Simply put this was one of those perfect stays. Start with the hosts. Donatella and Simon, who were friendly, gracious and caring, sincerely caring, We got in a little later than we expected. My wife and I have health problems and can get up later than we think we will, move more slowly than we think we will, drive more slowly because the roads and drivers are more difficult than we anticipate and sometimes stay longer at attractions than we plan as they are bigger or better or both than we had thought they would be. That's the reality of our travel experience. Indeed, on this trip we saw perhaps a third of what I had planned for a whole variety of reasons including the fact that not all, in fact many of our lodging stays had problems, sometimes disastrous ones, which makes our experience at te White Lilac all the more satisfying and appreciated. They haf planned to go out and we got there maybe an hour before we got in and then between helping us with the endless luggage and bags we had up the stairs because they upgraded us to a bigger rooms when they saw what we had and listening to some of my tales of woe, they were, again , gracious enough to welcome us in a humane fashion. The room was lovely and large and comfortable. No complaints. Everything miraculously worked and worked well, no small feat apparently these days. Breakfast was very good. When Simon came to help us take our stuff I told him it takes us hours to get out of hotels and he cared enough to say "Maybe we ought to stay a month somewhere." I told him we had thought about a trip with just a few stops of at least a week to a month, but the questions always comes up to where. The only place I could spend a month in and not be totally bored would be Rome, but we have already spent six weeks there by the time we had gotten to his place. Paris is another place, but we have already spent 3 weeks there. We talked about using smaller cities as hubs and then driving back and forth each day, but that makes for a lot of extra driving and can be more exhausting than changing hotels. And what happens when neither of us have the energy to drive back at the end of the day and everything we have is in a hotel an hour or more away. Travel for us is complicated and if it wasn't so necessary to our happiness and sanity, I don't think we would bother, I explained. Not every problem has an easy answer, although I keep making each successive trip easier and the next one, if there is one, will be easier still. I told him that if there were another stay at his B&B, that would definitely be longer even though it is a small town and not much to do there. We could be lazy there and still have a wonderful time and I can say that for only a relatively small number of places. In fact, if I come back it will not be because I want to see Arona. If I come back, it is because I want to stay at the White Lilac.
