Casal dei Fichi Newsletter January 2012

Happy New Year from Casal dei Fichi.

2011 has been another great year here at Casal dei Fichi and we’ve been delighted to welcome new guests as well as old friends. Again a highlight was a wedding: of Tara and Matt back in May when our friends and neighbours Jim and Annie played a sterling role in helping us run a pizza party for over 80 people. Following the wedding ceremony in Mogliano town hall, the reception was held at nearby Hotel Castellani whose beautiful gardens provided the perfect location for the celebration in the spring sunshine.

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Ciao Silvio.

Although Italy is in the news, and not just for its beautiful countryside, food and wine, bookings for 2012 are very healthy with a few weeks fully booked already. For those suffering from the ongoing downturn Casal dei Fichi still represents good value for money. We are holding our prices for the second year and the weaker Euro means that for our visitors from outside Europe, Italy, and particularly Marche, makes a great value holiday.

Highbury, home to Fichi in the City..

Weddings

This year we're delighted to welcome another Matt and his bride Emily back to Casal dei Fichi to celebrate their wedding in June. Then in September we look forward to welcoming guests for Nick and Miri's wedding.
Don't forget if you're planning a special celebration we'd love to help you organise it, take a look at our weddings page where you can see photos and comments.

Green Chickens

Visitors last year will know about the addition of chickens to our menagerie and they have proved a big hit with the children and all those who like fresh free range eggs each day in addition to our vegetables, fruit and herbs.

The chickens, along with the manure they produce have also helped us maintain our environmental credentials. The provision of refillable demi-johns has been a big hit with the adults and many have enjoyed a session of tasting at our local vineyard whilst we have been delighted to see a dramatic reduction in the number of wine bottles in our recycling bins. This year we plan to keep on planting trees to gobble up a bit more carbon.

Travel and Discovery

Even after 7 years in Marche we are still delighted to discover new places. When our guests John and Julie told us about a beach they had discovered near Ancona we were keen to check it out. 

Forming part of an imposing war memorial a grandiose flight of stairs leads down to Passetto beach. Lined with 120 fishermen's caves now used as beach huts, it is a charming little resort with a great restaurant on stilts over the sea.

We've also enjoyed trips to Sri Lanka and Morocco and are looking forward to a skiing trip in the awesome Italian Dolomites and a trip to New York before buckling down for the season in the spring.

Fichi in the City.

We are pleased to announce the opening of “Fichi in the City” a 2 bed apartment in one of our favourite parts of London, Highbury. An area we chose for its combination of lovely Georgian and Victorian architecture, great village feel with a good local pub and selection of chic shops and restaurants. It’s just a 10 minute walk from vibrant Upper Street in Islington, one of London’s liveliest and trendiest thoroughfares and an easy tube ride into the West End or City of London. We selected it as the place where we would like to holiday in London but the majority of the time it will be available as a holiday let. Full details are on our website at http://www.casaldeifichi.com/london.php .We're just finishing decorating and furnishing it so we don’t have any internal photos yet, but they will be posted in the next few weeks. Although we won’t be on hand to give guests our personal attention in the same way as Casal dei Fichi we will make sure that it is maintained to the highest standard and that it makes a great base for a stay in London. Past guests can take advantage of special discounts so please let us know if you fancy a stay in London.

Gourmet Olive Breaks

Once again we ran our Gourmet Olive Breaks in 2011 and introduced more people to the wines and food of Marche as well as the beauty of the region. Working with our friends from Nudo we adapted one of our breaks to visit some of the Nudo olive groves for a group of British and North American press visitors. We are reviewing our dates and prices for 2012, please contact us for further information.

Alison, Caroline, Fiona, Jill and head honcho Joanne.

Passetto, a grand staircase and better still a lift.