Day 3 of a 22 Day Adventure in Italy
Today was about Valerie. For those of you that don’t already know Val, she is the indispensable General Manager of our Hamakua Hotel in Hawaii. That is just her title. More importantly, she is the most significant mentee that I have ever had the honor to mentor. Why? Because year after year she astounds me. She’s absolutely one-of-a-kind. Some day when I am ready, I will tell her incredible inspirational story here.
I invited Val to join our four person Executive Team for our new company Culinary Oasis. As such, we traveled together to Italy as a team to visit our new hotel.
So why was today about Val? You see, this is her first trip to Europe…….ever. Lori and I have been more times than we remember, so it is very special for us to host her first time. Especially as a show of gratitude for all she has done running the hotel for us in Hawaii so we can live in Miami.
Val is a lover of all things outdoors, thus why she moved to Hawaii straight out of High School. Concrete jungles are not really her first choice. So while spending two days in the fashion capital of Europe was an appreciated treat (she loves fashion too), we instinctively knew that if we did not get her out of the city soon she might combust. With Lake Como just 45 minutes away, there was no way we weren’t going to take her to one of the outdoor wonders of the world.
Our journey began on a train this morning from Central Milan to the city of Como. From there our old friend & former Bliss Champion Hanna Fitsner greeted us. Hannah is a very successful real estate agent on the lake, one heck of a painter (her bliss) and a beautiful soul. She organized my two Bliss Champion retreats in Lake Como back in 2019 and we have kept in touch all these years. She is a long time member of this group.
Hannah organized a fancy Italian wooded speedboat to take us on an adventure all over the lake. We stopped to take photos of the most incredible villas including good ol’ George Clooney’s house pictured below. This is an American tourist right of passage. Gotta get a pic of his house or you did not visit Lake Como! Like seeing the Viagra guys mansion in Miami! 😎
After two sensational hours on the lake we docked at Il Sereno Lago Hotel. It is an elegant 5* hotel with a Michelin restaurant. Below are the courses we enjoyed from their lunch tasting menu. The food was quite good but the cocktails were next level. Kudos to the bartender.
In a one in a hundred million chance, at the table next to ours was Ameen Shallal. Ameen was a participant, staff member and former employee at University of Dreams (the trifecta) and brother of UOD legend Ammar Shallal. The last time I saw him was at his brothers wedding about a decade ago. We could not believe the odds that we picked the same restaurant on the lake at exactly the same time.
After lunch he pulled me aside and gifted me heartfelt gratitude for the positive impact I made in his life. When you get to be my age, you begin to wonder, have I done enough? While I will continue to wonder that until my last day, what I can say today is that Ameen Shallal and Valerie made me feel like perhaps, I have. It was a very good day.
Cheers to Valerie first time in Lake Como. She loved it and plans to return. And to my old customer/colleague/mentee/friend Ameen, thank you for making my already full mentor heart overflow today.
