It started with the words you never want to hear: “I’m sorry but we seem to have overbooked. We don’t have a room for you.” I was traveling by train through Italy with my parents, sisters, and grandmother in the summer of 2006 for Sammi’s Sweet 16 trip. So far we had good luck, in Venice and Florence, but it could only last so long.
Ours ran up at the front desk of the Hotel Garden in Siena. We all looked at each other, thinking “Now what?” While we waited for the hotel staff to come to a resolution, we had lunch in the hotel restaurant. The worst case scenarios ran through my mind: taking the cab back to Siena to look for another hotel, finding them all to be booked and taking the train back to Florence, hoping for better luck.
Thankfully, we were given a different option. The owner of the hotel would let us stay at his private villa further out of town for the next two nights and send someone to cook our breakfast in the morning. When the taxi pulled into the driveway of this house, I knew we had received the better end of the bargain.
It was on the terraced slopes of the Tuscan countryside, with nothing but trees and fields as far as the eye could see. It came equipped with a swimming pool, although it wasn’t yet warm enough for a dip, as well as four bedrooms and as many bathrooms.
This was more than we ever could have imagined after hearing the hotel was overbooked. The only problem arose when we went into Siena to sightsee. We had to call a taxi large enough to carry us all and then call another when we wished to leave.
The next morning when we woke up, an Italian woman had prepared what looked like a breakfast feast for 20, not a family of six. Tropical fruits, fresh bread, eggs, and even some items I didn’t recognize were spread across the table. It took us no time to dig in, laughing at our good fortune.
While I’m usually the one with bad luck when I travel, this experience taught me that positive things can come from negative circumstances.
So true, Caroline! I was bumped to Business Class twice – once when my original flight was cancelled and I was routed through a different city which actually got me there faster, and the other instance involved the decidedly unwanted attentions from a dubious character in the next seat – very unsavory, but it worked out in the end!