Note added on: 27-08-2010

This last feedback is an astute reflection on the changes that have obviously occurred in between visits. Some of those changes are the result of conscious deliberation. Each point though, I think is valuable and deserves some reflection.

La Faula doesn´t fall within an area covered by ADSL. Apart from satellite coverage the only possibility for broadband access is using a connection to the Hutchinson 3 antenna that was placed in Povoletto two years ago. In these last two years mobile broadband has developed fast but it suffers from capacity constraints which are well known. Therefore we made the choice to provide guaranteed WiFi in the common dining area, and on the side of the house in which the bungalows are situated. Technically there is not currently the capacity to provide in-room WiFi to all rooms. This summer past 7 bedrooms, the yellow bungalow and one-half of the red bungalow had WiFi coverage.

We would expect that as mobile internet develops and improves so will our WiFi coverage.

Mosquitoes are a reality in Italy in the summer. Friuli, which has a cooler climate, is generally considered to have less of a mosquito problem. Certainly some guests are rarely bitten and other guests seem to be bitten more and suffer more from the bites. Having introduced this feedback system and having seen the request for more mosquito nets over the windows we did add nets on those first floor windows that could take them. For all rooms we provide little mosquito repellent ´appliances´. We tackle the mosquito problem also by dosing stagnant water sources and the like but I don´t think that we will ever manage to eliminate mosquitoes 100%.

The only bedrooms where the shutters open inwards are on the top floor of the house. In those two bedrooms the window sills are lower than 1.2 meters from the floor so the law obliges us to place child-proof bars to stop kids accidentally falling out. This precludes the use of outward opening shutters. It is hard to think of what we could do to allow the shutters to be closed with the windows open while respecting the law (and more importantly removing an obvious risk!).

At La Faula we have a local restaurant guide which is found on our website at www.faula.com/itinengv.php?iti=17 This guide is constantly printed-off by us and given to guests and copies are also left in dispensers in the rooms and in the main dining room. This guide recommends 13 local restaurants and contains the ´We Eat Here´ recommendation. I can only say that our ´Sunday night at the Al Collio´ pizzeria is pretty well-known (see the photo of the day for Saturday July 31 2010), so much so that guests often join us and ask us to book ahead of their arrival should it be a Sunday. The website has clear references to the kitchen being closed on Sunday.

The Illy coffee tabs were replaced by the Carrefour coffee tabs which cost considerably less. This was not, however, the reason for the change. Neither Luca nor myself like Illy Coffee which is extremely acidic. The Carrefour coffee tabs are made by Caffè Vergnano one of Italy´s premium coffee producers. We initially introduced the Carrefour coffee tabs while retaining the Illy ones. After a while almost no guests were drinking the Illy coffee so we eliminated it. I can only say that Illy coffee is extensively promoted in Austria but Carrefour supermarkets are not present. Numerous Austrian guests who use tabs, after trying the Carrefour brand, stocked-up on them and took them home!

The comments about the food are perceptive. As time has gone on we have tailored our dinners more specifically to the guests who are present in the Agriturismo. When we have more couples and less complete families with children we tend to cook more interesting and challenging dishes. When we are full with families with kids we try to produce food that is nutritious and enjoyable and that the whole family can eat. It is a real hassle for us and the parents when kids don´t like the dinners. On the other hand many families are really happy when something can be produced that the parents and the kids can enjoy together.

We do, however, want to know what people like and so during the winter will be implementing a system in the web site that will allow guests to tell us their food preferences ahead of time. This should allow us to better tailor our cooking to our guests likes. It should be mentioned that as a precursor to this system, and as a test, for a couple of weeks this August we did invite guests to peruse a menù of dishes that we prepare (21 First Courses, 13 Second Courses and 15 Desserts) and to write down their choices. What was incredible was the very close correlation between the choices - they were virtually identical notwithstanding the different nationalities present in the Agriturismo!

The comment on the wine is also perceptive and is congruent with the comments about the food. Until two years ago the wine strategy for La Faula was that mapped-out by a consulting winemaker who believed in heavy, complex and very oaked wines. These were the kind of wines that are likely, I guess, to appeal to someone who also likes interesting and maybe less commonly served food. However, they were wholly inappropriate for an Agriturismo with a broad clientèle such as that of La Faula. Since I took over the wine-making our wine sales have shot-up, in the last two years three of our wines have won silver awards at the Italian national organic wine competition (plus two distinctions) and our take-away sales by guests with cars has surpassed anything we could have expected. I would mention that the 2007 Merlot available in the Agriturismo (drink in) for €10 sells for €45 in a Michelin starred restaurant in Belgium and that we have been approached to provide samples to Marks & Spencer in the UK (although we are too small to ever contemplating supplying wine to such a behemoth!). Our winery is effectively empty as I write this.

