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Home! Finally!
Well it's been quite a summer, there's no denying that. This month was rather odd, no one is quite sure what my job involved, even my employer resulting in a few awkward moments as the time progressed, but again I ended up in a totally fantastic location and consider myself extremely lucky!
Castello di Reschio is an estate owned by Conte Bolza, who I was working for (well, his wife) and he has now passed it down to his son, Benedikt who Madeleine was working for. It is 1,000 hectares housing 40 derelict farmhouses, 20 of which have been restored for a vast amount and they have their own Osteria restaurant, a stud with world class dressage horses and multiple tennis courts, each house with its own pool etc. I was in the house up at the top called San Martino which was an older, more traditional house and Madeleine was in the estate's biggest house, designed by Benedikt called Giuntarelli.
They have 5 kids and a niece who they consider a daughter, Natti whose daughter Lavinia (11) I had been looking after all through Croatia (she was the family link). The problem came in that except Lavinia, who didn't need 24/7 surveillance there was an apparent lack of children...one set of grandchildren were there for a week and had their own au pair, the others were older than me, and the last set were under Madeleine's command. They had a full time housekeeper, cleaner and cook and therefore I wasn't quiiiite sure of my duties! I spent a lot of time taking the little ones to riding (to spend time with Madeleine...) leaving their au pair to work, and helping out in the kitchen etc but otherwise was at a bit of a loose end. I spent a lot of time with the Spanish grandchildren who were around my age but was then slated for taking advantage of my surroundings and Angeli managed to pick holes in everything!
Ma and Pa came to visit over A level results (what I needed but will be reapplying to read Spanish and Italian for those wondering!) and Daddy labelled Angeli as 'fierce'. Really quite terrifying at times....like when I left a watermelon seed on a plate and put it in the dishwasher (who would have thought!?) and a fork was a few degrees out of line on the table - the obvious solution was to call me from the other side of the house to witness my mistake and to stand over me while I rectified it.
I seem to be making this out as a hellish experience! It was in fact wonderful - the lack of work gave me many opportunities to lounge by the pool and top up my tan, and Madeleine's boyfriend joined her for 10 days so I spent many a happy day off exploring the estate with them, visited Florence and attended a lovely hilltop church.
Despite the pay cut as I "wasn't putting in as much effort as Madeleine" (tricky when she had 5 kids and uncountable horses to look after and I didn't seem to have a single one, and wasn't allowed to help her...) and a few scary encounters with Angeli the month was lovely.
The summer seems to have now flown by when before it was crawling along, but I've made lots of friends, have lots of contacts around the world because of it and I am well aware that I landed myself one of the best au pair jobs going!
Next stop...Mustique!
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