Radda in Chianti, Italy

Radda in Chianti... What a town to get stuck in. Back in June my good friend Jeremy and I had been invited out to a festival that was being held in a small village in Tuscany. We were busy all day running errands in Siena and just managed to hop on a bus out to the festival with less than a minute to spare. Once we arrived in Radda we began looking for the festival. We were asking locals for directions but no one seemed to know what we were talking about. After about an hour of strolling the streets, photographing the unique beauty of the town and it's people, it dawned on us that we were in the wrong town! A town with no public transport, no taxis and no means of getting home at this late hour. We continued to wander the streets photographing while we pondered ideas on how to get to the festival or even just to get back to Siena. It was looking pretty dire as we resorted to hitch hiking, it wasn't going well as everyone who drove past these 2 desperate aussies thought our hand signal for hitch hiking was a signal for waving hello. We got a lot of waves back but alas that didn't help us get to where we needed to go :P We went back into the town and spoke with a very friendly, incredibly talented local photographer there, after explaining our situation he offered to drive us out to festival! (Amazing Italian hospitality shines through again!). After 30 minutes of driving along the winding roads of the magnificent Tuscan landscape at sunset we arrived at our destination, just in time for the festival to really kick off. We can't thank that man Martino enough for his kindness. What a day, what an adventure, photos of the festival in the next post :)

But for now, by pure accident, here is beautiful Radda;

Cheers, dt

Something Incredible Happened

People never cease to amaze me. Today I received a gift, not from a family member or a friend, but from a person I had met just once. 5 days ago I was enjoying my coffee at the local diner while writing christmas cards to friends and family back home and around the world. A gentleman who was sitting a few seats down from me was cheerily making conversation with the waitress. His positive tone of voice was infectious and he was the sort of guy who always had a good story to tell. You find yourself sitting there in silence secretly wishing they would speak to you so you could join in the conversation. To my great delight he commented on the food that was placed in front of me (the delicious BLT from Templeton! sooo good!). That was enough to kick start an hours worth of convo about all things good; food, travelling, philosophy, the works! He had many stories for me, all of which had a lesson involved. A true teacher. A wise man who had an experience behind every word.

Before I knew it I had to head off to work and he had to continue on his merry way. We decided to exchange details, he gave me his business card and I gave him mine, I happened to mentioned that it was my last one. He kindly offered just to write down my details and save me having to give out my last card. I then told him that I was a cook up the road and that when he was in town again I would be happy to cook him dinner. He accepted.

I didn't see him the day I was expecting but he came in a day later when I wasn't in and gave a co-worker of mine something to give to me.

It was a RAK. A Random Act of Kindness.

He had gone and pre purchased 250 business cards at a local printer so that I could go and get more business cards made up.

To put it simply, it wasn't cheap, he never had to do it, he may never see me again, but he did it anyway. He did it anyway.

He made my day. I can't stop smiling as I write this. It is the kindest thing a stranger has ever done for me and I will never forget it.

Thank you Mike.

You showed me great kindness, and I will go on and do the same for someone else. I hope whoever is reading this takes inspiration from this story and goes on and does the same. What goes around comes around folks. That's the moral of this story.

Merry Christmas, and cheers to a very happy and adventurous 2011.

Dale Tidy