There will, over time be space for the production of niche wines at La Faula but this is something that I intend to tackle only slowly.

I guess that nobody can accuse us of writing the Feedback of 26-08-2010! However, it is really very much appreciated and helpful as it shines a light on the ´nooks and crannies´ of La Faula as seen through a guest´s eyes and it also gives us the possibility to explain better those things that may be confusing, obscure or unclear. Thank You!

Note added on: 14-06-2010

These Feedbacks have proved to be the most valuable and interesting element that we have added to the Website and I thank you very much for having taken time to give us your impressions. The Feedbacks are, invariably, accurate as Guests see La Faula in a significantly clearer light than we. It is valuable not only because there really is sometimes dog-poo on the gravel (much as we pass at least 3 times daily some rascally dog often defeats us!) and too few sun-chairs around the pool (15 new one´s will arrive at the end of the month) but also because of people´s impressions - we might be a bit sceptical of them, however, as impressions they are wholly accurate and reflect a very real view of some element of La Faula.

This is obviously the case regarding the undiscounted cost of the dinner for short stays. The cost of dinner at La Faula excluding wine and beer but including coffee, grappa and spirits is €19. For this a guest gets a first course of pasta, risotto or crespelle (savoury pancakes); a second course of meat and vegetables and a dessert. The pasta is often home-made and uses sauces including ingredients produced at La Faula (eggs, tomatoes, basil, zucchini, melanzane etc). The beef is Faula grown and desserts often are made with whole milk we get fresh from our neighbour in the morning and pasteurize and blast-chill ourselves. Obviously, one cannot compare this to a pizza meal which generally consists of a pizza, maybe with fries and a beer and which costs significantly less.

But the feedback was great because it started me thinking about what should be the true cost of dinner at La Faula. Strange as it is to recount, we have historically set the dinner price simply by discounting a little from the price of meals we have taken in local trattorie or osterie. For various three-course meals with wine that we took last winter we paid between €26-€35 each. Recently guests dined at La Subida and paid €70-€80 each per dinner. They found everything very super but were unsure if it was €80 super. Taking La Subida as the top of the spectrum I decided that we were more at the bottom and so, in Italy, this means comparing ourselves with a pizzeria. A pizzeria is, primarily, focussed on making great pizzas and other meals are a secondary concern so the obvious thing was to get in the car and take myself to the Al Collio pizzeria, our favourite. The Al Collio produces some of the best pizzas in Italy, quality is high, the managment honest and prices are keen. I sat myself down and, after explaining to Pasquale, the owner, that I was doing in-depth research to help me establish Faula dinner prices I went through the Collio menù to see what an identical meal to one produced by myself would cost. Here is the result:
Cover Charge €1, Spaghetti all Carbonara €5.50, Cotoletta alla Milanese €5.50, Mixed cooked vegetables accompaniment €3.50, Tiramisù €3, Café €1. Grand total €19.50
This is an identical meal to one found at La Faula, however, with the following differences: the eggs in the carbonara come from Faula chickens, the veal in the milanese comes from La Faula and, at least from mid-June the vegetables are from the Faula vegetable garden. Plus, the Faula dinner includes ample seconds.

After speaking with Pasquale I carried-on my research at two local restaurants where we know the owners. At both restaurants a 3 course meal costs significantly more than at La Faula but in both places the owners told me that, in general, it is most common that non-Italians take only 1 or at the most two courses. Often just pasta and dessert is taken with the dessert being shared. As we are so often on the serving-side of hospitality, Luca and myself tend, as Italians do, to enjoy a proper 3-course meal when we go out and this is the philosophy that drives dinners at La Faula.

Finally, I should mention that €19 is the undiscounted cost of dinner for guests on short-stays. At La Faula we have a large number of long-stays by people who enjoy good eating a drinking (ahem!). As is common in all sectors we reward these people for their dedication to La Faula by discounting the dinner price - it goes down to around €15 for the 3-course meal. I should mention here, as an aside, that it was these very guests who refused to tolerate our oaky wine-style and their rebellion caused our change of strategy in the winery. A change of strategy that we are very glad to have made!!

Note added on: 06-01-2010

This was such a rich feedback with so many interesting observations and ideas that I let it a while in my mind to absorb and incorporate it. Eventually, various actions that we could try picking-up on the many suggestions given became clear.

