By Jake Rupert
Our first guests arrived on April 30, 2016 and the last couple weeks before were pretty nutty as we scrambled to get the place ready and our construction crew put in long hours finishing off our pool and terrace. After almost five years of planning and toil, we were finally open, and it felt great.
Click here to see and read Part 2 of a 12-part newspaper series with pictures and videos on my wife Lisa Grassi-Blais and my transformation from careers-track professionals in Canada to Italian inn and tour company operators.
Click here to see and read Part 2 of a 12-part newspaper series with pictures and videos on my wife Lisa Grassi-Blais and my transformation from careers-track professionals in Canada to Italian inn and tour company operators.
On March 1, 2013, we appeared before an Italian notary and closed the deal on our villa in the Abruzzo Region. It was an interesting meeting, and it capped a six month stretch during which we went from "just thinking" about a future as innkeepers and tour operators in Italy to committing ourselves wholeheartedly.
In February 2013, my wife Lisa Grassi-Blais and I flew to Italy to plunk down most of our life savings on a villa in Abruzzo to run a tour company from. It was exciting. It was scary. And it was the right move for us.
One of the reasons my wife, Lisa Grassi-Blais, and I felt comfortable dropping our careers and moving to the Abruzzo Region of Italy is that the Abruzzese people are some of the most helpful and caring people we've ever met. If you have a problem, they will help you.
After reaching agreements to sell our house in Canada and to buy a villa in Italy to run a tourism business from, we had to decide when to tell our friends and bosses. I was for waiting. Lisa was for telling, but she agreed to wait, and then she immediately told everybody. It was for the best.
My mother-in-law Nita Grassi is a big part of our lives. So when we told her in late 2012 that were moving to Italy to start a tourism business, we were really hoping she would support the decision. We shouldn't have worried.
When I told my mom I was moving to Italy to open a tour company, I expected her to question the financial wisdom of my decision. Instead, she cried because she was going to miss me. After staying with us for seven weeks last fall, I think she feels better.
After negotiating a deal for a property in the Abruzzo Region of Italy to anchor our tour company, it was time to unload our house in Ottawa. It was late 2012, and we had four months to get a deal and close it in order to meet our closing deadline in Italy. Yikes!
