It started out as a simple lunch with a client.  It turned into something very different!

I had done some research for Gino back in 2008 and he was finally making that trip to Italy with his wife and family.  He invited my husband and I to join them for lunch in Ceprano.  I was also to obtain a citizenship certificate so his daughter could apply for Italian citizenship.  (See my last blog post to know how that proceeded).

I picked up the certificate at the Comune offices (I had to wait for it to be done!) and went to the hotel for our lunch.  I anticipated a relaxing lunch and a calm drive home.

Gino and his family were delightful people and we were having a great time until Gino’s wife broke a tooth (in the front) and it was obvious it couldn’t wait until she returned home to America and equally obvious that to get an emergency appointment in Rome, where they were based, at a reasonable price wasn’t going to be easy.

My husband made a call to a dentist friend and he agreed to see her that afternoon in Sora.  The rest of the group decided to continue with their planned itinerary and took me along for the ride.  We had a great tour of San Giovanni Incarico, and Strangolagalli where his family were from, and added a side-trip to Falvaterra (where I had never been!), before returning to Sora to wait for the results of the dentist visit at my home.

The dentist could do the work but not until the next day, so we decided to offer Gino’s wife our spare bedroom so the rest of the group could return to Rome.

After the dental work was finished we drove her to Frosinone where she took the train back to Rome with her teeth now in good order.  The price she paid in Sora was certainly less than she would have paid in Rome (and maybe even less than in America).

All in a day’s work?  Certainly.  Helping out is what friends do, and Gino and his family had become our friends over lunch.  We were happy to have helped make this trip to Italy even more memorable.  Linda got to see a couple of towns the rest of the group missed and was even able to shop in Sora’s Thursday market before her dental appointment.