It is true that guests who stay at La Faula and who are not self-catering are obliged, if they want to drink wine or beer in the bar area or under the pergola, to drink those provided by La Faula. This imposes two obligations upon us of which we are very aware. The first, is that the wines that we make should cover the whole spectrum of guests´ likes. An awareness that we were not discharging this obligation led us in 2008 to cease calling our theretofore consulting winemaker who had pointed us down the road of heavily oaked an complex wines. We are now following a strategy of producing light and fruity wines and each year there will be more selection of these types of wines. The second obligation is that pricing should be fair. The current price of €10 per bottle of wine consumed at La Faula was arrived at after consultation with guests. This year we intend to introduce a two-tier price structure of €10 and €5 per bottle. The €5 bottles will be of the same quality as the others but we will use the lower price to try and ensure that wine sales by type are balanced.

In 2009 some guests, of their own volition, prior to arriving at La Faula contacted the Museum of the Great War WWI in Caporetto and arranged for a guide to take them on a visit to an mountain battlefield when they were on holiday. I went along and it was a wonderful experience. Later on, I took a group of guests on a visit to a winery located pretty much at the epicentre of fighting in Italy in WWI. After a presentation by the winery owner we moved on to the trenches and galleries carved into the rock. I read-out excerpts from the diaries and letters of soldiers recounting their fighting in that place. The trip was obviously topped-off by a wonderful lunch in a lovely osteria and it was a wonderful day for all with different guests mixing and getting to know each other better.

I can see that these kinds of experiences are really what enrich a holiday. I have felt the need now that we are rather established with long-stay, often repeat, guests, to introduce into the stay at La Faula points of interest and enjoyment that stimulate at the time and remain in the memory after. Last year we introduced films under the pergola. I don´t know how many times I saw Momma Mia! but if I ever hear Pierce Brosnan sing again I shall surely explode! Over the last 12 months I have started collecting (thank goodness for the internet!) Italian films of interest that have been subtitled into English. I have identified groups of films that could be usefully shown in company of each other for which part of the enjoyment could be to see Italy through Italian eyes. I really would like to show these rather than just the latest James Bond, enjoyable though that is under the pergola!

I think that maybe one a week we will try to arrange a trip to somewhere interesting. I was thinking also that instead of always serving dinners we could perhaps on some nice days have a picnic somewhere on the farm in the shadow of a big oak tree.

These things I know that we can do because they would be generated and organised by us at La Faula. Of course, extending ourselves in this way will generate organisational and logistical challenges but our business is to overcome them!

I think that the most interesting point made by the feedbacker of 28 December 2009 was the idea that guests may have an interest or a speciality that might be of interest to other guests. It´s a great idea because it means that the initiative would come not only from La Faula but also from people staying here. Of course, the challenge is how to initiate such an interaction, to reduce diffidence and reserve so that by joining together guests can be the richer for it. I have given this some thought. I think that in the next week or so I will introduce a functionality into the website that will enable me to create a newsletter that will appear in the message area of those who book a holiday here at La Faula. I am intending to use this newsletter to put-out the ideas I have and see what interest there might be on the part of people who will be coming here. I imagine, that for those coming for the first time, there may be an understandable reluctance to propose anything. For those who have been here before (even often) and thus for whom La Faula is a kind of ´home´, however, it might be possible to identify enough expertise and interest to kick-off a series of ´X Talks About ....´

Finally, I wanted to mention why we run La Faula. La Faula was a big part of Luca´s father´s life when he was literally a barefoot boy staying with his relatives in Ravosa to avoid being bombed in Udine during WWII. In 1967 he was able to buy the property and he enjoyed it from that time and still does. Upon his retirement, however, it became clear that unless Luca got involved and La Faula was turned into a self-supporting activity it would have to be sold. Luca came first from London and I followed two years later. Starting with the place and its personality we gradually developed the winery and farmstay. Our aim has always been in the farmstay to have the kind of guests who love La Faula like we do. We think that La Faula, itself, is special and so wanted also to share it with other people. By doing this we would create an economy that would allow us to bring-out even further what is special here. Pretty much this is what has happened.

With the winery, however, under the tutelage of a consulting wine-maker, we took a wrong road. Instead of producing wines with the flavour and memory of the place we began producing heavily-oaked wines that could have been from anywhere. That which was La Faula in them was covered. This was a very good learning experience for us. It cost us pretty dearly and was quite an emotional blow but we did move on and now ´place is everything´!

