Villa Borghi

My sister Vicky sent me a picture of the Hotel Villa Borghi last spring. It had been beautifully restored and it looked like a first class hotel. Always my favorite type! I joked that it would be an appropriate setting for my 50th birthday party.
At that time I didn't realize the significance of the Borghi's Villa. It sits just behind Carla's apartment building across the newly landscaped round-about. The Villa was home to the Borghi family who owned the linen factories where the majority of the Varano Borghi citizens worked. In fact, Carla's apt building used to house the linen workers who worked for the Borghi's.
Apparently our great grandfather dared to commit a Sally Field type move on a table in middle of the factory except in his case it was a table in the village bar. Asking for higher wages and somehow insulting the Borghi family; resulting in his banishment from the town and ultimately his immigration to the US.
I only knew this story as legend, possibly an embellished story but Carla confirmed this was a very real event. This knowledge plus Carla's insistence that we cannot go in the hotel because we are not guests fueled our desire to pay a visit and take a tour.
The three of us snuck out the back door, which is really the front door of Nicolas' apt. one afternoon when we were making repose (Carla's word for a nap).
Upon entering the hotel we were greeted by a lovely young woman, who promptly asked what did we want and who are you? This was Vicky's cue, our beloved drama queen . She explained that we were here investigating the possibility of a family reunion in Varano Borghi and did she know of the family name, Vasconi. The young woman explained that she was not from the town and by now was almost speaking in a apologetic tone. As Vicky went about explaining how large our family was including my Dad's first cousins in the event now slated for Sept 2010. We toured the entire facility from the dining room (which Vicky deemed as too small for a reunion party) to the rooms upstairs, the original family library filled with books from the 18th and early 19 th century to the the outdoor patio which according to our now party planner sister could work if the hotel could set up additional seating on the lawn. She also asked about catering options for this supposedly family reunion.
Our tour ended with the young woman asking for our visitor cards and a suggestion that booking early would guarantee us a good rate and decent opportunity for the occupancy we needed.
Terri and I left the hotel each wondering what family event we had missed hearing about She had us almost convinced that this was really going to happen and who appointed Vicky to work out the details!

I want to also add how significant it was for the tre sorella's to visit the Borghi Villa. Here it is 100 years later, the banished branch of the Vasconi family, now numbering 50 plus in the US. Entertaining the idea of a family reunion in the house of the men who thought they exerted such power. My great grand father and his Tre sorella's are having the last laugh .