- for the past number of years there seems to be at least one wedding a week-most in our town hall but many at some of the many beautiful churches. We have 3 separate wedding planning services working full time in Cortona and they all seem to stay very busy.
One day while out on the street I heard the wailing music of bagpipes in the distance. At first I thought it was the Christmas zampagnari coming early for their tips, I was informed by a shop keeper that it was a Scottish wedding party. She told me that the tradition was for the bridal party to be led to the festivities by a bag piper.
I didn't believe it until this afternoon when I heard piper's music first in the distance than passing under our open window. Sure enough as the music grew closer, I looked out my window and saw a group of kilted men and silky gowned ladies all making their way down Via Nazionale. As they passed by, the little feathered head dresses that the brit ladies seem to favor for these occassions and the hems of the kilts fluttered a bit in the autumn breeze. The impeccable jackets with shiny buttons arranged in almost a horseshoe shape on the back of each one, and shiny, sharp black shoes with special laces were the accessories to the kilts. I wondered, do these men all own kilts? I started to have silly thoughts, such as, do kilt renters exist? Thinking back to prom night with tux rentals and mint green or baby blue ruffled shirts to match the girl's dresses.These wedding goers definitely looked less silly then we did at the prom.

This summer we saw one of the most unusual choices of wedding garb here. The bride had a dress which seemed to be a real life version of the Disney Cinderella gown-complete with bows around the hoop supported skirt! and the groom was dressed as a prince-complete with shiny silver breastplate armour-his long hair perfectly coiffed into long sausage curls! They were out and about in Cortona by night, taking wedding pictures on the medieval facade side of town hall. The reflections from the armour lit up the piazza.

When Luciano and Jeanette got married in Town Hall in 1989, they didn't know they were having a destination wedding. They thougt they were having a simple, no frills ceremony for intimate friends and family.They should have got the hint when a Danish tour group walked through their wedding ceremony and they were able to pass off the flag thrower's demonstration in the Danes' honor as a carefully planned part of their wedding celebration.

Romance seems to live here-and it seems that more and more are continuing to plan weddings in Cortona. Casa Chilenne will be hosting more wedding parties this year and in 2009-so this seems not to be a passing trend.
Optimism lives, love lives and Cortona seems to be the perfect backdrop.