Note added on: 16-12-2009

It is so good to be able to see La Faula through guest´s eyes! And it´s also true that some things that may be sub-par we know about but we tend to think - ´maybe it´s not so important, it´ll be all right for another year!´ So, for 2011 we are for sure going to have new sun-loungers around the pool and we will plant less courgette plants!!! Of course, the different vegetables come into maximum production at different times. In the winter Luca and I are rather spared zucchini but we are still working our way through Home Made tomato sauce and Green-pepper sauce!

It´s also interesting the comment about not liking the cinema under the pergola. The real challenge for us at La Faula lies in creating a place that is a peaceful retreat from the normal world while also offering stimulating and enjoyable experiences for people who stay here. Luckily, the house and grounds are large so peace and activity can - peacefully - coexist but I can see that we alsways have to keep this balance in mind.

Thank You (and A Very Merry Christmas because we are just about there, aren´t we!)

Note added on: 04-12-2009

That´s very helpful feedback! We pass around the house minimum once-daily to collect and clean the dog mess. Obviously we´ll have to do it more often. As for the cut meats and cheeses, the quantities should not be limited i.e. when the plates of salami and cheese are empty new one´s get put out so we´ll have to keep an eye on this next summer. Thank you!

Note added on: 01-11-2009

Some feedback is a bit less anonymous than others but we appreciate it all!!!

This last feedback is interesting because contrasted with the comments of the Feedback of 28 October it highlights the clear split between those families who like La Faula, in part because of the dogs and those (who obviously don´t come) for whom the dogs are a show-stopper!

We have the dogs because I was a city kid and having a dog wasn´t an option. Now I´m an old country codger I can have my dogs and I commune with them as I guess people in the country have done with dogs since the first wolves moved close to human settlements and scavenged dumped waste (I guess those that ate the sheep, on the other hand, had a less hospitable reception and their descendants are wolves still!). During the winter, it´s just us and the dogs and it makes me think sometimes about those trappers and hunters in the New World (U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, for example) who went out into the bush with only their dog for company.

Since 22 October 2009 when we introduced this feedback system we have received 6 Feedbacks and posted 6 Feedbacks

Note added on: 28-10-2009

That´s a great feedback! In peak summer I go to the pool to clean the filters, adjust the chlorine etc. at 5.00 a.m.. It can be really astonishing what is left around. Thinking about it, the rubbish being left there is probably our fault because the pool is fenced-off and we have never put rubbish bins in - obviously we will have to and gently ask people to use them. So thank you for that! But you´re right - I find other things left - towels, sun cream lotion, goggles etc. You are also very right that Luca´s mum is not greatly impressed, and she gets super-nervous about the towels being left by the pool. The solution will be to make a rule that everyone - especially kids - take their towels at the end of the day or we´ll take them away. I will also set-up a ´reclaim box´ so that things I find around the pool can be taken-away but available if someone looks for something left behind.

I can see that the pool area needs a bit more attention from us! When there are lots of guests using the pool we (me, Luca and Luca´s mum) tend to stay well clear (at 5.00 a.m. it is delightful, however!) but we´ll have to devote a bit more attention to it.

Thank you all again for your comments - we are getting to know La Faula a lot better!!

Since 22 October 2009 when we introduced this feedback system we have received 5 Feedbacks and posted 5 Feedbacks

Note added on: 26-10-2009

This is so good! You are right - it is time to get more sunbeds for around the pool. I have often thought that it would be a good idea just to give kids the option of ice-cream for desert (the volley-ball girls who spend a week here on the last week of August have - by strict demand - ice-cream every night!). The rooms overlooking the pergola do have mosquito nets but we know that we could add them to some other rooms (and the Red Bungalow) too - thank you!

This is amazingly helpful. In this sense:
- we had the idea that it was time to get more sunbeds for around the pool - now we know that it is time
- it´s a real hassle giving most kids a proper desert/cake etc. which then just comes back to the kitchen - from now-on there will be the ice-cream option every night
- we hadn´t really given much thought to adding further mosquito nets to the windows as we tend not to get bitten - this was something we hadn´t focussed on and so now we´ll plan to net-up those rooms where we can by next spring!

Thank You!

Since 22 October 2009 when we introduced this feedback system we have received 4 Feedbacks and posted 4 Feedbacks

Note added on: 24-10-2009

Now, after one day, we have three very nice feedbacks. Thankyou very much for having taken the time to give us your thoughts! Of course, we are very happy that, so far, the returns are positive!

Since 22 October 2009 we have received 3 Feedbacks and posted 3 Feedbacks.